Hi All,
A short story of the “2009 UK Paramotoring Nationals”.
Date 20th – 23rd June
Location – Kerswell Green, Worcester, Southwest .
Loaded up the jeep with all the gear, Greg and myself, then headed to Dunlaoire and sailed at 1.30pm Thursday afternoon. We arrived at the flying venue at around 7.30pm. Set the tent up after a bit of admin stuff. I was quiet surprised to see so many there so early. I found that arriving over to an event of that size, its better to arrive a day earlier so you can relax and get all your gear set up and make any minor adjustments if you need.
Oey, our Thai chef was hard at work preparing for the busy days she would have ahead of her. The standard of food was excellent, compared to last years disaster.
Friday was blown out. That northerly wind didn’t die down all day so no pilots got any chance for any last minute practice. There was also a small issue with the Insurance, which was sorted.
Task 1
Saturday brought calmer winds but it was quiet thermic looking. The first task was called after all the pilots made their way to the briefing tent. It was a “Precision/Speed/ Navigation task” It involved each pilot to navigate their way to the open gate which was 5 – 6 kms away from the take off deck, advoiding any airspace along the way. They were very strict on any airspace infringement, meaning you would receive a 100% penalty. When you arrived at the start gate, which was marked on the map as a “Road Junction”. You then flew on a westerly track. The idea of this task was to see how well a pilot could navigate a perfect triangle in 1 hour exactly. The wind at 1000ft was 15 – 20 knots. The into wind leg was going to be the slowest as the wind was blowing from the NW. You had to triangulate your speed as you passed over the ground and use a formula. A rough guide was 30mins into wind, 20mins cross wind and then 10mins down wind. It got more complex if you flew upwind low and high on the cross and downwind section to maximise your score. It was also a gamble too, because if you were early or late when you passed over your finish gate you got deducted points. The conditions were really rough, thermic, gusty and strong wind conditions. There were a number of pilots that turned back to the campsite, they had made the right decision if they didn’t feel comfortable with those conditions. You were scored on your shortest leg. It would be so disappointing for some if they put big distance on the upwind leg and then realising that they were running out of time then had to cut their return leg, making it smaller. The result being only scored for the shortest leg ( it did happened to a number of very good pilots). The Triangle you should complete should be 60Degrees x 60Degrees x 60Degrees, i.e. all three sides equal length, the size of the triangle all depends on the speed in which you fly it. The pilot who flies the largest triangle is the winner and scores are aggregated from the winner. I finished 13th on that task.
Task 2
After completing task 1 you arrived over the landing deck at a minimum of 500ft AGL, cut your engine and made an attempt to knock over 5 skittles in a row, each 2mtrs apart. Not many pilots scoring on that one, me included.
Task 3
The Japanese slalom was set up Sunday morning, the pilots scoring the most from the previous task went last, so as to let the more novice pilots make the most of the calm morning conditions. Michel, winning that task, in a time of around 55seconds. I was placed 6th in that task, in a time of 60.2 seconds.
Task 4
Spot landing. You arrive over the spot with a minimum of 500ft AGL and cut your engine, glide down and try and hit the lime spot, just like a “Bulls eye” No luck here, missed all rings. Cathal hit the spot though.
Task 5
Precision navigation/Speed Triangle/ Economy out and return.
This was a very enjoyable two part task. The object, to fly a given triangle as fast as you can then fly down a line as far as you think you could go and then turn back so as to be back at the finish gate before your 2hour time is up. You were given a map with a 45km triangle drawn on it. It consisted of flying to a start gate, then flying as fast as possible to a turn point, then turning right and flying as fast as possible to another turn point, turning right again and repeating another fast leg to finish the speed element at the finish gate. You then took a heading in a SSW direction, which was marked on the map. This was the economy part. You had to calculate in air as you flew, how far you think you could fly down this line and back again to arrive at the same finish gate. It was interesting as you flew the eco part having your calculator on your lap calculating your distance whilst measuring distance and keeping a precise heading. One frightening part was when I noticed a Bi-Plane doing some Acro and loops in front of me about 500 mtrs away. Luckly, he did notice me after performing his loop and waved his wing at me, I returned the compliment by waving my wing back at him. It was difficult to work out your ground speed on the downwind leg whilst trying to estimate your ground speed on the upwind leg as well at the same time so as to try and fly over your finish gate as close to the 2 hour mark as possible. You had a maximum of 2hours to complete the whole task. The pilot flying the furthest and using the least amount of fuel was the winner. I finished 5th overall in this task.
Task 6
Speed/precision/Navigation
To navigate a 75km course as fast as possible but to fly it as precise as possible as 20 hidden gates (R 20mtrs) were also included in the given track.
