author: Linda Mišková
"Linda, the precision races are not rescheduled due to the weather.” This is what Krici wrote to me when they added a few millimeters of precipitation to the forecast models for the competition weekend and were not afraid to recolor some of them white, as if snow. For the last fortnight we have been walking in the Czech Republic in shorts and a t-shirt, and I am going to buy a new gas bomb for the heating in the "pinkáča", because the forecast for the weekend of April 19 to 21 does not look very good... On Monday, a competitor will arrive from Korea, on Tuesday the competitors will arrive from Spain, a Chinese referee will arrive on Wednesday. No, it can't be canceled anymore. They all then go on to the world cup races in Turkey and have races in Spain or Serbia behind them. In short, the date fits well into the competition calendar. Although we have this Wednesday as a decisive milestone for weather detection, we prefer not to even look at the forecast models, and with the slogan "Raná váveti dala" on the afternoon of Friday, April 19, the team of organizers is meeting at the signs and preparing registration. We are not alone ☺ and on Friday evening about 4 competitors will register, including the guys from Sky Paragliders, who canceled the upcoming demo days in view of the forecast, as the forecast really indicates that there will not be many paragliding enthusiasts at Raná that weekend and the weather for renting and testing new wings not either. Their equipment will eventually come in handy for Luboš Halam (motor paragliding representative), who registered for the race with his daughter on Saturday. And since he only had a wing attached to a motor in his car, he was unusually without a motor, on a target and on a borrowed parachute, but with his experience and ability to control the parachute without any problems.
Referee training is still taking place on Friday during registration. The team includes both newcomers to this position and seasoned matadors. Education in this area is never enough and we want not only the pilots to perform at their best in the competition, but also the performance of the judges can positively or negatively affect the outcome of the competition. The role of trainer was taken by Kamil Konečný, who, due to the participation of the Chinese referee, trained for three hours in English. Despite the fact that he was registered for the race, he waited for the brought dinner in the form of a pizza, and due to work duties, he went back to the Beskydy on Friday evening.
The Saturday morning briefing took place as expected, with the fact that the next briefing was moved to four o'clock in the afternoon. The competitors registered during Saturday morning, we exchanged photos of the snow on the Wasserkuppe, in the Krkonoše and in the Beskydy mountains, and we closely monitored the weather. Thanks to the rain shadow of the Ore Mountains, a minimum amount of rain fell on Rána, the sun appeared in the afternoon and the competitors started to take their equipment out of their cars. It was still blowing above the limit, but that didn't stop the competitors from starting training and the organizers from preparing the target. Because if three years ago the organizers needed an electric zero, lime to fill a ten-meter circle, tape, pencil and paper, nowadays we need to add an anemometer, a computer with an external screen, three cameras, many meters of ethernet cable, for all this you need an external source electricity, because there is no electricity box available at the landing stage under Rana ☺.
On Saturday in the early evening, we managed to fly three rounds. Vlastimil "stayed the night" in the first place Vachtl with a score of 3 cm (two zeros and one 3 cm), closely followed by all members of the Schubert family, and 7 other competitors had a result under 10 cm. Even though we didn't finish completely in the dark, we didn't start the next round because we wouldn't be able to finish it and the wind direction forecast for Sunday suggested that we would be building the target from the other side of the hill.
How to reliably impoverish the contestants for a party? Announce morning briefing for 6:00 at the target. So goulash, one beer, dig into a sleeping bag and sleep.
Morning temperatures reach the performance values of the best competitor. It must be noted that the forecast did not come true and the temperatures did not fall below zero. At 5:00 a.m. we take the equipment to the landing area and set up the target at dawn. When the contestants arrive, we're almost done. Collegially, we exchange gloves and refill hot drinks from the newly arrived. Because what doesn't fly in the morning won't fly at all.
The pilots warm up by climbing into the saddle and the competition continues with the fourth lap, on which Linus Schubert slept best and gives the first zero of the morning. He is well seconded by Peter Garbier and Vlastislav Vondráček from the home team, who is attacking the podium in the Hobby category. During the fourth lap, it starts to blow, and Andreas Schubert paid for it a little, who signaled irregular conditions and that he would not go to the target. His son shouted at him that he had enough height and could calmly go to the target, so let him fly within the circle, the father listened to him, he flew to the dot, but he was a little thrown on the landing and stepped two meters without three centimeters. Although this result was deleted because he managed to fly a complete fifth lap, he still crossed a three-digit number.
The conditions intensified in the fifth round and it was clear that the light pilots on larger parachutes were having some problems in the air to get to the target with the necessary height and calmness. Pilots began to signal high winds or low altitude more often in the air. What didn't suit one pilot, suited another. Radek Václavik showed fine piloting, and when the crowd of pilots saw him land behind the barrier of the last bushes in front of the target, Radek elegantly carried himself over them and stepped on zero.
The fifth round brought a lot of nice individual results, but it was necessary to take into account all the pilots and the more frequent occurrence of repeated flights. After the fifth round, there was a quick communication between the race director and the safety committee, which consisted of Andreas Schubert and Petr Garbier. Everyone decided that the conditions of 5 quality laps flew away, the competitors were tired and the judging team was frozen.
Even though it would have been possible to fly one more lap, we decided to end the race. No one protested. Competitors who were ready for the start of the sixth lap were able to fly down and after spreading one demo wing in the higher bushes, ending the race proved to be a reasonable solution. Bad linguists can claim that until the pilot knew that he was oversailed, he gave high-quality racing results 🙂
Vlasta defended his first place Vachtl, who had the same score as second-placed Linus Schubert, but there were better values in favor of the home champion and mainly two zeros to his name. Andreas Schubert took third place. The women's competition did not bring any surprises either. Lucie Martínková won with 24 centimeters, the second in the ranking, the Spaniard Pilar Montero Gonzales, already registered 142 cm, third was the domestic competitor Karolína Koudelová, who changed her equipment compared to last season, trained, and her performance in approaching the target means great potential for the future. Hobby pilots can relax this year, Hugo Hadaš has moved to the national team, so there is less young competition. Seasoned matadors and heartthrobs of this category recorded high-quality results, but Hungarian Karol Rumpli showed the most stable performances, and he rightly claimed his first place on the top row this year.
Landing precision can be flown in almost any conditions, and it was again shown that even if it is a race, the pilots support each other, cheer each other, help each other, even during cleaning. Even though we forced the contestants to get up really early this year, which was not without various protests, in the end everyone participated in all the rounds and I can only state that the first round of the Czech league series was a success. Thanks to all co-organizers, judging team, pilots, supporters and sponsors:
Results:
Open
- Vlastimil Vachtl (Czech Republic) 5 cm
- Linus Schubert (Germany) 5 cm
- Andreas Schubert (Germany) 9 cm
Women
1. Lucie Martínková (Czech Republic) 24 cm
- Pilar Montero Gonzales (Spain) 142 cm
- Karolina Koudelová (CR) 295 cm
Juniors
- Linus Schubert (Germany) 5 cm
- Lennard Schubert (Germany) 11 cm
- Hugo Hadaš (Czech Republic) 47 cm
Hobby
- Karol Rumpli (Hungary) 72 cm
- Pavel Láznička 87 cm
- Krystof Klimpar 166 cm
Teams
- Smile
- Zero zero
- PG nest