Kicking off the comp season

Goal at the end of the peninsula.
Pretty special.
Photo: Matt Senior

Auckland kicked off the season big style with the first competition of 2016/2017.

Great to see representation from Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Tasman & Southern clubs, some new faces to the scene, and of course loads of the usual characters making up the 36 competition pilots.

Saturday morning started with a lot more cloud cover than we were expecting, and it stuck around a lot longer than we wanted it to. When we rocked up to Moirs it was a bit fresh, but looked reasonable for a 42km task up to Mangawhai. We just weren't sure whether to get straight into it, or wait for more sun to break through.

The tourists were so excited by the possibilities our world-famous Auckland sites offer, that we had three out-of-towners (Hamish, Matt & Abe) leading the launch, within seconds of the window opening. Conditions for launching were tricky, with lots of pilots needing second and third attempts.

Jeff decided to launch with a nice big cravat, which took a while to clean out, but it didn't distract him from going on to win the task, making it 35.27km along the courseline.

Sunday's sky had more blue in it. What a gorgeous day for a flight out to Tawharanui. A whole heap of pilots thought so, with 14 making it to the End of Speed section, and 9 of those following Jeff into goal.


Overall, Jeff came out on top. His name is becoming a familiar sight on the Auckland Regional Competition trophy. In hot pursuit was Bruce Vickerman, King of the Waikato, coming second & also top of the sport class. Rob Gillard is never far away from Brucie, and this comp was no exception - he came third & top of the fun class (in his first ever PG comp - great going!).

Results are in: Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition Dec 2016 Results

Big thanks to Johnny for organising, and remembering to bribe the Ministry of Weather and getting us two great days of flying; Janice for keeping us organised on launch; Diane for keeping our wings organised on launch; and Rodger (aka Santa) for helping everyone got off safely.

And as always, thanks to all the pilots for good times & good flying.

Hurry up & take the photo - it's ON!

The Asian Games 2018

Paragliding included into the Asian Games 2018.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has agreed to include Paragliding into the 18th Asian Games 2018.

The decision was taken at the OCA General Assembly that took place in Danang, Vietnam, on 25 September 2016.

The 18th Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia, will feature 32 Olympic sports and eight non-Olympic sports, including Paragliding.

CANUNGRA CUP 2016 - IT'S A WRAP

Team New Zealand

Friday was another blowout, but an obvious one, so people made alternative plans early – kitesurfing, surfing, whale-watching, tramping, site-seeing – whatever. Just no flying.

As pilots do, we were starting to get depressed, being stuck at alt=0m.

Saturday, the last day of the comp, promised to be EPIC. We had something to cling on to.

At 8am Saturday morning, the call came through on the radio – buses leaving at 8:30am.

We raced up to Beechmont, and saw there were already 2 hang gliders and a few paragliders about to hit cloudbase. Yeehaa – it’s on!!

The task was set with a Beechmont start cylinder of 8km, heading 95km to the west at Maryvale. It was an early kickoff of 9:50am open launch, and start gate at 11:20. All pilots had launched well before the start opened.

It definitely was the epic day we were promised – what a way to end the comp! Almost half the field made it in to goal, including Reuben as the first of several Kiwis. Wayne fell for the old trick of hitting the End of Speed section, but not quite hitting the Goal Cylinder. This was due to instrument failure, and he was only 150m short, dammit.

No competition is ever without its dramas, and today saw a few – tree landings, wedgie attacks, helicopter rescues and DOMS (google it) from early morning bootcamp, preventing Joe from flying.
Saturday was the prize giving ceremony and competition dinner.

In the end, Reuben was the top Kiwi, coming 16^th overall. We had a couple of Kiwis on the podium, with Andy Maloney winning third in the Fun class, and Eva taking home third in the Women’s class. Congratulations, and nice flying!

This comp was also an overseas league, so Johnny will be re-scoring for team NZ based on NZHGPA rules, and sharing the results soon.

CANUNGRA CUP 2016 - WELL WE'VE SEEN A LOT OF SITES

Not inspired to launch

Tuesday we had another go at Hinchcliffe’s, with a task set to Laravale, then down to Hillview and back up to Bromelton for goal.

Conditions were a bit wonky, with a strong and steady breeze coming up the hill, and the low clouds above blasting over the back. As soon as the launch window was open, it was immediately suspended.

