NZ PG Nationals 2021-Nelson

The New Zealand National Open Paragliding competition for 2021 is now being held nr Nelson in the  Tasman region( a little west and north of Nelson close to Motueka) ( and environs for flying) in late February 2021.

Details for the Competition are in their preparatory stage but can be viewed on Airtribune:   

                                                     NZ PG Nationals 2021

Headquarters will be out at Mapua with registration opening for a limit of 80 pilots on August 1st, 2020. Be quick!

The Tasman region is a great place to fly with many varied sites, National Parks, and great social. It is a very popular competition location.

Our thanks to Pete Allison and Lyn Watkins for stepping forward to organise and conduct this event.

Lets give them our support.

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

2017 Paragliding Open - registration is OPEN

Registration is now open for the PG Open (Rotorua, 26 Feb - 4 March 2017).

Please head to
https://airtribune.com/newzealand/
for more information and registration.

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.

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

FICKLE FORECAST FOILS FREE FLYERS

Another blurb in the Nelson Mail.

Link to Nelson Mail article

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 3

Itai talking us through bridles & nappies

Those pesky strong high level winds were still keeping us out of the mountains on Monday.

The Task Committee was toying with options like Takaka or Barnicoat, but unsure whether the forecast could be believed.

A call at the 8am briefing was made to delay a decision until 10:30.

Luckily the organisers had catered for just this sort of fickle weather occurrence, and had arranged for Itai to give a talk on reserves. It proved quite popular and hopefully useful. The key message was that instead of carefully packing our reserves, we should just pop them in a plastic shopping bag with a rock. 

Just kidding, of course (what would you do with the rock, anyway?). The point is, it’s well worth understanding how your emergency reserve system works, what sorts of attributes you should be looking for in your gear and how it’s all connected and packed.

At 10:30 the Task Committee piped up with the message that we better hit the road. To Takaka, everyone!

The wind was so strong when we arrived at the hill that we could hardly stand up. It felt pretty sweet in the lee behind the trees at the back of launch though, so a few pilots napped in the sun. The Task Committee has a lot of faith, and they demanded patience from us.

Harald Wilhelmi's track log for Monday's Task

Eventually the 28km task was briefed: Takaka to Bush Knob, over to Waitui Spur then Point 704 and East Takaka and finally Lindsay Bridge for goal. Then we waited a little more to consider the start time, since the wind was still strong.

We all became believers when the wind did eventually drop, and the time of 15:25 was set for the Start. 

Launch cleared pretty quickly after Mark Hardman and Louis Tapper got in the air and showed it was going up. 

The sea breeze pushing in from the north and east, mixing with the prevailing westerly, created conditions that were a little funky in areas. A couple of pilots called safety alerts and some chose to land, but others found it pleasant flying. 

Harald Wilhelmi, one of our visiting pilots from Germany, was the task winner, making it to goal in 57 minutes.

Great work from the Task Committee, pulling a task out of a day that looked like a blowout.

And hey, does anyone have a couple of maillons for me? I think I need to re-fit my reserve.

WILL THE WEATHER COME TO THE PARTY?

Round 2 of the PG-Open gets some more media attention.

Link to Nelson Mail article

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 2

Beautiful Havelock; photo cred: Devon MacDonald

Strong westerlies at altitude were forecast on Sunday, keeping us out of the mountains.

The two best options were another task at Barnicoat, or head to Havelock. We opted to jump in the cars and race to Havelock.

Task was set to start at Footes Hill, then deep in the hills at the back to Pelorus with a 10km cylinder, over to Riley North, across the valley to Cullen West, up to Cullen North then towards Picton at Duncan, with Goal at Cullensville.

We were warned to watch for the sea breeze coming in, or for the high westerly to greet us, which we expected to find at around 4000 feet. The first few pilots launched and had no trouble staying aloft, but the radio call came through pretty quickly that pilots were feeling the westerly from about 2000 feet.

Next thing you know, the sea breeze picked up. That made for choppy air around Footes Hill, demonstrated by the rocking wings and wee collapses; as Tim Brown describes it: The Jiggles.

