Parajet Pilots Blog Latest Team News

Good Result at Boston

Posted on April 22, 2013 in Dean Eldridge   

Having just returned from 2 months traveling abroad with my Parajet Zenith, I was in a favourable position going into the first round of the British League competition this weekend, having been able to keep my flying skills in shape with good weather whereas many pilots have been scuppered for training during the earlier months of the year with unfavourable flying conditions. Also, the first four tasks were precision based, my speciality, so I was able to make a good head start. My two Parajet Team mates Ric Womersley and Phil Jennings also got off to a good start where others were still shaking off the winter rust.

A ‘classic’ style competition is not all about speed and precision though, there’s also navigation and economy to throw into the mix and as the weekend went on, more of these tasks were introduced. My ability to navigate has improved in recent times but I’m never going to win economy tasks using a big engine and a small wing so as the weekend went on, the advantage I had gained at the start began to diminish though Phil and Ric were doing exceptionally well with their equipment combinations. Towards the end there were just a few points separating the top 3 pilots of the event, myself and Ric being right in there. Unfortunately for me I made the smallest of mistakes on a spot landing, hitting the spot but doing so in a strong cross wind causing me to make a small fall afterwards, nullifying the maximum points for that task. Ric though was cool, calm and collected and just managed to push through on points at the end to take equal top spot! Superb job Ric, a great effort and very well deserved and backing up the decision to have this great pilot join the Team Parajet Pilots.  With me now taking the 3rd position and Phil defending his place from other pilots snapping at his heels, the end result was Team Parajet taking the 1st, 3rd and 5th, not bad at all.

The 3 of us now plan to get some training in before the French Open ‘classic’ competition starting in 10 days time and the 1st round of Slalomania, a purely speed/precision competition at the same location, 2 days after. Joining us will be another British Pilot on a Zenith Moster, Mark Morgan. We’ll be over there flying the flag, the Parajet one of course! Wish us luck.

Final results before and after they penalised me for my spot landing… BUGGER for me, great for Ric…!

« Show All Blog Entries