After a short wait, there was a re-brief called, and the day was canned.

Heaps of pilots had taken their wings out though, and it looked somewhat flyable, so a few launched. It wasn’t convincing enough for everyone, so most pilots packed up for the drive down. No one flying got very far, and it wasn’t long before rain came in so all had to get on the deck.

Wednesday was the day we had been watching for, with epic looking conditions. We headed to Beechmont early, where it was switching on and off. Not quite epic, but certainly taskable.

The task was set over Locked Gate Valley (guess why it’s called that?) to Coulson, then down to Croftby for goal – a distance of 75km. The conditions were not easy, and saw busloads of strong pilots hit the bombout. Thankfully re-flights were allowed, so most got a second chance.

Kiwis in the launch slots

Wally from Bright won the task (again!), just a few km short of goal. Wayne was the top Kiwi (again!), at 30.29km. That puts him 5^th overall!! He definitely brought his A-game, but he’s not sharing his secrets.

Actually he is – get high and fly far. I think we’ll try that tomorrow, thanks Wayne.

Andy Maloney from Wellington won the Fun class for the day.

Thursday’s forecast suggested a blowout later in the day, so we got off for an early start. At the turnoff for Beechmont the buses stopped for a decision on whether to head to Beechmont or to Hinchcliffe’s. After a thirty minute wait, the call was made for neither – it was already blown out.

Ivan the Russian Australian offered to give his famous safety brief, entitled Kill the Bastard. The main takeaway for me was his good news that ‘some of uz not gonna die today’. Also that if you put a fridge on a good wing, it will glide better than a fridge on a crap wing. Guess we won’t dispute that.

Now it’s bush walks, beer drinking, comp barbie and hope for good weather for the last two days of the comp. And try not to be too envious of the crew in the Indian Himalayas, who seem to be getting a whole lot more airtime than we are.

Results are here: Canungra Cup 2016 Results

CANUNGRA CUP 2016 - WE HAVE LIFT-OFF

Sunday's weather forecast was for a lot of South, so we headed to Hinchcliff’s for the best chance of a fly. It was howling when we arrived, and a few optimistic souls were heard to talk about it ‘just being a wee gust’. The wee gust was pretty d*mn persistent.

A task was set, giving us all good practice remembering how to use our instruments. That’s all it was though, because after half an hour of waiting, we decided that the wee gust was not finished with us, so the task was canned.

The forecast for Monday was not looking promising, so we were mostly surprised when the call was made to head to Tamborine on Monday morning. It was the keenest we’ve been, with lots of pilots pulling their wings out to get ready.

The task was set down to Kyogle NSW, with a waypoint at Lions Road, a distance of 78.2km. To borrow Evan’s words, it was a day of low saves, with no one getting very high and only two pilots in goal.

Wayne was the top Kiwi, in seventh place with 60.2km. Roy also made it into the top ten at 49.1km. So tell us guys, how do you like your new wings?!

In non-flying news, we have a Kiwi bootcamp running at 05:30 every morning. Leighton has been giving us drills (military push ups – no cheating!) and we are starting to suspect he’s trying to break us. It’s working, but we’re addicted. Brucie’s been spotted all over town on his unicycle, and Johnny’s juggling anything he can find. 

Fingers crossed for more good flying on Tuesday.

Results are here: Canungra Cup 2016 Results

(Photos all ripped off from Dominique's Facebook page)

CANUNGRA CUP 2016 KICKS OFF

Twenty four Kiwis descended on Queensland for the 2016 Canungra Cup, which started today. In the biggest comp here yet, with 95 pilots, this may also be the largest Kiwi contingent for an Ozzie comp.

There was no mad rush at the first briefing on Saturday morning (more on that later). A couple of interesting points of discussion:

• Rather than EN-ratings, the comp is using aspect ratio to determine the class you are in. Fun class is up to 5.8, Sport class is up to 6.7 and Serial up to 7.1.
• KLO (km lead-out) was voted on, and decided to drop from 250 to 200 points. Don't worry if this doesn't make sense to you, I get the feeling most of the rest of the field doesn't completely understand it either. Myself included.
• In addition to the wing classes, there is a Reynolds class as well, which is for pilots with flying weight of up to 90kg.
• Since the Ozzies have put so much effort into their Paragliding Squad and developing their pilots, they have moved up the CIVL country ranking from 31 to 17. Awesome that they are seeing such results, and I wonder if NZ pilots would be interested in trying to do the same. Perhaps discussion for another time.

