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Latest Updates from the worlds

Tweets from Jamie

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naughtylawyer: I guess I dint say the obvious...Alex Ploner world champioooooon ;-)

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naughtylawyer: Manfred says "not only the other guys make mistakes"

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naughtylawyer: Gaggle of 6 more coming.

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naughtylawyer: Yee haw!!!!!! Carl is here!!

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naughtylawyer: Carl up in the stratosphere...coming in shortly.

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naughtylawyer: Christian and Blay in together.

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naughtylawyer: Daniel Velez happy happy happy in goal, then Blenky.

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naughtylawyer: Robert Reisinger in.

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naughtylawyer: Tom Weisenburger next, then Gordon them Balaz.

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naughtylawyer: 4 more coming.

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naughtylawyer: It was Olav Opsanger. Another in with him...can't tell who it was.

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naughtylawyer: Number 68 in....don't know who it is.

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naughtylawyer: Looks like Alex will be the world champion!!!!!!!

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naughtylawyer: Alex here.....Italians going crazy!!

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naughtylawyer: Antione next.

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naughtylawyer: Carl 13.2 km from goal looking for a last climb.

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naughtylawyer: Primo sliding in, then Atilla.

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naughtylawyer: Two more...can't tell who they are.

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naughtylawyer: Zippy and Ilio in.

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naughtylawyer: Nick the Swiss next.

The Brits Blog

Day 7 Task 3

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Overall Results - full results

Day 4 Task 2

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Thursday's task took the pilots on a 120km out and return flight in to the flatlands south of  Sisteron. The conditions were initially weak at launch and the thermals were busy. With large numbers of gliders all flying in the same thermal and at similar altitudes it can take a lot of nerve to dive into the middle of a weaving mass of gliders. The alternative is you find yourself another thermal which is fine unless you start out climbing the gaggle then the gaggle will move over and take over your thermal and your back where you started.
Without the aid of a gaggle there are a number of ways of finding a thermal, you can look for a cumulus cloud, you can look for south facing rocky slopes or in the case of the plateau's near today's last turnpoint you can detect a thermal by the smell of the lavender in the fields below. The air heats up in these fields like a bubble in a boiling pan of water and then some trigger might occur (e.g. a tractor driving into the field or in the case of a competition in Australia, a team's driver doing donuts in the retrieve vehicle ). The trigger causes the hot air to break away from the ground sucking up insects, dust and in the case of lavender fields the scent of the lavender.
Four of GB team make it into goal today, unfortunately so did 55 others. The winner was Manfred Ruhmer ( World champion 3 times in the past) Manfred came across the goal line at 17:05  ~ 2hrs before the last pilots cross the goal line at 19:00.
Overall Results - full results
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro 2000 Laminar Z9 770 999 1769
2 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro 2000 Laminar 14 Z9 828 920 1748
3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro2000 Z9 918 715 1633
4 Jeff O'Brien USA Wills Wing Tee Two See 994 595 1589
5 Attila Bertók HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 780 764 1544
6 Oleg Bondarchuk UKR Aeros Combat 823 698 1521
7 Lars Bo Johansen DEN Aeros Combat L15 799 696 1495
8 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat L 14 702 743 1445
9 Gianpietro Zin FRA 794 637 1431
10 Elio Cataldi ITA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 808 622 1430
10 Nene Rotor BRA Wills Wing T2 C -144 768 662 1430

21 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed S4 762 588 1350
24 Bruce Kavanagh GBR Wills Wing T2C 739 601 1340
35 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 533 624 1157
53 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 513 530 1043
71 Gary Wirdnam GBR Wills Wing T2C 489 428 917

Team
British team 8th with 3847 points, Italy with 4901 points.

Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed S4 762 588
Bruce Kavanagh Wills Wing T2C 739 601
Carl Wallbank Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 533 624
Grant Crossingham Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 513 530
Gary Wirdnam Wills Wing T2C 489 428


Day 4 Task 2 Results
1 Manfred Ruhmer 999
2 Christian Ciech 920
3 Attila Bertók 764
4 Antoine Boisselier 746
5 Dan Vyhnalik 743
6 Alessandro Ploner 715
7 Davide Guiducci 712
8 Oleg Bondarchuk 698
9 Lars Bo Johansen 696
10 Curt Warren 670

19 Carl Wallbank 624
27 Bruce Kavanagh 601
31 Gordon Rigg 588
41 Grant Crossingham 530
73 Gary Wirdnam 428


Day 3 Task 1

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After two days of  no flying due to a strong Mistral blowing finally on Wednesday the wind died down and the flying conditions in the southern Alps became perfect.
An ambitious 100 mile task was set which took the pilots on a circular route giving them impressive views of snow topped mountains and mountain lakes.
The pilots begin to launch an hour or so before the 1st start this ensures all 120 pilots have an equal chance to start the task when they want to. Once up and high as possible the pilots can choose one of several start times to start flying the task. All of the GB team took the second start at 2:15. During the flight they work with other pilots and fly in groups (or gaggles) to maximise the chance of finding the next thermal. Those pilots who want to fly faster and get more points will leave gaggles early and fly on their own but take the risk that they wont find the next thermal as quick as the gaggle will when they  work together. A gaggle is like the peloton in the Tour d'France it makes sense to keep with your gaggle but at some point if you want to win you need to make a break and go it alone.
By 6:00pm the first pilot, Jeff O'Brien (USA) arrives in goal, the pilots are flying into a strong and unexpected  headwind many of them are only just getting over the goal line with less than 10ft. The first UK pilot (Carl Wallbank) can be seen gliding low towards goal with one other pilot (Blay Olmos (ESP)) after a few nail biting minutes of eeking out the last few meters the two pilots land and its unclear whether they crossed the virtual goal line. It came down to some detailed analysis of Carl's GPS trace to see that he was short by 1m after flying 100miles. If you get across the goal line you get time points and on this day the time point would have been worth 30% of the overall points for Carl, so its a bitter blow to lose so many points for such a small distance. Unfortunately he wasnt the only pilot to get caught out by the strong headwind both Grant and Gary landed short on the final glide but on  the plus side both Gordon and Bruce both made it into goal with reasonable times.




Worlds Official Blog

World Championship Winners!
Gold: Alex Ploner (Italy), Icaro2000 Z9Silver: Jonny Durand (Australia), Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5Bronze: Thomas Weissenberger (Austria), Moyes Litespeed RS 4And in the Team competitionGold: ItalySilver: AustriaBronze: FranceCongratulations to all, and congratulations to the new World Champion, Alex Ploner. We've had a BLAST! Full results on www.chabre2009.com

Friday 3 July: Task 8: 154km
10.30pm: Results coming very soon... waiting for one last guy to download then it's all official...8.30pm: Alex Ploner has just been into the download room, above. He got to goal in 4hrs 1min.See more goal pics in this Flickr setManfred congratulates Alex Ploner...Manfred explains what happened to him...But who cares? Manfred's been World Champion three times already, and now he gets the girl!7pm: The drama doesn't stop here. Just when we thought it was all over Manfred Ruhmer appeared to congra

Wives and girlfriends
Victoria Beckham and Man United ... you can keep them. From launch on Aspres, July 2 2009. More WAG pictures here...

Thursday 2 July: Task 7: 113km: Stopped
All the photos from take off and goal are in this Flickr setJonny Durand wins the day10pm: Jonny Durand (AUS) won the day. One point ahead of Antoine Boisselier (FRA). Jon took 2hr 5min 4 seconds, while Antoine took 2hrs 10 mins 20 seconds. No lead out points for Jonny as he took the second start gate and raced through the rest of the field. Pic shows him crossing the line at Ribiers, with the last turnpoint, the ruin at Mison, in the background. Congratulations Jonny! Read about it and watch th

Photos from Wed 1 July
Photos from launch on Wednesday

World Championships photo competition
More photos from yesterday and Monday taken by Getty Images sports photographer Michael SteeleCross Country magazine is running a photo competition during the World Championships. To enter, simply send your three best photos (high resolution, jpgs, non-Photoshopped or manipulated) from the competition to: assistanteditor@xcmag.comInclude your name, address, email and short caption. Prizes include a basket of XC Mag goodies, plus publication in the magazine.Photos must be un-published and taken d

