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