Now back to the flying or rather, not-flying. Saturday morning winds were looking strong, and the locals weren't optimistic. However we thought it was worth a look at Tamborine. It felt perfectly launchable, but after hearing Phil Hystek's annual site briefing, another look at the distance to a landing field, and the 20m gum trees in between, it all seemed to make sense when the day was canned.

A few of us hung around at the Polish Club, just down the road from launch. There we had a good view of the ridge, the 2 hang gliders that launched shortly after all the paragliders left (who didn't do much more than a bit of ridge soaring, phew), and the spectacular bird life. And goannas!

Another group headed over to the coast to hit the beach, and ended up watching a pod of humpback whales put on a show out at sea.

Welcome to Australia!

Results (once we get a task) will be here: Canungra Cup 2016 Results

Craigieburn - Regional Paragliding Competition

The Christchurch Club is hosting the first Regional Paragliding Competition of the 2016/17 season.

All qualified NZHGPA member paraglider pilots are welcome.

This will run over Labour Day weekend, 22-24th October 2016, inclusive. Postponed to the 5th - 7th November 2016.

The comp will be held at the Craigieburn site, and is organised by Michal Talavasek and Mark Hardman.

There will be a training day on Friday 21st of October, designed to help newcomers and low airtime pilots to familiarise themselves with comp talk, strategies, instruments and geography.
Also, if enough people confirm will stay overnight for one or more nights, we can arrange to rent a house at Castle Hill village and also use it as headquarters for the weekend (to book contact Michal).

A BBQ will be available for everyone to use. Bring your camp chair and guitar.

There is no on-line registration system - please use the contact details below for further information and to express interest. Results from this comp can contribute towards your national ladder position.

Comp Organiser: Michal Talavasek - michal.talavasek@gmail.com or 022 340 4511
Scoring and Support: Mark Hardman - info@paraventures.co.nz

Here is a link to the waypoints file for the comp:  Craigieburn Competition waypoints 2013.wpt

A DOC campground nearby is also a good option for a place to stay: craigieburn-shelter

Well, that sounds fine and dandy but what if the weather isn’t always on for paragliding? Should I still go? What is there to do??

Castle Hill area is spectacular on its own and offers cool sights and activities for all. The rock climbing/bouldering is great and there is even a cool cave to explore nearby.

The mountain biking is also great and well organised, offering kilometres of established trails. You should get your fix one way or another…

Links are here:
Castlehill Basin
Craigieburn Trails
Craigieburn Forest Park mountain biking tracks
Cave Stream Scenic Reserve

Cheeseman to round hill

Cheeseman ski field to lewis Pass

Win Free Entry to the PG-Open 2017

Thanks to Mac Para NZ one lucky pilot will win a free entry to the PG Open 2017.

The winner will be drawn by the Competition Organisers at the registration evening and to be eligible pilots must have paid their entry fee in full prior to the draw.

Prize will be presented in cash.

www.macpara.co.nz facebook@macparanz

Auckland Regional PG Comp - early December

Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition scheduled for 3rd/4th December 2016.

Sites will be around Auckland or as far as Rotorua, depending on weather.

Details and registration here: https://airtribune.com/auckland/info

The comp is free, but pre-registration is very much appreciated.

PG OPEN 2017 WILL BE IN ROTORUA

In 2017 there will be only one round of the PG Open (the National Championship).

The successful bid was from the Auckland Club, and the event will be held in Rotorua, Sunday 26th Feb - Sunday 5th March 2017.

The most likely sites will be the Paeroas and Kaimais ranges.

The competition director will be Xen Zambas, and the main organiser will be Graham Surrey.

The PCC would like to thank Xen, Graham and others for volunteering to run this event for us.

Details will soon follow, particularly regarding registration.

CANUNGRA CUP 2016 - REGISTRATION OPEN

Canungra Cup 2015

Registration is now open for this FAI Cat-2 Paragliding Competition in Queensland, Australia.