Spaghetti night at Chateauneuf de Chabre
Tuesday night saw the competition field head to Chateauneuf de Chabre for spaghetti and dancing. It was another funny evening - one of many. Photos of the night are all hereTo download a high resolution version (for free) that is suitable for printing:1 Click on the photo you want2 Click the icon 'All sizes' at the top3 Click 'Original'4 Click 'Download the original size'5 Print it from your home printer or email/take it to a photo shop

Wednesday 1 July: Task 6: 89.4km: Cancelled
2.30pm: Pilots all over the sky above Laragne. All landing at the camping field for an early bath. It's all over until tomorrow.2pm: Task cancelled. Big storm development over the mountains to the north (Pic de Bure) mean the task has been cancelled. Many pilots in the air will probably head home to the landing field in Laragne. What a massive shame.1.30pm: OK, sounds like it's a big rush to get in the air. No wonder after yesterday's slow launch. Get up while the going is good. Aspres is also a

Tattoos on launch: 2
The second in an occasional series of bird tattoos spotted on launch. More pictures from today's launch here

Phil Lardner
Phil Lardner has taken the World Championships by storm, scurrilously blogging his way to newfound fame in the hang gliding community and – according to his own well-founded reports – beating the Oz Report, the best known English-language hang gliding blog, at its own game. But who is he?According to his profile he is 41, single, lives in Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland and likes beekeeping, astronomy and hang gliding. His hang gliding CV shows he has held a number of responsible posts over the ye

Tuesday 30 June: Task 5: 130km: Stopped
5pm: Tom Payne watching from Geneva posted a good question:'How does the scoring work when a task with multiple start gates is stopped with no pilots in goal? If you score it up to the point that it was stopped then pilots who chose a later start gate will have had less time on the course.'The answer according to the scorers is that the task will be scored on distance only, and to 20 minutes before the task was stopped: so as far as the pilot got at 3.24pm. And yes, that means people who took a

Video: Task 3 winner Christian Ciech
Christian Ciech on winning Task 3 and who he think might win the World Championships...

Video: Meet Team Guatemala
Team Guatemala on flying at home, and the comp.

Monday 29 June: Task 4 cancelled
More photos from launch in this Flickr setPlaying the waiting game on Aspres16.00: The task has been cancelled - the wind was just not coming round to the west as hoped. Pilots won't even be able to fly home.15.40: After some time of unlaunchable air, pilots are taking off again. Conditions are slowly improving. About 12 pilots in the air (Manfred is still up at base, waiting). A couple of unlucky ones have landed. The cumulus development is not looking too threatening at the moment.Manfred

Video: How not to land a hang glider part 2
A second video of the looping glider pilot who threw his reserve yesterday.First video here

Sunday 28 June: Task 3: 166km
Some more launch photos are in this Flickr set8.15pm: Zac Majors (USA), above, in download. He crossed the line third. How was it Zac? 'Awesome out there.' Team mate and Task 1 winner Jeff O'Brien wasn't so lucky today - he didn't make goal. How was it? 'Rough.'7.45pm: Ciech, above, in to download. He completed the course in 3hr 9min 55 seconds.Bruce Kavanagh (GB) in to download: 'Incredible day. The second turnpoint was just out of this world.' Everyone liked Pic du Bure today.Christian Ciech b

Video: Manfred Ruhmer on winning Task 2
Manfred Ruhmer talks about his win on Task 2 and why he's come back to competition hang gliding

Video: Here's........ Jonny
Australian team pilot Jonny Durand makes videos every day:

Saturday 27 June: Too windy: no fly
1pm: Sorry for lack of morning updates. Too windy today - so we didn't even go up the hill and the day was cancelled at 10.30am. 9.30am: Extended forecast care of Meteo France, which is producing dedicated forecasts every day for this competition, is sunny, with a risk of storms over mountains to the eastWinds5,500m at 2pm: NW 18 knots – 35 kmh1,500 m at 2pm: 10-15 knots, 30 kmh. However, the forecaster suggests winds will be stronger.Surface at 2pm: Moderate NWWind strengthening through the a

