Magnificent fireworks to music display closed successful competitions on Saturday 30th August : 18 nations flew in the competition, including, for the first time, pilots from Saudi Arabia and Finland. Keith Negal, Chief Executive of the 9th World Microlight Championships, reports on this event.
From the moment the Red Arrows blazed their first trail of red, white and blue smoke across the blue skies over Long Marston on Saturday 23rd August to the starry burst of the last firework in the clear night sky a week later, the 9th World Microlight Championships was an exceptional event. Eighteen nations flew in the competition, including, for the first time, pilots from Saudi Arabia and Finland. The furthest travellers came from Japan.
History of The Championships
The first international microlight competition to be held under the auspices of airsport's international governing body, the FAI, was at Millau in France in 1985. Since then such FAI events have taken place every year but two, with World and European Championships held in alternate years. South Africa, Hungary, Poland, France and Czechoslovakia have all hosted competitions and, as part of the two World Air Games, Spain and Turkey have also been venues. The last World Championship to be held in the UK was at Haverfordwest's Withybush airfield in 1988 and the 1995 European Championships were held at Little Rissington.
Bidding Process
The process from bidding for a World Championship is a long one. Two years ahead of the event countries that would like to host the competition present their case to the FAI Microlight Commission at its annual meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the FAI. They must show that they have the team, skills, resources and a suitable site. In 2001 Britain and France staked a claim, the French bid being for a Tunisian event. In fact, the British contingent quite liked the idea of a north-African competition and offered to concede, but Tunisia failed to meet some of the FAI criteria and the UK won the day.
Putting Together a Management Team
Putting a strong team together was not a problem although experience of running an international event was thin on the ground. The two Competition Directors, Richard Meredith-Hard and Rob Keene were World and European Champions respectively and the Chief Marshal, Jeremy Hucker, was a European silver medallist. The remainder of the management team had extensive experience of competing in international events. Richard Meredith-Hardy was the only member of the team to have run an international before - this was his fifth.
Selecting a Competition Venue
Carlisle and Bembridge (Isle of Wight) airfields were interested in hosting the competition. Long Marston was offered to the organisers by Anthony Hodges, a keen Provost pilot who went on to offer his unstinting help throughout, and its size and central location with plenty of open airspace made it an attractive choice.
With most airsports the greatest concern when offering a British venue lie with the vagaries of our weather. Astonishingly, at Long Marston all aircraft flew every day, even on Thursday 28th, when two fronts lying east-west across the country caused continuous rain over Birmingham and Southampton. This is all the more remarkable when you learn that amongst the aircraft competing were powered paragliders (PPGs) which suffer from a fairly narrow flying window and are grounded by winds that prevent a pilot landing on his feet.
The Competitions
There were 75 powered paragliders and powered paratrikes flying at Long Marston and, for the first time, they outnumbered the classic microlights, 68 of which started the competition.
PPG tasks normally take place early in the morning or late in the evening, to take advantage of the calmer skies, but in this competition they were able to fly throughout the day on many days, completing a record 11 tasks in the week.
While PPG tasks include navigation tasks, of the sort all aircraft fly in competitions, they also have one or two tasks unique to them that are among the most entertaining spectator events in air sports. One of these is the slalom, where sprung ski slalom poles are set out in a 100m square and the competitors fly a complex task around them, scoring points for speed and the number of sticks kicked in the correct sequence. It is rather like aerial show jumping and well worth watching.
The classic microlight Competition Director, Rob Keene, won his gold medal at the European Championships in France in 1998. Rob set a gruelling work rate for the competitors (and, of course, the marshals) and lived up to his reputation as an innovative task designer.
One recent classic task which is set to become a standard is the short-fast-short in which aircraft must take off and clear a simulated hedge (made of marker tape) from as close as possible, race to another strip and land over another simulated hedge, stopping as short as possible. Points are awarded for short distance and speed. This task demonstrates and tests the short takeoff and landing characteristics fundamental to a microlight.
