Paramotoring over the Great Wall!

It was what all the pilots were looking forward for since the start of this championship: to fly above one of man’s made marvels of the world, the ancient Great Wall (5th Century AC). This morning at 7:30 dozens of paramotors appeared in the mist to greet early walkers on the monument. Photographs were “forbidden” by the Chinese but it’s quite probable that most of the pilots broke the rules today. The magical flight had one very tense moment when Laurent Salinas (CAN) and Cesar Maldonado (ES) had a midair collision only about 80 metres above the cliff. Cesar immediately deployed his reserve and got free from the other pilot, landing ok; even his paramotor had only a bended part of the frame. Nicolas could continue flying.

 Some of the Spanish pilots landed on the parking lot of the Great Wall (Juyongguang) to help their teammate bring his gear down, and then took off again causing great expectation on the hundreds of visitors that were arriving at the Wall by then.
Once the pilots were back at the airfield there was a briefing and the 8th task of the Championship was set, a speed triangle with out and return course and limited fuel. The task should start by 2 pm. According to the organization, there are only a few tasks more to be flown and it is expected that they declare one rest day (probably on Saturday).

All the top pilots are doing calculations and studying their chances very carefully. At the moment Ramon Morillas (Advance Epsilon 5/PAP) is still on the lead in the foot-launched solo class, with Michel Carnet (UK, Dudek Reaction/Bailey) and Mathieu Rouanet (Ozone Viper/PAP) closely on 2nd and 3rd place. Ramon was scored a failed stick in the cloverleaf task, but apparently there was a mistake and if his complaint is accepted he could have some more points than what the results show at the moment. We don’t know if Mathieu has submitted a complaint for this task as well (ok, the marshals are not too well prepared for the task). Michel Touitou (FR, Ozone Viper/Parapower) and Frantisek Salava (CZ, Jojo Xyon/Jojo) are a bit lower in the ranking but still in the fight for the podium. The UK is now 2nd by teams, behind France (1st). Spain has moved down to 3rd. 
*Congratulations to UK’s Laura Beaumont (Dudek Synthesis/Miniplane), one of the only 3 female pilots competing here, who won the Contract Navigation yesterday. We look forward to seeing more women competing in paramotor in the future!

In the paratrike solo class, Daniel Crespo (Paramania Action GT/Airfer) is still leading, but after yesterday’s contract navigation Michaela Machartova (CZ, Jojo Speedy/Jojo) -who was seen a bit lost in the valley- has lost some points and dropped to 3rd place. Polish pilot Tomasz Kudaszewicz (Dudek Reaction/Per il Volo) who won the Cloverleaf task yesterday (49 seconds!) and also the contract navigation, has taken the 2nd position some 450 points behind Daniel.

It’s not over till it’s over!