Celebre
la diferencia - by
Janet Haines
Are
paramotoring competitions in Spain different?
First
you have the World Champion, four other pilots who competed in the Worlds
at Long Marston in August, and eight other pilots giving up a weeks
work and driving hundreds of miles to meet in a tiny airdrome on a pretty
much grass-less field some 150 kms NW of Barcelona. The Spanish consider
it winter but with high pressure forecast for the week there were six
full days of flying.
The
tasks were much the same as those we use in the UK – for non paramotorist
readers you might be interested to know that tasks do not just consist
of kicking sticks and weaving round ski poles. In fact tasks are pretty
demanding physically, emotionally and mentally. They require pilots
to understand planning and executing complex navigations, sometimes
with limited fuel, often with hidden factors built in which necessitate
replanning whilst in the air. For the endurance tasks pilots need both
free flying skills, the ability to use the engine efficiently and to
understand to the last drop just how far you can risk going before running
out of fuel, landing out and ruining your score! In the accuracy it
can be hair raising to storm round weaving courses just a few inches
from the ground, but then have the delicacy to judge how to glide in
and spot land like the best of the accuracy free flyers who, after all,
practise nothing else.
Paco
Guerra, Competition Director, packed in no less than seventeen demanding
tasks into a full week, loosing just one day to fog and the final day
to entertaining representatives from the Federation Aeronautic Espana,
Federation Aeronautic Catalonya and the local Majors to lunch and the
presentations. Mid week he also managed a change of venue, from the
plains around Lleida, to the mountains at Montsant. Flying tasks both
there and back the following day, but involving officials and team supporters
to negotiate tight hair pin bends, with overhanging rock faces to reach
this famous free flying area.
If
there is one thing the Spanish know how to do it is have a good time.
The whole week was marked by friendly rivalry and a camaraderie. Every
day, no matter what, lunch was prepared by the hard working and very
professional Marshals , and around 3pm a long table was erected and
everyone sat down to eat. The local residents took an interest in what
was going on and were interested and supportive of this wacky sport.
No locals here came storming up to complain about the noise as they
have an excellent ‘live and let live’ attitude in Spain.
In the evenings the pilots all decamped to the local restaurant to eat
and stay in the local hotel – no camping and tents! To be fair
whilst the days were like good sunny June days for the northern Europeans,
the nights were cold.
The
number of competing pilots might be small but the welcome was big. Belgian
No 1 & 2 champions, Johan Bossuyt and Vincent Van Pottel enjoyed
their hospitality. And national pilots of lesser experience were buddied
up with a world class pilot, from whom they got help with the planning
and tactics of competition flying. In terms of equipment predictably
the Spanish built PAP motors predominated, but for wings three of the
pilots were using the motoring specific ‘Action’ wing, the
others a variety of free flying canopies.
At
the prize giving there were cups and medals galore as this was not only
their National Championship, but also league and local events in tandem.
World
Champion Ramon Morillas showed his class and finished first almost 1000
points clear of nearest rival Johan Bossuyt. But as a visitor Johan
was not eligible to win a trophy so the results for the ‘Campeonato
de Espana de Paramotor 2003’ was
