St Arnaud Regional Paragliding Comp in February

St Arnaud Paragliding League and XC Camp 2017
(Incorporating a Tasman Regional Competition)

XC Camp Dates: 
Sat, February 11 – Sun, February 19, 2017.

Fly XC without a set task and see how far you can get. Optional flight logging to find who flies the most kilometres over their best four flights.

Regional Comp. Dates: Feb 11 – 13, 2017 (Sat-Mon). Reserve dates: Feb 17 – 19, 2017 (Fri-Sun).

Contact: Tim Percival percival@actrix.co.nz 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864

Competition Task Format: Standard competition tasks.

First Briefing: To be advised on the forum of the NZHGPA website.

Sites: Inwoods Lookout, Mt Murchison, Mt Robert (walking access, depending on attendees), others to be advised.

Cost: $5 suggested donation per day, maximum $15.

Required for Safety: PG2 + 20 hours, reserve, back protection, GPS, UHF Radio, maps.

Transport Notes: Mt. Murchison requires 4WD vehicles so if you have one, it would be good to bring it. Vehicles used on forestry access roads must be equipped with fire extinguishers (be sure to contact Tim beforehand if you’re in need of one for your vehicle).

Additional Information
St. Arnaud is an excellent place for a long weekend with a variety of accommodation available including good tenting in the DoC campground, backpackers, and holiday baches for easy rental if you are a little organised. It has a shop and an all important bar. I am hiring a bach to serve as a base, which will be able to accommodate several other comp attendees at an economical rate.

The sites we will be using are high sites (up to 1450m ASL), so they make for some very scenic and exhilarating flying around the St. Arnaud area, which is the northern-most end of the Southern Alps.
(The site records for Inwoods Lookout, Mt Murchison and Mt Robert are 116km, 95km and 91km respectively).

Come along just for the XC Camp if you’d prefer to just fly XC without a set task and designated flying time. Please contact me for further information on accommodation etc. if you are thinking of coming;

Tim Percival
47A Brook Street, Nelson
ph. 03 548 7397 or 022 646 3864
percival@actrix.co.nz

MANILLA XC CAMP 2016 - FINAL

Reubs in the lead, getting high up there.
Photo cred: Rhys Akers

We all know how important timing is in paragliding, and it seems the latest bunch of Kiwis to arrive really nailed their timing.

The classic Manilla conditions we've all been waiting for turned on just in time to give us a strong finish to XC Camp on Saturday.

The conditions were similar to Friday, with a moderate ESE. As with most days over the past week, launch was tricky but a little more friendly than we've seen lately, so most who wanted to get away, could do so.

The crowd spread out quickly, with small gaggles disappearing mostly over to Boggabri Gap then north.

We had a few pilots surprise themselves with new Personal Bests: Hamish Dicker at 42km, Peter Poboril at 55km & Adam Morrow at 74.6km.

Several Kiwi pilots were over the 100km mark: Rhys Akers at 103km (also a new PB!), Mark Hardman and Reuben Muir around 126km. Jeff Ripley & Grant Middendorf kept going, pulling out flights of 182km & 185km! These guys don't waste any time getting to know the place, do they?

A couple of other international pilots flew on, with Ari Sohlstrom from Finland cracking 200km. We'll keep an eye on him in the Kiwi Open next week.

The winner for the week was Karsten from Germany. Mark Hardman was the lead Kiwi pilot, and third overall.

Nice work, everyone. This is what it's meant to be like! Who's coming back next year?

MANILLA XC CAMP 2016 - DAY 7

Gaggles. Photo cred: Joe Ward

Friday turned into another day of flying at Mt Borah for those prepared to brave the strong winds.

The furthest flight was 171km by Karsten from Germany, followed by a mammoth retrieve, including 20km of walking through fields then several hours of waiting for his pick-up.

Best flight by a Kiwi was Tony Skerrett's 154km out west to the north of Wee Waa. (Look, I know he is an FAI Australian, but he was born in NZ so officially, he's ours.)

Tim Percival also pulled out a great flight, coming 4th overall with 98km.

Saturday is the last day and turned out some big flights. Stand by for results.

MANILLA XC CAMP 2016 - DAYS 5 & 6

Mark approaching base. Photo cred: Michal Karnik

Finally our hard work parawaiting has paid off, and we've had two days back in the air.

Day 5 (Wednesday) was hard work but we're on the scoreboard. Mark Hardman was the lead Kiwi, and fourth overall for the day, with a 43km flight.

There was over-development later in the day that brought some of the most intense rain we have ever seen in Manilla. Fortunately HQ at Godfrey's missed the worst of it, but we have reports of some tents floating away in town.

Day 6 was tricky too. It was a toss up between getting off early enough before the wind picked up, and waiting long enough for the ground to really dry from the previous night's rain.

The gaggle above launch got pretty crowded, but paid off for those who stuck it out. The longest flight was 79km, and our own Hamish Dicker got special mention for the longest flight in the Fun class.

Plenty of markers in the air

In case you missed it, you can catch Mark Hardman here, talking to Prime7 news about the upcoming Kiwi Open: Flying High Video

Most of the remaining Kiwi contingent is expected to descend on Manilla late today, so that pretty well guarantees a great flying day tomorrow. Doesn't it?

MANILLA XC CAMP 2016 - DAYS 1-4

Who says paragliding isn't a spectator sport?

The Kiwis descended en masse on Manilla for the XC Camp, which started with a bang! So far we’ve seen multiple pilots getting 100km+ flights and PBs falling left, right and centre.

No, wait. That was last year.

