Posted on Monday 22 April 2013

The Parajet Team dominate the top of the league after the first leg of the British Paramotor League event Ric Womersley and Dean Eldridge both finishing on the podium, closely followed by Phil Jennings in fourth.

Under blue and sunny skies, the British League kicked off this weekend at the Boston Aerodrome, Lincolnshire and saw 12 pilots compete. Having just returned from 2 months travelling abroad, current British Champion Dean Eldridge finished the first day in a favourable position having made a good start in the precision based tasks; his speciality. Fellow Parajet team pilot Phil Jennings also showed blistering pace but was deducted points after turning the wrong way on the slalom course, promoting new team member Ric Womersley to second place, despite having only receiving his Zenith a few weeks ago.

Sunday morning brought more good weather and an early start. With the day’s events no longer about speed and precision the pilots faced the navigation and economy tasks. Flying the Zenith Top80, Phil Jennings came into the fore and placed second in the navigation and eco-distance tasks, but a few silly mistakes on the ‘breadcrumb’ task costs him points! Despite the heavier engine and smaller wing combination negating Dean’s first day advantage, his championship winning skill kept him in the running and on path for the win. Going into the final task, only a few point separated the top three pilots with both Dean and Ric in the running. Unfortunately for Dean, strong cross winds caused a mistake and a small fall during a spot landing costing the British Champion maximum points. This passed the advantage to the cool, calm and collected Ric, who underlined his place in the team with a perfect landing that pushed him through on points.

The final result for the weekend saw Parajet Team pilot Ric Womersley taking joint first place alongside 9 times British Champion Michel Carnet, with Dean Eldridge finishing in second and Phil Jennings in fourth. A great end to the weekend, and a fantastic start to the season. The Team are now focused on the French Nationals and Slalomania in two weeks time.

Also scoring some solid points on his debut was Parajet customer Clive Freeman, flying a Zenith Thor 200. Clive suffered some unexpected technical issues and unfortunately withdrew from the competition.