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10 April 2016

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COMPETITION

World Cup Brazil in Castelo 10 – 15 April 2016

Currently taking place is the first event in the 2016 World Cup series, taking place in the region of Espirito Santo, Castelo in Brazil.

The region is to the south of Espírito Santo and is a world class flying site. Pilots can benefit from several launch areas : Alfredo Chaves, Castelo Sao Vicente, but also Vargem Alta – Rampa do Mirante which is the most popular of the local sites.

Check out the pilot selection

Training Day

Conditions for first of the World Cup tour events look good an are set to provide promising weather for the remainder of the week, as we can see from the Training Day from Castelo.

Live tracking for this event will not be broadcast until the PWC can recover the live trackers from Brazilian custom officials.  This is not the first time that the PWC has had problems importing the tracker units to South America; earlier on this year for the 2015 Superfinal in Valle de Bravo, live trackers were also temporarily confiscated on arrival at Mexico airport, later to be returned by the authorities several days later.

The first video footage is brought to us from the Paragliding World Cup (PWC) cameraman, Philippe Broers.

Task 1 – Race to Goal 68 km

Today’s task saw pilots launch from  Castel Sao Vicente. The end of race proved to be tricky with only a handful of pilots in goal. You can see the first day’s results here, with France’s Lucas Bernardini leading after the first day:

1- Lucas BERNARDIN (FRA)
2- Semih SAYIR (TUR)
3- Yanick LETTRY (CZ)
4- Felix RODRIGUEZ FERNANDEZ (SP)
5- Cody MITTANCK (USA)
6- Francisco MANTARAS (ARG)
7- Marco BUSETTA (ITA)
8- Pablo RODARTE (BRA)
9- Albino MALLI (CZ)
10- Gabriele GARDINI (ITA)

See all the results – relive the race in 3D

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20/02/2016

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CCC gliders

Delegates vote for 90kg

It looks like at the CIVL Plenary meeting, delegates have passed their vote on a number of important subjects, notably the manufacturing and testing of the CC class or “CCC”.

It has been agreed that CCC gliders will be scaled using the XS size and maximum take-off weight of 90kg in order to pass certification. All other sizes will use linear scaling from this XS size to produce other gliders in this class.

Existing gliders are not affected by the new standard and their configuration will stay the same, and it is unlikely that there will be further scaling down from the mandatory XS size, however in the event that a manufacturer wishes to do so, this will now be possible.

The new certification standard will open doors for other paraglider manufacturers to produce competition wings, as well as enable lighter, smaller competition pilots to fly CCC class gliders.  In the past the lighter pilots and indeed female competititors have been deprived from flying a comp wing because of sometimes having to carry up to 33kg of ballast.

There will be many happy faces amongst the manufacturers and the competition pilot community. CIVL will be no doubt be releasing a full report soon.

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14/02/2016

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RECORD

Kirsten Seeto makes goal and FAI World Record history at Kiwi Open

Kirsten Seeto, female paragliding pilot and well-known author of recent buzz-article “Competing without a Penis“, makes FAI World Record history by being the first of two female pilots to have completed the longest FAI World Record Distance Competition Race to Goal in the history of paragliding. The second female pilot in goal and just before task deadline was Japanese pilot, Nao Takada.

Meet Director Mark Hardman set a 214km task from Mount Borah to North Star on the 6th task day of the Kiwi Open in Manilla, Australia,   By reaching goal, Kirsten also broke her personal best distance record and was amongst only 32 other pilots to complete the task.  Conditions were said to have produced some solid climbs of 4-5m/s to almost 3000m altitude, and with a 30km wind at the upper levels some of the competitor’s final glides were achievable from 30km out!

If you have read Kirsten’s recent article which talks about being a female pilot in a male-dominated sport, you will understand how her obvious mental approach played an important role in keeping her focused for the 6+hr flight.

Huge congratulations go to Kirsten from the team at Rock the Outdoor !

For full Kiwi Open competition results, click here

(Photo credits: Kris Eriksen and Kirsten Seeto)

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