A few Level 2 and Level 3 calls came over the radio, and at 13:11, the task was stopped due to safety concerns. A good call. Sadly, it looks like we haven’t met the minimum criteria of 5 pilots flying a minimum 6km on course to be a valid task. 

Well, we gave it a good shot. And tomorrow is another day. And we'll have some great photos to share - watch this space.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

PG OPEN ROUND 2 – NELSON – DAY 1

Tim Brown briefing the task

The Nelson round of the PG Open got off to a fine start on Friday night, with what was probably the best registration barbie a paragliding comp has ever seen. Yum.

The formalities were taken care of, with introductions from competition organisers Peter Allison, Nick Taber & Frog Twissell.

The Task Committee of Tim Brown, Jeff Ripley & Itai Almog was appointed, and the Safety Committee of Russell Read, Joe Ward and Roy Tingay elected.

Since the forecast for Saturday wasn’t looking flash, a few of the pilots took the opportunity to offer extensive support to one of our generous competition sponsors – the Sprig & Fern pub.

They may have been regretting it on Saturday morning, when we were all reminded that the weather sometimes surprises us. 

Saturday saw us head up to Barnicoat, where the wind was initially over the back. The Task Committee didn’t seem to take notice, and focused on setting the task. Don’t worry, they said. 

The wind will come around.

Task 1 was set with start at Barnicoat, over to Jenkins then to Spur with Trees, back to Cumming Spur, end of speed at Water Tank, and goal back at Barni. The wind was still over the back.

We bided time listening to the Sprig & Fern supporters in the group regale us with tales of their ‘quiet night’, and next thing you know, we could feel the breeze on our faces.

Frog Twissell encouraging Hamish Barker to get in the air

Barnicoat is a beautiful big launch, so it didn't take long to get everyone in the air and on course.

Jeff Ripley was the first in goal, with a small gaggle in hot pursuit. It was a short task of 24km, but a very welcome surprise to get a fly on a day we were expecting strong winds and rain, and a great way to kick off the competition.

The weather looks promising for the next few days too, so we have big plans rest of the week.

Results: Highcloud PG Open Nelson Results

PG-OPEN NELSON IS ON NEXT WEEK

Round 2 of the PG-Open gets some media attention.

Link to Nelson Mail article

PG OPEN ROUND 1 - MANILLA - FINAL

The After Party

It should be some small consolation to those at home that there was no task on the last day of the competition.

Upper level winds were forecast to be extremely strong, so although a task was set to fly to Bingara, the Comp Organiser declared that launch was not going to open.

No worries - pilots were pretty tired and it meant that the closing ceremony was brought forward.

The competition winner will be no surprise - Peter Slade, who won three of the six tasks. Highest scoring Kiwi was Reuben Muir, in tenth place overall.

A very successful competition overall, and massive kudos goes to organiser Mark Hardman, with support from:

Task Committee: Evan Lamberton, Craig Collings, Gareth Carter
Safety Committee: Brandon O'Donnell, JJ Bastion, Ivo Kalushkov
Launch Marshals: Janice Lamberton, Sandy Yong, Melanie Heather
Scoring: Johnny Hopper, with support from Cameron Kennedy (and of course loads of support from Geoff Wong)
Hospitality: Godfrey Wenness of Manilla Paragliding

It's been an awesome week for all of us, with more than half of the Kiwis smashing PBs, and knocking out big distances. Jeff Ripley, in the 8 flying days he was here, flew a total of 929.3km. Reuben, who made goal EVERY TASK, flew close to 1000km.

We had three pilots throw reserves, with one of them needing to deploy both his reserves (lucky he had two!). All pilots are uninjured, so it's all happy endings.

The only thing left to deal with is that Robbo needs new undies after a 12m/s climb the other day (that sadly pulled him over 10,000ft, the altitude limit for the competition). Can anybody help?

With six out of seven days flying, we had a 6000 point competition - unheard of for NZ!

Overall results: Kiwi Open Highcloud Results

Great flying, and now I can't wait for Round 2 in Nelson in a few weeks! Not signed up yet? There's still time - register here: http://www.pgopen.org.nz/

PG OPEN ROUND 1 - MANILLA - DAY 6

Gaggling

You're joking, right? No FAI comp has ever completed a 214km task, and we need to fly that in less than six and a half hours?

