Training Day: Warming engines up!

Most of the teams are already in Changping, warming their engines up and getting familiar with the area from above. The airfield is located on the shores of the small reservoir of Shi San Ling and the landscape is green with pagodas here and there to remind us where we are. The conditions here are relatively stable, with max temperatures of around 27-30ºC and humidity of around 40%. It’s usually a bit foggy during the morning meaning that the visibility is not very good, although today we had a beautiful clear day that was perfect for training in the small flying area set by the organization: a rectangle of only 6 per 4 km!

Among the people who are here for the Worlds, we’ve seen Heniu Dyduch, the boss of ITV Paragliders, who’s with the Chinese pilots that are using the new ITV Dakota Sport (their dedicated PPG wing) for these Championships. Mateo from Vitorazzi engines, is also here to support some of the Chinese pilots with their paramotors powered by Vitorazzi and also helping the organization of the Worlds.

Unfortunately for the Spanish Team, their early arrival on Sunday has been useless as their equipments (sent by cargo) did not arrived yet: They are supposed to be delivered at the airfield this evening. Only Ramon Morillas, who brought his paramotor with him in the plane, has been training with his new Advance proto glider and throwing around some of his tricks. He even took the time to answer the questions from some Chinese pilots about his recent world record of distance.

Today we finally have Internet connection at the airfield with a number of PCs for the use of the pilots (in an air-conned room), so we’ll be able to bring the updates quite quickly. We have 6 hours of difference (ahead) with respect to Spain, so when the sun is rising here, at around 5:30 a.m., it’s 23:30 of the previous day there.
Getting used to China takes some effort. Although we are staying at a good hotel, very few members of the staff are able to understand anything but Chinese and the Championship organization has not arranged enough translators or offered good information to the participants. Things like moving around from the hotel to the town of Changping can be nearly impossible without a map in both Chinese and English (so that you point the place where you want to go to the driver) -and we only managed to borrow one to make photocopies! The time schedules of the buses between the hotel and the airfield are almost a mystery and, believe us, sometimes there’s no one you can ask! In any case, these are still small details of this Chinese adventure that has a positive side, like the low prices of almost everything (some pilots have even bought bycicles), the food that some of us love while others believe Changping’s Pizza Hut as the only place to eat (!), and the new experiences that we are all having.