Southern Fun Paragliding Comp

NZ Southern Fun 2021 Paragliding Competition

The Christmas - new Year period is a busy time for Louis Tapper and I as our, what’s becoming a ‘must do’ on the paragliding comps calendar, the nZ Southern Fun Paragliding Competition, has just been successfully completed.

We were greatly assisted by Doug Patterson who had been working hard to keep the sites in order and the landowners and other airspace users informed and this year, in order to accrue maximum points we elected for a 4 day competition from the 27th December and the ‘weather – gods’ played ball too after a bit of an ‘iffy’ forecast.

COVID protocols complicated the organisation somewhat especially after the ‘traffic-light’ system was introduced in early December. It was decided to keep the competition open for all members and we were ably assisted by the hang gliding fraternity who put a Covid operation template together that we could copy. Quite a stressful time.

The first safety brief was organised to be held outside and on the evening of the 26th it became apparent that Coronet Peak was offering the best chance of a first task and even that was a bit ‘iffy’, so everyone met outdoors, at the Flight Park, on Malaghans Road. This brief was preceded by a smaller presentation to the novice pilots so that they were able to get a heads-up on how to conduct a competition and especially to ensure they were able to load and program their instruments.

Even though cloud hung low over the Peak it was decided that we should all go to Rocky Gully for a brief and wait to see how the forecast clearing weather would develop. It was a slow start. Sort of nice really. To alleviate crowding, pilots were permitted to walk up the ski-lift track if they so chose. We didn’t expect them to go so far!

A task was set and a brief conducted (with a radio as well and a photo of the task board sent out) but the conditions were such that if you took off early it really looked like you’d pretty much do a ‘sleddy’. We waited. A local free-flyer pilot, Ben Kellett, showed us what could be done. The start race time was set for 3pm and most pilots got airborne within a short time before that.

The air was surprisingly buoyant and the race was on with a whole bunch of ‘Forestry block’ Trig and back to the access road ‘zig-zags’ passes with a few ‘out-to-Malaghans Road’ challenges to keep us busy. In all 43 pilots and 25km. Everyone safe and sound. What a great a day after such a grey start.

Competitions often ensure you fly on days that one normally wouldn’t think were flyable.

Task 2 was at Treble Cone. It was

Above; Flying towards Hawea

Photo; Elizabete Varava

Right; Hawea corner peak aerial

Photo; Doug Patterson

Below; Safety briefing at Coronet Peak

Photo; by Chris Connolly

NZ Southern Fun 2021 Paragliding Competition

cold and the cloud again low over launch but it was clearer to the north and east. The task committee (Louis, Aaron and Doug) worked away in the back of Louis’s car to come up with a 59km task which had an interesting 7km out and back before the end of speed section. The usual start near End Peak with a run then north up the valley a way towards Niger then back and across towards Cattle Flat and back to the main range. Then off to End Peak across to Mt Roy, Hillend, Mt Maude (with an entry/ exit cylinder) to land at Lake Hawea for a BBQ in Josh Douglas’ shed.

There was some pretty serious convergence with up to 7m/s in a straight-line climb over Mt Maude and the tail-enders had to contend with a southerly change coming in on landing. As usual, some pilots had joined the competition late which meant that now 51 pilots had signed in for the task. Louis Tapper took the day in 2:08 minutes. Sanae Noguchi on a Mentor 5 was the star of the day coming into goal for her first time in competition. David Chen on an Advance Xi, a new pilot to competition, also excelled by making goal on his first competition task but he had jumped the gun and was penalized over 300 points.

The next day, the competitors congregated at the base of Long Gully for an early brief before heading up to the top launch. It’s always a bit agricultural up there and the wind was light from the east which meant an early launch was not possible (unless you were really keen!) until the sun came around onto the western face. Early morning over-development on course-line delayed proceedings and then after a little rain to the west, the sky settled down. Launches were slow and tricky. Quite a few pilots elected not to launch. Only about 30 pilots were able to make the start time at 3:15pm.

It was a pretty rough ride along the Hawea Range with some strong convergence along the way to the first turn-point a little before Corner Peak. The 60km course then had the pilots tracking back towards Grandview, across to Mt Maude and back to land by the ‘back-road’ at Grandview Station. Nine pilots got to goal but due to the late start of some, several pilots ran the clock out as the competition ended at 6pm. Louis Tapper and Richard Castro sparred the whole course… neckand-neck, both accruing the same lead-out points. Almost everyone congregated at the Lake Hawea pub for a well-earned refreshment and score downloads.

The 30th was forecast to be way too windy and so it was. Day 4 was cancelled and almost everybody once again congregated at Glen Stevens’ home for a ‘horse-race’ review and prize giving.

Open Class winners were Louis Tapper, Richard Castro and Aaron

Right Upper; Coronet Peak Forestry Block transit

Photo; Sanae Noguchi

Right; Task 2 - Goal at

Hawea Photo; Louis Tapper

Chesterman. For the ladies it was Laetitia Bottollier, Sanae Noguchi and Jessica Green. This trio of belles also took out the same places for the Fun Class, Possibly a competition (anywhere) first and certainly of note to the FAI!

Results can be found at: Highcloud scoring and a small blog with some great photos on Airtribune at: nzsouthernfun 2021

Another great competition, three good tasks over four days accruing over 2600 points.

Congratulations to those new pilots that have now flown their first competition. Well done and may there be many more. I was ably, and most gratefully, assisted in scoring by Kyla MacDonald and Johnny Hopper (both in Auckland). The scorers added 10 new pilots to the NZPRS rankings. It was a challenging competition also for the more experienced. We all learnt a lot, even as organisers! Perhaps there will be some small changes to the rules, some tweaking, as a result.

Thank you to all the competitors,

Left; Timaru Creek aerial

Photo; Doug Patterson

Lower left; Task 2 Flight Brief with Tim

Photo; Elizabete Varava

Below; Task 3, Grey Hamilton gets ready

Photo; Mal Haskins

Above; Overall winners; Aaron Chesterman(3rd), Louis (1st) and Richard Castro (2nd) Photo; Doug Patterson

Prizes - Fun & Womens champs (Derek for Laetitia) Photo;

Task 3 - TP1 to TP2 Photo; Mal Haskins

Doug Patterson

the assistants, the Task Committee, the Safety Committee and those that worked behind the scenes to make this, once again, one of New Zealand’s premier paragliding competitions.

See you next year.

Tim Brown (Comp Director & PCC)

Below; Task 2, Over Pub Corner Photo; Chris Cain

Above; 1st female Laetitia Bottollier-Curtet

Photo; Peter Groves

Below; Sports Class Winners: Doug Patterson (1st), Rob Hughes-Games (2nd) and Warwick Boustred (3rd) Photo;

Doug Patterson