Sportflight

I should mention the official website, done by nice bloke Miguel. The results are published on the net at the same time as on the official board - pretty neat, huh!

Lots going on today - or at least that’s the plan. First task is Slow-Fast - you have to fly a 500m lane as slowly as possible, kicking four sticks along the way so that you don’t climb too high. Then speed up for the fast leg, same thing. After that there’s a navigation task, pilots have to follow a line on the map, going through timing gates at predicted times. I say line, I mean squiggle, the track they have to follow goes all over the place!

Michel Carnet (2nd from left) giving last minute advice to members of the Brit team. The lack of wind is still causing problems on take-off. A couple of people did the dreaded face plant this morning, the last few inches of their propeller being flung skywards as they press the visor of their helmet into the dirt. Most got off OK though.

This is Dave Hairs, he won the Brit Nationals (**Afternote** oops, no he didn’t! Michel Carnet won, but Dave won the soaring task), now he’s doing OK here, winning the economy task 5 with 1000 points. It’s partly thanks to his Bailey 4 stroke, but Dave is also flying well, he was 5th after 5 tasks but the top 5 are tight. The mood in the Brit camp is pretty good, apparently it was an early night all round.

Must go now and help Jose-Luis with the tasks for tomorrow. The last task today (task 9) is an interesting one. The governing body, CIMA, introduced a new class of world record this year, so J-L is running a task which will be for the first time ever - so the winner will automatically have a world record (to be ratified!). We already had this for the Japanese Slalom since it too was the first time it had been run. Some pilots will be going home as world record holders!

Anyway, the task is to fly away, as far as possible, from the take-off point. You get a limited amount of fuel, then fly (downwind) as far as you can… We’re going to have pilots all over Spain tonight!

The last task today was soaring - PF1s were given 3kg of fuel, told to fly south a bit due to airspace restrictions but then thermal to their hearts’ content. Take-offs started around 14:30 and we travelled to the outlanding field to watch the landings - at one point I counted over 30 wings in the same patch of sky. The first ones to land lasted over an hour, one guy landed to find his engine had stopped rather than run out of fuel and he had a good litre left in his header tank - doh! Today has been hard work, pilots look tired, and it’s been pretty hot too, so an early night is in order. Here’s Keith in full ‘Jury’ mode, legs and all!

Another early start and pilots went off in search of turnpoints with a limited amount of fuel - 4kg in the case of the PF1 (solo paramotor) class. That’s probably enough for a couple of hours flying for the better pilots. They are still out now, so I’m just posting a couple of pictures before getting back to it.

After a bit of running, here’s the result. There were no face plants this morning, even though there was as little wind as yesterday. The dew-covered ground does not help, making the wing wet, but the newer wings are silicon coated to avoid this.

Looks like rain! After the rain and clouds of the practice week, it’s been like this every morning. The long term forecast is good, although the plan is to have the necessary 6 tasks to make a valid championship by the end of today. J-L has 13 tasks and he stated that he wants to fly them all before the end of the week. That’s what it’s all about, after all!

After a day of little activity (unless you had to rebuild your engine following a face plant that morning!) there was much more later on. First signs were lots of public, and a ramping up of the music. The organisers placed the two landing targets (white vinyl about 2m*1m) outside the main hangar to give a great view of the action. Pilots had to take off within a 30m deck (almost all achieved this) before flying a slalom course and then a precision landing. The slalom was made up of 4 ski poles (the sort that make up the gates in ski races) which pilots had to hit in a certain order, and against the clock. This meant for fast low level flying and was good to watch.

Keith is doing good job as my official photographer! I didn’t get any pics of the spot landing since I was running between decks, but I did get a look at some of the machines. The engines are largely 2 stroke, maybe up to 250cc for the trikes, although 80-100cc is more normal for paramotors, and around 15bhp for the smaller ones. They rev to 9500rpm and are reasonably quiet on the ground (many have intake silencers). The newer ones also have electric start, as does this trike in the picture below. Otherwise it’s pull starting, or if the motor is already on your back then you put the starter handle in a special loop on your left boot and kick start instead.

The lack of regulation really shows - there is a lot of innovation and lots of good looking kit, one of the competitors is flying a wing which proudly states that it is a prototype, and he’s doing OK with it too.

Spot the electric start. We were weighing fuel until late in the night, ready for the limited fuel task for Monday, all the scores for the day were out before bedtime and the mood generally is pretty good - Jose-Luis is on top of things, chucking out distinct maps, well written tasks and lots of clear advice or rules. Good stuff.

Jose-Luis conducted a mega-briefing yesterday, when he gave the outline details for every task, labelled A to M. This means he only has to give specific times/photos at each daily briefing, and competitors get plenty of notice of what the tasks will be. Today’s task (task C) was a simple navigation at a constant speed, take-off window between 0800 and 0900. Many of the pilots have come back reporting a good flight, although the wind changed direction so maintaining a constant speed when the wind has turned can be tricky, on one downwind leg pilots had to apply full trim and lots of S turns just to stay on time…

Full power check before starting the sprint-to-the-sky!