All those in the competition fly soaring tasks, where competitors are given a small amount of fuel, usually 5 litres for a single seat microlight, for example, and must then stay airborne for as long as possible. This is a natural task for PPGs and with conditions right on the day it was flown, they all headed to cloudbase over the airfield with their engines off. It's not just the PPGs that soar well, however. Many of the modern composite fixed wing microlights can put in a performance similar to that of a good motorglider, while even the weightshifts, with their high sink rates, will fly engine off for long periods in the right conditions. Historically it is the central Europeans, from countries, maybe where summer high pressure gives more opportunity to practice, that have generally done better in soaring tasks. The Brits, on the other hand, tend to fly better in rain for some reason!
All microlights fly spot landings. PPGs must land on a archery-style target, with the centre scoring more than the outer rings. Classic microlights must land in a 100 metre deck, the first 25 metres of which are divided into 5 metre long strips, the first scoring more than those that follow. In fact, all classic microlights are required to take off and land in the 100 metre box at the start and end of each task with a 20% task penalty for failure. This demonstrates the low stall speed (64 km per hour) required by the definition of a microlight. The other aspect of the definition, a maximum takeoff weight of 450 kgs, is proved by weighing the aircraft and crew before the competition and at any time throughout.
The Results
Seven classes of microlight flew in the competition. No one was surprised when Ramon Morillas and Dani Martinez of Spain took the gold and silver medals in the PPG class. These airmen make a living out of their sport, flying at events like supermarket openings and they are well-used to flying in difficult conditions. Their skill levels and consistency must be seen to be believed. However, the French fielded a strong team and took the PPG team gold, with their best performance coming from bronze medallist Sylvain Moisseron.
In the paratrike class the Russians swept the board, with Igor Potapkin, Vassily Diatchenko and Vadim Bukhtyarov taking gold, silver and bronze in the solo class and Mikhail Kozmin and Dmitry Kryuchkov the gold in the powered parachutes. Silver and bronze in the powered parachutes were won by Helmut Stern & Olivia Zechner of Austria and Ruslan Grytsalo & Oleksandr Khlyebnikov of the Ukraine. The combined paratrike class was, of course, won by the Russians.
In the classic classes, the gold in a fiercely fought dual weightshift class was won by Simon Baker & Anita Holmes of the UK in the Quik, the first 100 mph flexwing microlight. Silver medal winners, Rob Grimwood & Chris Saysell of the UK were a mere 148 points out of 10,000 behind them and following by 181 points were defending world champions Samir Elari and Cathy Almaric of France. Silver and Bronze medallists flew the new Air Creation Ixess.
In the solo flexwing class Squadron Leader Richard Rawes won the gold medal that has eluded him for so long, beating his old sparring partner Gabor Rabnecz of Hungary into the silver medal slot with Pat Nichols of the UK taking the bronze.
The dual fixed wing class was won by Paul Dewhurst & Oliver Neece of the UK in a tube and fabric SkyRanger. Not only did Paul beat the composites but this is his fifth gold medal and he now has a gold in each of the four classic microlight classes, a feat unlikely to be repeated. Pedro Nogueroles & Manuel Perez of Spain took the silver and Roland Fesenmayr & Jan Altenkirch of Germany the bronze.
In the solo fixed wing class, Denis Chevillet of France won the gold in his lovely little (and I mean little) Micro B, powered by a 377 Rotax two-stroke. His achievement after many years of trying is all the more notable because Denis was one of two disabled pilots who flew in the competition. Jan Lukes of the Czech Republic and defending world champion Antonio Marchesi of Spain took the bronze and silver. David Broom of the UK deserves a special mention for 4th place in his vintage Lazair, uncompetitive but a joy to watch and the only twin-engined microlight in the competition.
Use of New Technology
One final feature of this competition that deserves a mention was Richard Meredith-Hardy's use of technology in running the PPG competition. Unlike the classic side, where photographs and large numbers of marshals were used to prove that pilots had flown the right track and reached the right turnpoints, the PPGs were monitored throughout by GPS loggers. For microlights this is a big step forward and will make future competitions, like the European Championships next year in Portugal, much easier to manage.
A last footnote comes from the Japanese PPG team, who used the opportunity of fine weather and a brisk breeze to break the Japanese PPG distance record, flying from Long Marston to Crediton, a distance of 196.8 km.
For further information : www.wmc2003.org
By Keith Negal