This was a difficult task to complete as cloud and rain was all part of it. Cloudbase lowered in parts, so low that some pilots who were late launching could not clear the high ground of the Malvern Hills. Our track brought us over them a number of times. The rain at times was not too heavy but keeping an eye on how wet I was getting was important. The track brought us on an anti-clockwise direction, you also passed over the same ground twice making it difficult to navigate some-times. I did manage to get lost at one stage but I soon regained my bearings and continued on my merry way. As cloud-base was very low, going high was impossible so making navigating quiet difficult, considering that 85% of that task was done on Full Speed bar. Flying fast and low over unfirmilur hilly terrain due to low cloud-base was extremely challenging. Keeping an eye out for fellow pilots too was important especially as you were scanning your map to ground features and ground features – map. The country-side we were flying over was so pretty with Large Padillian Houses and big Halls that housed the wealthy aristacrats. I finished 6 minutes behind the fastest pilot and missed 2two of the twenty hidden gates, leaving me 16th over all on that task.
Task 7
Pure economy
You must fly for minimum 1 hr and land before 2 hrs were up. If you landed before 1 hr, or after 2 hrs post launch, you received a 100% penalty. The object was to stay up in the given time whilst using as little fuel as possible. You were also weighed pre flight, less your wing, then escorted to your wing and watched very closely by a marshal until you launched.
This was a task I was looking forward to. Doing well last year helped me feel comfortable. We were given a map with our launch deck in the middle of it. The map covered approx 17km x 13km. If you flew outside the map you scored zero, there was also plenty of no fly zones to watch out for. After launching I pulled in my trimmers into full slow, I could see a large fire lit on a hill a few KMs away. It looked like it might be a trigger point for some thermic activity. Gladly it was, mind you it was by no means a stonker. I slowly gained height to 1500ft AGL sharing the thermal with others. Easing off the throttle in any free lift where available. Up in the cooler air you were able to use less revs thus conserving fuel. There was very little lift around and I considered heading back to that fire where I was before. In the distance I could see some sun break through so I headed slowly to the end of the sunny bit hoping to get something that might of triggered from the village in the distance. I was rewarded with a 1m/s climb which in thermal standards was very poor. Noon the less I was going up. It attracted alot more pilots to join me. Having Mathieu Rouanet Join me was a pleasure, sharing the same air with such a sky-god was so special. It was also strange to be thermalling up in the rain. As the sun slowly got swallowed up I headed over to the NE side of the map to where I could see some sun on the ground. There was very little lift over there, the best being a small farm on a little hill being the trigger point, I could smell the farm-manure in this ever so gentle lift. I decided to cut it short and land back at the landing deck. As the lift was so poor during the task it would off been better to land just after the 1hr. I landed after 1hr 29mins. I finished 5th over-all in that task.
Task 8/9/10
Japanese slalom/fences + balls/engine off skittle landing
The wind didn’t die down as forecasted so the Clover Leaf task was binned. They ran the Jap slalom instead as you can do this task if the wind is light to moderate. A good finish put me in 8th position in that task, During the Jap Slalom, I managed to accidently drop my speed-bar during a tight turn, then franticly trying to place it under my boot, managing to complete it in 58.5 seconds. After finishing the Jap slalom you then flew to the section where they had 2mtr high fence made out of a light plastic ribbon. A further 60 mtrs you had another 2mtr high fence and then another 60 mtrs you had another 2mtr high fence. In between the fences you had two balls. Looking at the course as you flew to it, was fence, ball, fence, ball and then fence. The object was to fly over the fences whilst kicking each ball as you desended. You received a penalty if you either touched the fence or missed each ball. A max of 200 points were available for this fun task. After that task it was a climb up to minimum 500ft AGL, engine out and glide in to kick the skittles. 100 % Penalties were in place if you let any part of the cage hit the ground or if you fell over. A very enjoyable bunch of tasks, I missed all the skittles but managed to kick both balls. ( the ones in between the fences
Task 11
Circle photo hunt
We were given a circle with a circumference of approx 35km and plotted on its circumference were up to 8 images. We were each given 8 photos taken from “Google earth” and were asked to find those images on the map as we flew the circumference. The snag was we had to fly in a clockwise direction and were not allowed to circle around the object if we thought we had located it. The other snag also was, there may only be 1 image or all 8!!!!! This was a difficult task but very challenging as you had to fly a perfect circle whilst hunting for the images below. In total there were only 4 images on the ground. I managed to get 2 correct. Penalties were imposed if you got it wrong or marked it wrong on the map whilst flying. Points were deducted for every millimetre on the map you were out. The correct images were a rail/road junction, ornamental garden, island and another road junction.
This year comp was a fantastic trip, best one yet, with so much learning involved. Every one of the tasks apart from the Japanese slalom, were new to me. It was run by professional, dedicated enthusiasts, who were at hand at all times to answer questions and lend any advice you needed. As for the competitors, they were only too happy to help the novice answer any questions he or she may off had.
The Highlights..............
- Being there and able to give all the tasks a go.
- After finishing the last task and looking south from the air field, then watching 20+ gaggle of paramotors making their way back to the landing deck.
- Sharing a thermal with Mathieu Rouanet.
- Meeting the stars and learning so much more again.
- Getting a personal invite from the French team to compete at their Nationals next year.
Jason.
Will try and sort out bigger pics
Mon Jun 08, 2009 4:46 pm 
...but at least I have work to return to 
, not many pilots managing to do so 
.
