General information
A fun and social teams event for both hang gliding and paragliding pilots.
The comp will be modelled on the “State of Origin” paragliding comp held at Manila each year. Each team will have 3 pilots varying in experience:
- One pilot with less than 50 thermalling hours,
- a second pilot with less than 100 thermalling hrs
- and the final pilot with over 100 hrs.
NOTE - it may be necessary to change this mix of team members depending on entries and how difficult it is to get this mix of experience. For example 1 pilot with more than 100 hours and two pilots with less than 50 hours. Points allocation will still follow the same rules
We will set tasks as in a normal competition. Each team will try to fly as far (and as quickly) around the course as they can. However the difference to a “normal” comp will be the amount of points awarded. The lowest airtime pilot (less than 50 thermal hours) will get 3x the points and the middle air time pilot (less than 100 thermal hours) 2x the points of the most experience pilot (more than 100 thermal hours). This means that it is in the interests of the more experienced pilots to help the lower airtime pilots fly further since they will get more points for the team. Radios will be essential for team communication. One pilot of each team will need to have a second radio on the competition safety frequency.
For the lowest airtime pilots who have not entered a competition before, you just need to have done some thermalling and preferably a short cross country, but if you haven't not to worry, you'll get to do that in this comp. We're going to run this over the first weekend in March. If everyone enjoys the format, we'll look at running a longer competition next summer.
Flying will be one of the following locations:
* Kaimais Range - near Matamata in the Waikato
* Paeroa Range - Waikite Valley, near Reparoa in the Waikato
The first preference will be at the Kaimais.
Please note that no transport is included as part of this competition (getting there, getting up the hill and retrieval), so please try and organise a car pool group with your team before the comp. We'll have a Whatsapp group, so you'll be able to organise with others that way. If you have an extra driver, we encourage you to bring them.
Pilots will have to download waypoints onto their instrument, set a task and upload their own tracklog after a flight to the scoring system after each task. The best is if you can get yourself familiar with this before the weekend. However don't worry if youre not able to make sense of it, ask one of your more experienced team members.
Scoring will be via Airscore. The scoring page you will find here: https://xc.highcloud.net/comp_overall.html?comPk=406
While it is preferred that you have a personal locator beacon/satellite tracker for this competition, if you are able to share your live location through Whatsapp and your team and the organisers know this, this should be sufficient.
You will need to have your own radio to help with team flying and also since a radio is mandatory for safety for this competition. One member of each team will need a second radio tuned to the safety frequency if your team is using radios for team flying.
Event date
Days 1 & 2 - Sat 16/03/2024 & Sun 17/03/2024
Waypoints
You can find all waypoints for the competition here:
GPX Format - https://nzhgpa.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/gpx/Paeroa-Kaimai%20Waypoint%20List%202016.gpx
PDF - https://nzhgpa.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Paeroa-Kaimai-Waypoint-List-2016.pdf
Takeoffs
General Information
A site briefing will be given at the beginning of each weekend for those unfamiliar with the two sites. The main site will be the Kaimais, with the Paeroas only as the back up.
Paeroas
38°20'53" (38.3483)S; 176°17'9" (176.286)E - Elevation : 365 m. Winds NW
Kaimais
-37.819919, 175.906382 Wind NW/W/SW.
Selection and entry fee
The competition is open to all hang gliding and paragliding pilots . You must be a member of the NZHGPA with at least a PG2 (paragliding) or Intermediate (hang gliding) rating. You should be reasonably confident in thermals and turbulent air and be able to launch and land unsupervised in windy conditions.
You will need to form yourself into teams of 3 with the various experience levels. If you are new and don't know many people and/or are missing a team member, you will be able to use the comp whatsapp group to do this. In the worst case contact the organisers who will be happy to help join people up.
You must also have:
* A certified wing with a valid NZ WOF
* Emergency parachute
* UHF Radio (baofeng and similar are prohibited in NZ)
* A device capable of providing a tracklog in IGC format (most varios will do this of course)
* A harness with certified back protection (paragliding)
* A phone that you can send a text or WhatsApp message from
* Everything else that you need to legally fly a paraglider in New Zealand
All places will be awarded as first-registered-first-offered ultimately at the discretion of the comp director and no discussion will necessarily be entered into.
Entry fee
$15 per entry. Please pay into the comp bank account provided on the registration confirmation page.
Other Costs
Kaimais road fee - $10 per pilot per day (paid to the company that owns the road for maintenance).
Pilot Cancellation
If a pilot wishes to cancel then out of courtesy to the organisers, you are requested to do this by email to the comp organiser as early as possible before the compeition.
General schedule
All communication will be done via official WhatsApp group. To give us the chance of the best weather, location for the weekend will be announced by 20:00 on the Thursday before the event.
We will meet and gather somewhere for a briefing at 9:00 each morning:
Kaimais - meet near 60 Barton Rd, Okauia by the intersection of Barton Rd with Old Te Aroha Rd - https://maps.app.goo.gl/MzFyPwNmg6Tx28rN7
If at Paeroas - meet at Ngapouri Road junction - https://goo.gl/maps/QZTbDYTryyWdj5j2A
We will then convoy up the hill. Please note that walking up the Kaimais is not permitted.
During task briefing a suitable watering hole will be nominated for after flight briefing and the chance to learn from the day. We will also help with track uploads as mentioned earlier. But it is better if you can familiarise yourself with this before the first weekend.
Accommodation and activities
Since the weekend will primarily be at the Kaimais, most people will stay at the Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park (https://www.opalhotsprings.co.nz) or nearby.
Carpooling is encouraged 😀
We will have a competition dinner (possibly a BYO BBQ) somewhere on Saturday night.
Competition Organiser
Phil Southward
+64 27 274 3689
Launch Director
TBC
Meet assistants and coaches
Others to be confirmed
Task Committee
Volunteers to be confirmed on the Friday evening before the comp
Safety Committee
Volunteers to be confirmed on the Friday evening before the comp