The Spanish pilots are on top of the general results in the footlaunched and paratrike solo classes, after the first 4 tasks of these Worlds. This morning, the three-times world champion and record holder Ramon Morillas took the first place in the Japanese Slalom, which he completed in a mere 54 seconds (Ramon is the current holder of the world record of speed in this task) ex-aequo with Slawomir Turczewski (POL), with Frantisek Salava (CZ) on 3rd place. In paratrike, Spain’s champion Daniel Crespo completed the slalom in 58 seconds taking the first place before Tomasz Kudaszewicz (POL, 2nd) and Alfonso Redondo (ES, 3rd). Spain is leading the ranking by Nations in the PL1 category and is 2nd in PF1 (foot-launched solo) behind France (1st), with the UK on 3rd place. See the Results here.
This afternoon the 5th task was completed in smooth conditions, a turnpoint hunt with limited fuel (3kg). Ramon was again on top with 14 marks after more than 2 hours flying – Mathieu Rouanet did 12. The results are still in process.
The atmosphere here has suffered the effect of the continuous protests and complaints from the top teams that are determined to fight these Worlds both in the air and at the offices… So far with sportsmanship. Today there were new complaints, one of them from the Austrian PL2 team against the Spanish PL2 team for supposedly receiving assistance from another pilot on the field, and although no proofs were presented the claim was accepted and the points of the task removed for the Spanish team. This morning we witnessed how the Austrians started the Japanese Slalom and after failing the second pole they went back to the start and entered again -which means zero points according to the rules as there is only one chance to do the slalom. Surprinsingly, the team received all the scoring points and even won the task! The judges at the field obviously lack knowledge of the rules. A complaint against the Austrian team was quickly on the director’s desk…
For tomorrow, the organization had planned to move everybody to another site about 1 hour from here to start a flight above the Great Wall from there. But the logistics of such move are too complicated (specially with the big PL2 trikes) so the plan was changed to a Cloverleaf slalom and a Contract Navigation. The buses will leave at 4:30 am to the field.
More tomorrow, good night…

At 21:30 today the pilots received the plan for tomorrow (Tuesday 4th). The day will start with the Japanese Slalom, an ability task near the ground, at 6 am. This task will be developed in 3 decks and the order will be per categories and ranking on the first task. The order is: PF1 - PL1 - PF2 - PL2. In this slalom the pilots must follow a circuit of sticks kicking or touching each in a set order, with the foot (for PF categories) or with any part of the aircraft in the PL classes. After that there will be a Turnpoint hunting with limited fuel, in which each pilot will have to mark as many turnpoints as possible from a list of 15 (without repeating, unless he has completed the 15) using 4 kg of fuel in PF1 and PL1, 10 kg in PF2 and 20 kg in PL2.
There were some issues with the fuelling this morning (for the Pure Economy task), as it was per volume -1,8 liters- and not per weight. Apparently, the British were trying to use cold fuel (put in a bag with ice) to reduce its volume at the time of the fuelling, and other teams protested as they understood that this trick will supposse an advantage for the Brits and un-fair play for the task. After the protests, they were forced to repeat the fuelling at normal temperature.
Tomorrow, the gasoline will be weighted before going into the paramotor’s tank.
For this task the pilots must land then on the deck; if they are outside they’ll have a 20% penalty, or zero points if they are out of the field.

Updates on today’s incidents: According to the info we got (not verified), the tree-landed pilot this morning was Nicolas Salinas (FR), who is unhurt although we don’t know if his glider could be recovered in one piece. And the pilot who deployed the rescue parachute is a member of the Thai team and he is fine, he even said that he is ready for flying again tomorrow -but his paraglider had some lines broken, so he will have to fix them before take off tomorrow.

It’s 4pm here in Changping and there are still some pilots in the air, among them Ramon Morillas and some of the top ones. The ‘Pure Economy’ task has been flown in strong thermal conditions which the pilots have used to stay in the air thanks to the natural lift, specially on the slope to the north of the field. The landing is open until 5:30 pm and all the pilots took off at different times between 11 and 13, so we will not know who are the most probable winners until tomorrow.