Follow this link to register:

Canungra Cup

As well as being FAI Cat-2 sanctioned, this event will also be declared a New Zealand Overseas Paragliding League Event - so your score may contribute towards your NZ national ladder score.

Plus it will be loads of fun!

NICK NEYNENS IS PG XC CHAMPION ... AGAIN!

Well done, Nick Neynens - wins the Paragliding Cross Country Championship for the 2015/16 Season.

Please read an excellent write up of the XC Season here, written by the talented Mr Tim Percival.

JEZZA LAUNCHES OFF CORONET PEAK

Paralysed thrillseeker paraglides solo off Coronet Peak.

Link to media article:

AUCKLAND REGIONAL PG COMPETITION A SUCCESS

The Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition went off successfully with 27 pilots in total and two valid tasks.

From left to right...

* Jaroslav Tuma - second place overall
* Jeff Ripley - overall winner,
   Auckland Paragliding Champion
* Kinga Masztalerz - third place overall,
   Auckland Women's Paragliding Champion
   and Pumpkin Winner.
* Kyla MacDonald - joint Fun class winner
* Graham Surrey - joint Fun class winner

You can find the final scores here:

http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=187

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 8 & FINAL

NZ Champ Reuben Muir
flanked by Jeff Ripley (2nd place)
& Women's Champ Eva Keim

The forecast for Saturday hadn’t looked promising, so some of the pilots hit the Nelson nightlife scene pretty hard on Friday night. Lucky for them, we were given a late start on Saturday, with a decision at 9:30 to head to Tapawera.

The stunning site with a low ridge along a wide valley has never been used before for a competition task. And today was not going to change that. The wind was too strong, so we were all wishing we’d brought our hang gliders along.

Ah well, that gave us time for a Saturday afternoon nap, a reserve re-pack seminar and to get ready for the prize giving dinner. The closing ceremony was a fabulous meal at The Honest Lawyer in Monaco, with Rob Boyle as MC. Now on to the winners!

PG Open Round 2 - Nelson Champions:

Harald Wilhelmi – overall

Claus Petry – sport class

Derek Divers – fun class

Kinga Masztalerz – women’s class

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

And the New Zealand National Champions for 2016:

Reuben Muir – overall and serial class winner

Grant Middendorf – sport class

Joe Ward – fun class

Eva Keim – women’s class

It might be fitting to toast our NZ champs with a GIN & tonic.

The Jill Borst trophy, awarded to a pilot who has made a significant contribution to the paragliding community, was jointly awarded to Nick Neynens and Louis Tapper for their stellar efforts at the 2015 Red Bull X-Alps (Nick as competitor, Louis as his supporter) and firmly putting NZ on the map as a flying destination for overseas pilots.

The Leo Geary award, which is awarded to a promising new pilot, generally flying for under 3 years, for performance in competitions, was awarded to Leighton Joll. Leighton has been licensed for under a year, and hasn't wasted any time kicking a** with his XC flying – he’s hit goal three times during the PG Open rounds this year.

The PB Trophy, introduced by the Tasman club this year, goes to the pilot who extends their NZ Personal Best in XC open distance flight by the greatest percentage. The inaugural award goes to Brian Erasmus, who also managed a podium place in the fun class in his first ever competition here in Nelson. 

Well done to all of you. Also well done to the rest of the pilots who stayed safe - no accidents!

Thanks to the organisers for a great comp - Nick Taber, Frog Twissell, and Peter Allison did a terrific job, supported by many others from the Tasman club.

You can find more photos on the Facebook page: PG Nationals 2016 Nelson 

Hope to see you all again next year!

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 7

Evan testing the waters. Yep, perfect backwind.

Friday we made a late start at Takaka, briefing on the hill at 13:00. Conditions looked lovely, if a little stable. The streamers were coming up the face beautifully.

Task was set from Takaka to Waitui Spur in the valley, back to take-off, in to Bush Knob, up to East Takaka and back to Takaka bomb-out.

Always keen to get off, Hamish Barker launched as soon as the window opened. He didn’t make it look terribly exciting, but was staying up. Mark Hardman rigged up, and was in the air pretty quickly behind Hamish, but had to wait for the right moment to launch as the sea breeze was starting to come in over the back. The queue on launch started growing, and there was more waiting as the wind was coming more regularly over the back.