The lack of wind at take-off was the biggest factor this morning - it was a perfectly still morning, which is actually not good for these guys - they are flying high performance wings which need a fair airspeed before getting airborne. It’s quite a sight watching pilots running like fury with 35kg on their back for a good 30 metres before taking off. Some became unstuck when they opted to sit in their harnesses immediately after take-off - as the wires tightened, so the prop cages dropped and some hit the ground. There’s only one outcome here - a face plant, but hopefully with the prop still intact. We counted at least 3 broken props, two among the Brit team, but I’m pleased to say all pilots got off the ground - including Andy Phillips whose engine flooded (and he eventually accepted others’ help to get him going) with 10 seconds to spare! Andy returned with a smile on his face, and hopefully some points in the bag.

Karen returned safely, I think she was pretty pleased! It’s a beautiful day here, warm but not hot, and little wind. There is precision take-off and landing along with a slalom later…

I only arrived on site late Friday, so Saturday was familiarisation day, or at least the start of it. There are 10 teams here, 49 competitors and two valid classes - there are too few two seat trikes and tandem paramotors for a valid class, but this is not really unexpected - the main class is PF1, single paramotors.

The British team have 7 entrants: Karen Skinner, Andy Phillips, Dave Hairs, Neil Slinger, Andy Davis, Michel Carnet and Mike Chilvers. No doubt I’ll get photos soon, but it’s all been a bit hectic for me so far.

Keith’s picture of the team. The opening ceremony was a bit disorganised, but it included a demonstration of the local traditional wrestling, one of the competitors risked injury when asked to take part, but when he was dropped to the floor by a much smaller guy, it was only his technique damaged!

After the customary march-past, balloons and pigeons were launched before retiring to the hangar for a welcome cocktail. First impressions are good - the campsite is fine, as is the general set-up, and Jose-Luis Esteban seems to be a very capable and methodical competition director… should be a good week!

The European Microlight Championships are to take place in Chozas de Abajo, Spain from August 19-26 2006.

Come back then, or go to their website.

The ceremony is over, I got dragged in at the very last minute to act as translator for the Mayor’s speech, at least I got a laugh when I had to ask him to repeat one thing he said! Ha ha!

All of the team. David Daniel is holding the Team Silver trophy.

The medallists

Well, it’s over. We’ve got the team tent down, all that’s left is to pack our own things then fly back. The weather isn’t too clever, but it looks flyable, and we’ve planned to leave early(ish) tomorrow. We’ll see… It’s been a good comp - the facilities, food and people have been fantastic, the scores came out quickly, and in the main the tasks were good. There will always be complainants, some people not happy, but the atmosphere is good now, and we are looking forward to the end party in a short while.

I’ve enjoyed my time as Steward, it’s been educational and generally good fun, and above all I’ve made new friends and acquaintances for future comps. It’s a fantastic experience to take part in these championships, even those who did not fly have felt the buzz of competition and extremes of emotion. I’ll be in Spain for the paramotor championships, and then it’s the Czech Republic in 2007 for the worlds. Yet again, I can’t wait.

This is Foggy’s (Paul Dewhurst AKA Lanky Twat) European Champion’s trophy. The whole competition was staged in a huge meteor crater, and the trophies were made from the local rock, formed under the heat and pressure of the meteor strike.

I reckon it sums the whole comp up. Hope you enjoyed this blog…

I hope they don’t change after this!

Richard Rawes is champion in single seat trike. Owain Johns got 4th, only another 4 points would have seen him with a medal around his neck. His school pupils should be so proud of Deputy-Head Johns, a fantastic performance, only the uncompetitiveness of his plane let him down. David Hadley came 6th (again by only 4 points).

Paul Dewhurst and Ollie Neece are also champions, in the end by a reasonably comfortable 300 points. Chris and Claire Wills came 8th, but only 1400 points behind the winners, 600 outside the medals - a tough class!

The other class the Brits competed in was two seat trike. Despite last minute protests by Rob Grimwood and Chris Saysell, they were beaten into second place by Elari/Carlat. The margin? A mere nine points. Rob and Rees Keene came third in their Raven - another great result given how old the design of their plane is. Paul Welsh and James Lipinksi got 4th in their 582 Kiss, a great performance. Simon Baker and Anita Holmes never recovered from their zero score for backtracking, they ended up 6th. Jay Madhvani and Brad Wagenhauser came 16th, Matt Botten and Jeremy Bolton scored 1300 points and two engine blow-outs. I know I’d never score 1300 points in the european champs, so congratulations!

It’s eerily quiet - all protests have been dealt with and for the first year in ages the medal ceremony will go ahead on time. My job is done, all I have left is a few things: take photos of the medal winners, drink lots of beer, and chat up a certain Czech lady who is completely and utterly gorgeous.

What a week! At times it’s felt like sitting on the complaints desk at EasyJet, but I’ve got the impression that at least some of the competitors I’ve tried my hardest to help, to understand the rules or the decisions of the Jury, or simply to get their problems sorted are happy with my work as steward. Antonio Marchesi asked me this morning if I would be willing to act as steward at the upcoming paramotor champs in Spain, so I had to read out an email he sent me 2 months ago where we agreed I would be going. He blames the temporary memory loss on being a busy man.

Anyway, I’ve got about 45 mins before having to go to the closing ceremony. I’m off to find Miss Czech :O)