We don't even have a waypoint for that. It's off the maps. It's almost Queensland!!

Fortunately we have 'can-do' pilots in this comp. And on Saturday they certainly showed they were up for the challenge, even on a blue day.

214km task

The first of 31 pilots to goal was Donizete Lemos of Brazil, in 5h20m.

Jeff Ripley was the first Kiwi in goal in just under six hours, with Reuben Muir 19 minutes later and Stuart Mackintosh another five minutes behind that.

Wayne Rohrs, Glen Stevens & Joe Ward came short, but all cracked the 200km mark, and Elliot Revell-Nash was not far behind at 182km.

Leading the scoreboard as we go in to the last task is Peter Slade, but it's a tight race. Let's see if he can hold on.

Results: Highcloud Kiwi Open Results

Live tracking: Kiwi Open Live Tracking

PG OPEN ROUND 1 - MANILLA - DAY 5

With a sky like that,
why am I on the ground?
Photo cred: Joe Ward

All the days seem to blend into one when you have great flying every day.

The task committee shook things up by having us go west for a change on Friday. The start was a 6km cylinder around Godfrey's House, then over to Boggabri with a 5km cylinder and north towards Narrabri with goal at Turrawan.

A fairly strong crosswind made it a tough task, with loads of pilots getting drilled trying to keep south enough to tag the first waypoint.

However we still had 46 pilots in goal, with Peter Slade in there first.

Middy was the first Kiwi and winner of the Sport class for the day, reaching goal in 2h12m.

This might be the first day since we've been here that no one on the Kiwi team has flown a PB. Come on guys, we still have two days of flying to go. You're not tired, are you?

Results: Highcloud Kiwi Open Results

Did you know you can live-track us? Check this out while we are flying, expected between around 2pm and 8pm Kiwi time: Kiwi Open Live Tracking

PG OPEN ROUND 1 - MANILLA - DAY 4

Task Committee hard at work

Protests were expected yesterday after severe penalties were applied for pilots not checking in by the sign-out deadline of 7pm, including Donizete, the first pilot in to goal.

On further investigation, it was deemed that he did make reasonable efforts to sign out, and he got his points back, making him officially the winner of Wednesday's task.

Now on to Task 4 on Thursday: conditions were initially confusing. Forecasts were contradicting each other so we didn't really know what to expect. When we showed up at the west launch, there was already a fair breeze coming through. And clouds! We haven't seen decent clouds for days.

NZ's Helen Jeffery also
successfully protested
penalty points
(after flying another cracking PB!)

The task was set with the usual 8km start cylinder around Mt Borah, to an 8km cylinder at Woodsref near Barraba, and on to goal at Moree.

Due to airspace around Moree, there was a 21km End of Speed, with goal a 20km cylinder. Over-flying was not recommended or you could be in trouble with the CAA.

While we're on the topic of airspace, pilots had to be careful not to breach the 10,000 foot ceiling. Believe it or not, it wasn't always easy. Several pilots found out the hard way, getting themselves a score of zero or -500 points, whichever is more severe, for the task. Ouch, that hurts.

Peter Slade was again the first in to goal, making it in 2h55m. We know the Aussies are racers but that's fast - this is 134.38km task!

First Kiwi in to goal was Reuben Muir in 3h06m. Big round of applause as well, please, for Andrew Cavaney, who quadrupled his PB flying 123km on task.

Results: Highcloud Kiwi Open Results

Did you know you can live-track us? Check this out while we are flying, expected between around 2pm and 8pm Kiwi time: Kiwi Open Live Tracking

[Update with corrections from Godfrey: there is no "airspace" around Moree. It's a CTAF which requires VHF airband radio monitoring and calls if below 3500ft - any PG/HG pilot with a VHF airband radio endorsement can fly through it; however for this competition it is forbidden to fly there. There is no airspace above 10'000 either - Class E airspace starts at 18'500 in this region. We are permitted to fly up to 14500ft with use of supplementary oxygen. Without Oxy 10,000 ft is the limit for all VFR aircraft, but again, it's forbidden in the Kiwi Open.}