Mark and Hamish were having a tremendous flight, but the rest of the pilots on launch were just heating up in all our gear, waiting for a decent cycle to come up the face. Gradually pilots at the back of the queue realised they weren’t going to get away anytime soon, so de-rigged.

As we stood on launch feeling a solid breeze on the back of our necks, we watched as Mark and Hamish flew past on their way up to the last turnpoint at East Takaka, then heard them call in as they made it to goal. Meanwhile, launch was closed so we couldn't get any other pilots off. So…the Task Committee set a good course, even if it’s not a valid task.

Stunning

On the way back in to Nelson, we stopped at the Takaka SE launch, with lots of pilots having a stunning glide down to the valley. Then off to the Sprig & Fern for a free barbie to end another great day.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 6

Upper Takaka Valley
from Kris Ericksen's viewpoint

Wow, day 6 already…and we’ve flown every day we’ve been here!

Thursday was another Takaka day, with a nice SW, and the sea breeze expected to join us in the afternoon.

The 32km course had us fly from Takaka Hill to Hail Knob, out to Waitui Spur, in to Takaka launch, back to Bush Knob, up to East Takaka then riding the sea breeze back in to Takaka bombout.

We discovered that ridge soaring was the way to get ahead in this race. It felt a bit like a Karioitahi Beach run, so the Aucklanders were quite at home with the conditions. Lots of fun.

The sea breeze did come in with a bang, flushing many pilots to the ground just north of Upper Takaka. At just after 14:00, the task was stopped due to the strong wind in the valley.

Abe Laguna is the winner of the day, with 31.93km on task.

Abe Laguna's track log for the Task

On the entertaining side of things we also had an exciting evening, with the Magical Mystery Tour. The Tasman club had organised a sponsorship from Burger King, who donated 100 burgers. We may have broken another record – number of burgers a gaggle of pilots can wolf down in under 10 minutes.

After that excitement, Claus Petry put on a truly awesome aerobatic show with his single-seater plane. Wow – everyone was very impressed.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 5

After another great barbie prepared by Tony Dickison at the Boat House (what a view!), a couple of our sponsors came for a show and tell on Tuesday night. No one complains when Scott McCashin of Stoke Brewery wants to share his craft beer with us, nor when Gelato Roma plies us with gelato – anyone for a fourth serving?

Tony obviously serious about food

Guaranteed to be talking sh*t about flying

Nicely ballasted up, Mt Murchison beckoned us on Wednesday morning.

The wind was a gentle SW, and we knew we could expect a sea breeze to come in later in the day. Task was set to Howard Valley Rd with a 4km cylinder, then way up to Argyle Rd Jnc (10km) with end of speed and goal back at Tophouse.

Russell Read was the only pilot in goal, with the majority of the field getting flushed by the sea breeze on the way through St Arnaud. We had just the right amount of heart-stopping excitement with several pilots getting very low, basically kicking treetops; but everyone managed to avoid the trees.

We should have a few more NZ Personal Bests to talk about too.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

Someone get this man a beer!

THE WEATHER ABATES

Nelson Mail continues its coverage of the PG Open.

Link to Nelson Mail article

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 4

Are those 'go-faster'
stripes on your
harness, Louis?

The weather has been really hard to pick these last few days.

Saturday, the first day of the comp, should have been a rainy blowout, but we got a task. Today, Tuesday, was supposed to be the cream on top. However at the 8am briefing this morning there were some reservations about the flying possibilities.

The team headed to Havelock for the best chance at a task. The task was set to Canvastown after a bit of bopping around the Havelock valley, but with provisional start times so we could gauge what was up. There was a lot of cloud cover and a bit more south in the wind than we wanted to see.

Pilots spent some time clearing up a few twigs and pricklies on launch, but by 13:30 it was clear that the conditions weren’t improving enough for us to get into task-mode.

There's only so much parawaiting time you can spend teasing your mates for landing in cow patties, so we needed a plan B.

A decision was made to head back to Nelson and give Barnicoat a go. By the time we arrived it was quite late in the day, and the Task Committee opted for a spot-landing contest. A handful of pilots got in the air, but the wind pretty quickly turned south (more like east, actually), preventing the rest of the field from launching.

Sounds like they were the lucky ones though, as it got somewhat funky in the air and on landing. 

No worries - bbq is on tonight. Let's eat.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results