In PL1 by this time all the competitors are back on the ground, the very probable winner is Michaela Machartova (CZ, Jojo Wings/Nirvana) who landed exhausted after 3 hours and 3 minutes of flight, very happy in spite of having failed the spot landing (250 points maximum). First task’s winner Daniel Crespo (ES, Paramania Action GT/Airfer) landed after 1 hour 40 minutes on spot -not sure if on the centre or the second line-, which means that his score will not be the best one in the economy but he already has some advantage before the Czechs after yesterday’s task.
The day was not free from controversy and incidents. At least one paraglider was seen on the hill hanging from the trees, while a PF1 pilot suffered a cascade of incidents after a collapse of his glider and ended in a spin that, luckyly, was stopped with the deployment of his parachute only about 40 meters above the ground. We don’t know if the pilot was injured. There were also several out of field landings. In general, the pilots reported strong conditions with powerful thermals and areas of turbulence.
The day’s scores will sum up a maximum of 1500 points to the results: 1000 points for the economy task and 250 each precision, takeoff and spot landing.

We have open a new RESULTS page to post the official results as soon as we can put our hands on them. Today the results of the first Task have been published. They are still provisional and at least the PL1 ranking has changed after a protest accepted in Daniel Crespo’s results, so the rankings could suffer modifications during the day. Click on “China Results” on the menu above to go - or here.

Hemos abierto una nueva página para publicar los Resultados oficiales del Campeonato. Hoy se han publicado los resultados de la primera manga. Las clasificaciones aún son provisionales y al menos las de PL1 han cambiado tras una protesta aceptada en los resultados de Daniel Crespo, así que podría haber alguna otra modificación a lo largo del día. Pincha en “China Results” en el menú arriba - o aquí.

UK’s champion Michel Carnet took the first position on the first task of the Worlds flown yesterday, after flying a total distance of 85km in 90 minutes. Second was Spain’s Juanjo Garcia (989 points), and third was World champion Mathieu Rouanet (981 points). After them: Paul Bailey (UK) 4th, Dave Hairs (UK) 5th, Pascal Vallee (FR) 6th, and Jose Maria Sola (ES) 7th.
In the PL1 category (paratrike), the winner was the Spanish champion Daniel Crespo -who had to protest for one turnpoint not considered in his results-, with Kryzstof Romicki 2nd and Jens Hickens (DE) 3rd. Due to Daniel’s claim, the provisional results are still in process and we do not have the final points yet.
In PL2 (tandem paratrike) the team leaded by Helmut Stern was the winner (52,6 km in 60 minutes), with Nino Muelas and Antonio Lope (ES) only 400m and 8 points behind.
See our RESULTS page for provisional results of Task 1.
As it seems, the UK has had a good start in these Championships and the pilots are motivated and well prepared, with Spain as the other leading team. The Czech ‘menace’ remained just that, after an unlucky start with the accident suffered by one of their PL1 pilots and the European vice-champion Michaela Machartova missing the start point of the task (meaning zero points). It was not a good day either for one of the favorites, George Macak (TH) who missed the closing turnpoint yesterday. The results are still provisional and things could change if more protests are submitted today.
No other task could be flown yesterday, partly due to the unfavorable conditions with risk of storms in the evening, and partly due to the organization’s slow pace. The results of the first task (which closed at 12:30 yesterday) were published just this morning! We really hope that they will make the process more agile for the next days or the judges will see a pile of work grow on their desks…

Day 2, task 2: Pure economy
Today (Monday) a pure economy task with 1,8 liters of fuel has been set to start at 11. This task will be combined with precision takeoff and spot landing. The window will be open from 11 to 13 hours, although the conditions don’t look as the best for thermal flying -we have a grey morning with breeze from the west. In this task the winner is the pilot able to stay longer in the air with the given amount of fuel, which makes us think that the Brits and their 4-stroke (low consumption) engines have very good possibilities of success. The Spanish pilots will have to display all their thermalling skills to keep up in the ranking. The pilots must fly in a limited square area set for the task.

As expected, activities started later than schedulled at the airfield this morning although the teams were here by 4:45 am. The start of the competition was delayed to 9 am, and the first task was a navigation with unlimited fuel and 90 minutes time. The objective is to cover as many kms as possible in the given time, going through a number of waypoints chosen by each pilot from a list of 20. The window was open from 9 to 11 for the foot-launched classes and from 10 to 12 for the trikes.

