Corryong Open 2012: Report on the last round of the Australian Paragliding Championships

The competition was scheduled 18-25 February and was a huge success with five challenging tasks over the eight day period of the event.

It was flyable every day but only taskable for five days due to overdevelopment and overclouding on some days. Still we flew everyday and there was a good emphasis on safety with task setting.

The Corryong Open has been the most consistently reliable competition on the Australian competition calendar over the last three years running with more valid tasks than any other.

The main event, the Corryong Open, was won by Fred Gungl flying a Mantra 4; in second place was Gareth Carter (M4); Wesley Manske (Niviuk Peak 2) was third, then Ky Wittich (M4, Ambulance Tasmania) fourth.

This event was also the decider for the Australian National Paragliding Champions. The winners, and the new Australian National Champions are Gareth Carter and Kirsty Withecombe.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our major sponsors of the event: Australian Paragliding Centre and Kortel Design.

Other sponsors were: Cros Country Magazine, Brauniger, Warren Windsports, Ozone and Engel Australia.

Results on the Corryong Open official website.

Prior to the main Corryong Open there was a fun competition scheduled called the ‘Pub to Pub’, which ran from 14-17 February. Pub to Pub – very Australian indeed!

The main objective was to fly to goal at a different pub each day, where we would enjoy social events in the evenings. We managed three valid tasks over the four days with some excellent cross country flying conditions.

The Pub to Pub concept was to introduce newer competition pilots to competition flying and to get to know the region better and enjoying the apres-flying social life. Who knows, newer competition pilots may even be tempted to compete in the main event straight after? The winner of the event was Jerry Furnell flying a Nova Factor 2.