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Great Result in French Nationals!

Posted on May 09, 2013 in Phil Jennings   

My fellow Parajet team pilots and I are currently out in France after competing in the French Open championship in Mondreville, South of Paris. Its been a hectic 4 days with near perfect flying conditions and a busy task schedule. I really look forward to coming out here every year as the competition is really tough and the French train lots, in fact most of the top pilots work 100 percent in the sport, so its almost like a smaller version of the World Championships.

There were 62 foot launch solo, 6 foot launch tandem, 9 trike solo and 14 trike tandem so this meant lots of organising but everything went smoothly.

The first task was a simple photo hunt. You are given 3 tracks to follow and 11 pictures to find. The first 3 pictures were used as course changers so once you found one of those you then had to fly to the start of the next track, whilst all the time still looking for the other pictures. This was then ended at the airfield with a target spot landing. I ended up missing 2 pictures and drifting off course slightly so ended up with a rather disappointing 17th place, I did manage to score a inner ring on the spot though.

We then had a slalom task similar to the cloverleaf but without the centre stick. All the timing is done with an electronic timing gate. I had a 9th in this.

Next was another photo hunt task but this time it we had to declare the speed we were going to fly the curved course. This had to be done before take off and then you had to try and fly that constant speed the whole leg, whilst looking for photos! Also to make it a bit harder the weather was windy and changeable. 7th place.

Task 5 was an economy based turn point hunt. With turn points further away worth more. We were given a measured amount of fuel (3kg) and had to do our best! This is where the Top 80 engine in my Zenith really pays off. I did 1 hour 16 minutes and collected 4 high value turn points giving me a respectable 5th place.

Task 6 was a speed triangle but with a touch and go at another airfield and a landing and relaunch at another. We also had to fly above 150M within 2km of each airfield so lots to watch for before going full speed. An ok 10th place on this.

The next task was pure economy, which is probably my least favourite as I don’t free fly and never really have done except the odd top to bottom flights at Coupe Icare. So we little interest I setup late hoping the really lively conditions might calm down a bit. Anyway the launch window was closing so I took off with the 1.5 litres of fuel we were given and headed off into the smooth but lively conditions. Before I knew it i was engine off and going up only to be joined by the gaggle of top pilots. This turned out to be one of my most enjoyable flights in a long time. I ended up flying for 1 hour 30 minutes and came a respectable 7th.

The penultimate task was a declared turn point hunt with limited time. Only a few pilots risked the extra turn points so the majority of us came joint 4th place.

Last task…a long slalom course with 3 pylons and 2 kicking sticks. An average 12th place.

So after 4 days and 9 challenging tasks I was 5th overall, my best result so far in France and great training for the upcoming British Open in July.

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