For the 2016 XC Camp we’ve so far been limited to early morning or late afternoon glides down from Mt Borah due to some large, persistent low pressure systems over NSW bringing strong winds. 

However, Team Kiwi is making the most of the holiday time, with swimming, yoga, ground handling, visits to local water holes, slack-lining, catching up on work, card games, barbecues, video editing and the odd cold beer or ten.

We’ve already managed some non-flying injuries, with Jakub pulling a tendon in his knee after getting picked up by an invisible dust devil (aka 'grass devil') while ground-handling, and Sheralee heading home early for hand surgery due to an incident on the rope swing at the water hole. Let’s hope that’s the extent of the damage.

Today (Tuesday) was the first day that looked really promising, and a few pilots managed to get in the air before the wind really picked up and made launching only a possibility for the very experienced or very…brave. With most of the experienced pilots wise enough to wait for better conditions, it made for interesting watching to see the few 'brave' pilots prepare to fly. I’ve never seen so many cameras ready to film what were guaranteed to be exciting launches. Have a look at Louis Tapper's video capturing the day; Manilla Rodeo

More excitement came when a pilot hit some power lines on landing. Now I’m not saying the events were related, but there was a widespread power outage at Godfrey’s camp at about the same time. Hmm. Fortunately it all got sorted out within a few hours, and the pilot is safe and sound.

It was also fortunate that everyone was on the ground early, since we’ve been seeing gusts higher than 70 kph all afternoon on launch.

A handful of Kiwis managed to get away today, but not very far. Mark Hardman and Reuben Muir got about 10km under their belts, flying to the East over Fossickers Way. Gareth Gore pushed into a crosswind towards 4-Ways to get about 6km, and the Kiwi-Czech boys smattered down around Upper Manilla.

The forecast for tomorrow looks promising, and we're ready for action.

2016 PG OPEN ROUNDS DECIDED ON

In 2016 there will be two rounds of the PG Open - the NZ National Paragliding Competition.

Round One will be held in Manilla, NSW, Australia, from Monday 8th February to Sunday 14th February inclusive (registration and competition meeting Sunday 7th February).

Round Two will be held in Nelson from Saturday 27th February to Saturday 5th March inclusive (registration and competition meeting Friday 26th February).

Details will be maintained, for now at least, on the PG Open website here www.pgopen.org.nz.

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 7 AND 8

Day 7:

Forecast light SE winds. Inversion and mostly blue made a difficult start to the day but once pilots were 50 -70km out cu's were forming and later streets were at 3000m 100 and 200 plus km flights again.

I bombed after 10km.

Day 8 final day:

Similar conditions to yesterday a couple of pilots launched on east launch before the wind changed to the SW then W.

Borah shuffle had everyone moving to west launch, tricky conditions to start with thick inversion and cu's starting at Barraba and Houghton valley.

Lots of pilots down at Tapoly/Barraba. 100 and 200km plus flights again.

I did a PB of 85km landing short of Bingara.

120 pilots attended. 50 PBs, good flying 7 out of 8 days, just under 30,000km flown.

What a great event!

Leonardo Flights Friday
Leonardo Flights Saturday

Joe Ward

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 6

Great looking day with SE forecast.

Two pilots, Jason and Che have done 355km, many 100km+ and 200km+ flights and PBs still a lot of pilots to be retrieved and report distances.

I did a PB of 58km today landing north of Boggabri.

Yesterday there were 6 x 200+ km and 10 x 100+ km flights.

Forecast for tomorrow is good :-)

Leonardo Flights

Yesterday saw...

5 flights of over 300km

13 flights of over 200km

8 flights of over 100km

17 personal bests

New Australian foot launched record

Manilla site record

8 to 8.5 hour flights

Cloud streets at 3000m

The 2 pilots who flew 355km were on EN C wings

An EN A wing did 114km

Joe Ward

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 4 AND 5

Day 4 -

No XC flying due to strong winds ... many pilots went up for a smooth evening flight when the wind eased.

Day 5 -

Forecast light SE increasing, inversion at around 1800m, it was very busy around launch with inversions at 1500m and 1900m mostly blue with cumulus further out.

There were good distances flown up to 223km, with 6 pilots getting 200km+. Several 100km flights and lots of personal bests. Described by many as a difficult day early on.

I launched and left the hill early at 1500m getting a 20km flight.

Leonardo Flights

Joe Ward

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 3

Forecast of strong SE/E wind with possible thunderstorms, potential for a 200-300km day.

Pilots started launching at 11am in 20kph gusting 30kph on east launch, lots of pilots got away but overdevelopment/thunderstorms ended the day after a few hours.

A couple of pilots reported landing backwards.

1800 to 2000m base ... many 50 to 90km flights out towards Boggabri and Narrabri.

Leonardo Flights

Joe Ward

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 2

120 pilots here now, great conditions today, blue at first then cumulus with 3000m base, light SW/SE wind with westerly up top, all pilots spread from bomb-out to 150km out ... still a few pilots left to report distances, quite a few personal bests broken today.

I was about 5th off launch today keen to avoid the traffic, climbed quickly to 8000ft and took off in the blue ... landing 22km later to watch cumulus forming and pilots flying overhead ...doh!

Leonardo Flights

Joe Ward

MANILLA XC CAMP DAY 1

I am at Manilla for the XC Camp for those interested I will report on each days events.

Day 1: ​30-40 pilots launched in a strong westerly before it blew out at lunchtime, blue day ...distances of 20 - 120km reported.

Too windy for me to fly but I was rewarded with a flight in the restitution at 6pm ...nice smooth thermal to 9000ft.

- Joe Ward

Leonardo Flights