Hasta Tamang (Army) was crowned Sports Class Champion at the British Armed Forces Inter-Services Paragliding Development Championship that was held in South-East Wales in June. The RAF won the Sports Class Team prize.
The purpose of the event was to teach pilots the foundations of competition flying, and good racing conditions meant it was a very successful event. Championships coordinator, wing Commander Matt Tandy, sent us this report:
Despite a doom-laden long-range forecast that was disheartening to even the keenest of pilots, SE Wales delivered a superb week of XC flying weather for the Inter Service Paragliding Development Championships (16-23 June 2023). As the fifteen Senior Championships pilots assembled in Tolmin, Slovenia for the Naviter Open (which is used as the vehicle to facilitate the Open Class of the Inter Service Championships), twenty six pilots from all three Services arrived at the Joint Services Paragliding Centre near Crickhowell on the edge of the Black Mountains, within which is our ‘Home for Sport’, to compete for the Sports and Intermediate Classes.
With former Royal Navy pilot, now the Chief Flying Instructor of Crickhowell Paragliding, Alistair Andrews as Meet Director and a small team of former Service personnel as guest pilots to mentor and support the less experienced competitors, the event was superbly facilitated, including the use of Flymaster trackers and a dedicated retrieve service to encourage pilots to fully commit to each task.
To our collective surprise, every day proved to be not only flyable but eminently taskable and five of the six days resulted in validated tasks with up to a third of the field in goal and a host of the pilots achieving key pilot development milestones along the way, from first ever XCs to overall personal best XC flights. As a result it came down to leading out and speed to determine the podium places, proving that it is not only possible to race in UK conditions but essential to do so when an event such of the Dev Champs is being used to school pilots in the foundations of XC competition flying. The final task of the week was a beautifully designed triangle from Hay Bluff, which really encouraged pilots to be both focussed and swift between the TPs as they navigated it (most of them flying such a course for the very first time!).
So congratulations on a well-earned win go to Hasta Tamang of the Army as Sports Class Champion and the RAF Team led by Steve Barton for retaining the Sports Class Team prize by a comfortable margin, with Ian Mansion of the RAF showing a lot of promise as the Intermediate Class Champion.
Our sincere thanks must go to Ali for his invaluable Meet Director services, Paul Snell who ran take off beautifully as Safety Manager and senior guests Glyn Cassidy, Tim Oatley and Dennis Trussler who frequently led out and showed the Service pilots the art of the possible. In addition Tim Bishop contributed superbly on the ground as our met forecaster and equipment specialist, deservedly earning the Best Guest award based on the votes of the Service pilots. Finally it would be remiss of us not to thank Stuart Blackburn and the SE Wales Club for permitting the use of their superb sites.