The morning was very stable with no wind until 10, when signs of thermal activity started to appear. There were some moments of chaos in the launch area, specially when the marshals of the two sections gave green light to 3 paramotors at the same time. As a result, a PL1 pilot (Czech Team) did a steep turn to avoid one of the other paramotors and crashed on the shore of the lagoon. Fortunately, he seemed to be ok with only superficial injuries but we’ll have to wait to get some official info.
The thermal activity increased significantly after 10:30, giving a hard time to some of the competitors who reported a few collapses. By the time the first pilots were arriving back at the deck there were still some others waiting to launch. Obviously, the conditions have not been even for all the pilots and the delay caused by the accident meant that some pilots had to wait more than 10 minutes to launch. We saw other irregular things, like one Chinese pilot (picture) being helped at launch by another person. None of the marshals or juries said a word, although it is forbidden to receive assistance for taking off. He failed the first attempt and on the second other team members told him that he should not do that… 

Things still look disorganized here, there are many persons working for the organization (many volunteers) but they don’t seem to know much about paramotoring. The non-Chinese press and media members are having a hard time getting info or even access to the launch area - and the Chinese get very rude when you don’t ‘obey’ their orders…  
The conditions are now stormy around the Shi San Ling area so it is still unsure if it will be possible to fly another task later in the afternoon.

The classical Nations parade was replaced by a flags display from paramotors to officially open the 5th FAI Paramotor World Championships at the airfield of Shi San Ling, this afternoon. The ceremony had the usual speeches, some words from the current world champion Mathieu Rouanet on behalf of the competing pilots, demonstrations of classical Chinese fighting and dances, the flags parade by paramotors -representing the 21 competing nations (team Saudi Arabia arrived at the last moment yesterday), and aerial displays by the local paramotor team ‘Flying Dragon’, microlights and parachutists. After hundreds of pictures, there was a fine welcome dinner at one of the best restaurants in Changping town.  

Tomorrow, activities are schedulled to start at 4:30 am at the airfield. The organization plans to set a Japanese slalom task at 6, to continue with an economy navigation. However, the general feeling is that the organization is not enough prepared yet for starting the tasks at first time in the morning and fulfilling the requirements (both technical and of security) of a FAI event. So, it might happen that the first task of these Worlds -probably the economy navigation- starts later in the morning. In any case, all the pilots will have to get up really early.

Yesterday was the last official training day; today is the opening of the World Championships in the afternoon and the pilots will not be allowed to fly -actually, there’s a welcome party schedulled in Changping town. Yesterday there were 3 training tasks, the most interesting of which was a navigation of 15-20 km with 3 turnpoints. The competitors were given the official map and everybody spent the afternoon verifying the references from above. According to the comments, the map is not very accurate and there are many secondary roads and buildings that are not in it. Nevertheless, the Chinese organization insisted that all the maps must be handed back once the competition is over for ”national security reasons” -the pilots even had to sign an agreement form!
With the ‘freedom’ to fly out of the restricted rectangle of the first days (4×6 km), most of the pilots took enough fuel to explore the mountain range near the field and the Changping valley, with stunning views of the ancient Ming Tombs or the pagodas on top of the hills. Visibility was again limited, which prevented expeditions towards the Great Wall (located about 20 km from the field) as there’s a big mountain area that must be flown and landing zones are not easy to find. Not worth the risk if you can’t see much, anyway… But we are sure that if there’s a good clear day, the pilots will try to fly to the Wall!

We’re off to the field; more, later…

We already have a number of nice pictures to show you how it is here. Visit our photo album of these Worlds, and if you’re here please feel free to upload your favorite pictures too!

Ya tenemos una buena colección de fotos para mostrarte cómo es por aquí. Visita nuestro Album de fotos de este Mundial, y si estás aquí te invitamos a subir tus fotos favoritas para compartirlas con los pilotos que nos siguen estos días.

Photo Album Paramotor Worlds China 07

These are the official numbers of 5th FAI ParamotorWorld Championships:
-70 pilots in category PF1 (foot-launched solo), with Great Britain, Canada and China as the largest teams (7 pilots each), followed by Spain and France with 6.
-10 pilots in PF2 (foot-launched flown tandem), from 5 countries
-19 pilots in PL1 (paratrike) from 7 countries
-6 pilots in PL2 (tandem paratrike) from 3 countries* * There is one team withdrawn and another one might take the place to validate the championship.

The participating countries are: China · United Kingdom · Spain · France · Switzerland · Lithuania · Czech Republic · Japan · South Africa · Poland · Kazakhstan · Thailand · Netherlands · Monaco · Korea · Canada · Belgium · Austria · Germany · Russia.