Endless Summer
Paragliding Nationals & The Willi info
2007 CANADIAN PARAGLIDING NATIONALS
GOLDEN, BC.
After a long absence the Canadian Nationals are returning to Golden! Golden has some of the best flying in North America--a long west-facing range with a broad, landing-friendly valley at the base. Golden has become one of the most user-friendly flying areas around, with a huge LZ, campground and meet HQ all at the Golden Eco Adventure Ranch. (Note--get a reservation soon, GEAR is big campground but may fill up).
Last year we ran the Race Willi, which was a low-stress and big fun style of meet. Despite some poorer than usual conditions we still had a fully valid (3000 +points) meet with some tasks running late into the evening. We hope to have a similar style comp this year, with the focus on good flying with friends. You can often fly 10 hours a day in Golden, and it's common to run more than 100K down the range. Conditions in late July are generally good, we're all looking forward to having a strong field racing along the range as in years past. Yeah!
Note that this event is the week before the Willi XC and the Invermere fly-in, so it's possible to schedule a good trip around three fun events.
Meet Purpose: A high-level meet with an emphasis on developing new competition pilots. The top scoring pilot from each day will be required to teach an open clinic the next morning. Various pilots will also be invited to give seminars on GPS, tactics, XC landing, etc. I'd also like to use a "mentor" system similar to that at the Rat Race.
Download the .wpt file. We'll be adding a few more in, but if you have Compegps or another program that can read .wpt files this will give you an idea of what you're dealing with.
June 5th 2007 Golden Report: Game ON! Some photos of recent fun flights.
Entry fee: Canadian $190 (US$170) before July 1, Canadian $225 (US$200) after July 1. Register here.
What you get for your entry fee:
-A good comp. We're putting a lot of time into the organisation this year, it's gonna be fun!
-Free breakfast--coffee, eggs, pancackes, sometimes other things. During the Race Willi/Willi XC last year we did this and it was a nice way to get the morning started. Pretty much everybody camps at the Golden Eco Adventure Ranch (meet HQ too) so it's a good social scene, get jacked on coffee, do the meeting, go up the hill and fly. Breakfast is $5 for non-meet pilots.
- Those of you who did the Willi last year may also remember the fantastic dinner (yeah, the one with all the salmon, salads, near-gourmet food!) cooked up at the end of the meet by the nicest women around. This will run again this year on August 4th, and is included in the meet fee unlike last year. Muller Windsports is also throwing down for a barbecue Sunday night, so you'll likely not starve at this meet if all you do is eat the meet food.
-Classic Canadian Awards.
Registration: Registration opened as of April 15th, registration per rulebook. Click here for registration information.
Registration Deadline: Sunday July 29th (those wishing to fly in the competition's latter days may do so if there is space).
Mandatory Pilot Meeting: Sunday July 29th 8:00 a.m.
Competition Days: July 29th through August 4th, 2007.
Rain dates or other contingency plans: No rain days, no rest days. Fly.
Launch: Mt. 7 Lookout launch is the primary launch, but we may also use upper launch (a short walk) and Mt. Swansea depending on conditions.
Tasks: Race to goal via turnpoints.
Minimum and maximum number of rounds: Maximum number of rounds: 7. Minimum number of rounds to declare a winner/award prizes: 1,000 points for the leading pilot. Validity as per rulebook.
Scoring: GPS, scored with CompeGPS/Race.
Pilot Cap (Maximum): 80.
Rulebook: 2007 HPAC/Vol Libre, in conjunction with the FAI sporting code.
Rides to Launch and Retrieves: Lee and David Menzies are coming over from Oz to drive and help organize, thanks! At this time transport isn't included in the entry fee, but well organized for $10 up the hill from the campground/HQ, so no issue if you don't have a car. There's a shuttle service to launch for mountain bikers and pilots, they also charge $10. There will also be many local pilots going to launch each day, it won't be a problem to get up to launch either with the shuttle service or with local pilots, and we'll help organize that. Retrieves in Golden are very simple as we fly down one main valley with one road--it's basic. It's possible to land a K or two away from the main road, the normal protocol is just to walk out to the main road, it's never all that far away. There are lots of big fields all along the valley. Many of the local pilots will have their own drivers, and are used to picking up paraglider pilots--the going rate is $10 for a ride back to the main landing field at Golden. Most of the valley residents are also familiar with paragliders and will pick pilots with big bags up--keep the good will alive and at least offer $10 for gas. We'll also have at least two "official" vans driving the main road for retrieve (Thanks to Muller Wind Sports for donating "Big Red," the paraglider aircraft carrier...). So retrieve may be a bit of an adventure if you fly 100K past goal or something, but Canada is a fully first world country most of the time, cell phones work, the locals are friendly, and temperatures are warm but not insanely hot.
Awards, prizes, etc.: Prizes for first-third in Open, Serial (up to DHV 1/2) and "Development" for pilots who have not flown in a previous FAI Cat 2 competition. Lookout Launch is the primary launch, but we may also use upper launch and Mt. Swansea depending on conditions.
Organizer: Will Gadd, with assistance from Nicole McLearn, Keith MacCullough and anyone else who can help!
Meet Head: TBD
Scoring: Bill Hughes
Launch Director: Tihi!
Safety Coordinator: Kim Csizmazia
THE 2007 WILLI - FOR HANG GLIDERS AND PARAGLIDERS
Aug 3 - 6PM - Muller Windsports BBQ
Aug 4 - 9 - 8am - Pancake Breakfast every morning at GEAR Campground
Aug 4 - 9 - 9:30am GEAR Meet HQ - Daily Pilot's Meeting
AUG 4- 9 - 5 - 10pm PILOT'S DAILY POST - FLIGHT CHECK-IN AT GEAR MEET HQ.
AUG 9 - 8PM - GEAR EVENTS PRAVILION - AWARDS DINNER AND PARTY - OPEN TO COMPETITORS & NON- COMPETITORS. NON COMPETITORS CAN PURCHASE TICKETS AT THE DOOR - $20.00
ENTRY FEE - $75.00 (includes daily pancake breakfast and awards dinner)
HPAC INSURANCE REQUIRED.
GEAR WEBSITE EVENTS INFORMATION PAGE LINK:
http://www.goldenadventurepark.com/dev06/events.htm
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