Friday Night Thriller: Fête de la Saint-Jean
A bonfire night opposite the campsite brought pilots and locals out en masse to enjoy Laragne hospitality and beer. The party was a local event – the Fête de la Saint-Jean is an annual bonfire night.Highlights included Team Japan showing in a kimono. He then danced with Team Russia and Team France in a spectacular show of international unity. When he and Team Russia leapt through the pallet fire, we knew a new threshold in international democracy had been breached – sport can do that.Meanwh

Pilot photos
All the pilot photos are in this Flickr setTo download the original high resolution image, in the Flickr set:- Click on the photo you want- Click the icon ‘All Sizes’ at the top of the photo- On ‘Available Sizes’ click ‘Original’- This will give you a photo that you can download and print off at 30cm x 20cm4.30pm: It's raining at the moment. Most pilots are either here:The hardest working pizza guy in Franceor here:Casino supermarket: The pilots' favourite ... open Saturdays, and Sun

Friday 26 June: cancelled
1.40pm: The task was abandoned but most pilots who had rigged chose to launch and fly down. Some had a lot of fun buzzing the launch. It's raining now over Laragne. Tomorrow is another day...12.40pm: The task committee worked hard and fast to plan a route that would avoid the storms, but to no avail. The skies above Chabre clouded fast, and the cumulus are towering on nearby ranges. The day is abandoned.10am: The field has gone up the hill. Looks like they will set an earlyish (and short?) ta

Thursday 25 June: Task 2: 125 km
Manfred's winning smileHe was this high when he got to the line6.30pm: There must be 30 here now. I heard someone ask for a vegemite roll, so some of the Australians have got in too. Results online at www.chabre2009.com later tonight. Check back tomorrow for some more of the same, as long as weather plays ball.6.15pm: For the Brits watching, Carl Wallbank, Gordon Rigg and Bruce Kavanagh are here. For Japan, Norihisa Wada is here too.6pm: We now have 10 pilots across the line. It's been so quiet

Wednesday 24 June: Task 1: 162Km
Jeff was interviewed for this blog when he was at the pre-Worlds last year. See it hereJeff's blog, pictures and video of the day are all hereJeff lands on FlickrJeff makes Google News:This is his video of the day:Jeff O'Brien crosses the line firstSee all today's launch photos in this Flickr setAdded Thursday noon: If you haven't read Jamie Wanders report from goal yesterday read it here. She just gets it:"When I realized it was OB, all I could think was how ecstatic and proud Rob would be if h

Thats Irish :-)

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Feu de la St. Jean - Bonfire night Photos are slowly reaching me of the antics at the recent Feu de la St. Jean bonfire party the other night. As you can see, all discipline and decorum was duly tossed onto the fire along with the wood and a few paragliders for good measure! Horny devil, Swiss Nick (Roberto Nichele) tongues Comp Director Heather Mull - if he was hoping for a little punishment, he wasn't disappointed... the other photos are too frightening to be published! Oh Julia,

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Gerolf on VG At the Mandatory Pilot's Safety Briefing on day one, we were all treated to a riviting lecture on sprog adjustment and the use of VG when flying on glide by Gerolf Heinrichs. Gerolf wanted to persuade us all that flying with full VG, bar to the bollox, was not a safe thing to do when racing, and that really we should never use more than about 3/4 or at most 4/5 VG when on speed glide. That way we'd all arrive at goal safely... behind Gerolf! I suppose this must have seemed

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Engineers & Oil Rags... Storm clouds were gathering at the Worlds HQ this evening as the Irish team departed after having the brains sucked out of their GPSs at the end of Task #2. In casual innocence I remarked to Mark (chief tech-weenie in charge of GPSs and scoring) that the office was a haven of ordered industry and efficiency, and complimented them on doing such a good job. "Oh well," he replies, "it's us engineers over this side of the room who do all the real work," referring to hims

25th July - Camping Monteglin - Laragne

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Team Japan Meet Masahiro Kitano, Hiroshi Suzuki, Kazuyuki Hirabayashi, Norihisa Wada and Koji Daimon (Team Japan) who are all flying well and busy putting a different slant on the Worlds! Good luck lads (googleTranslate to Japanese) Team GuatemalaJose Herrarte (Loco) of Team Guatemala wheezed his way, puffing and panting under the weight of his glider all the way to the far end of the high south take-off at the Charbe today. When he stopped beside me for a breather and to sweat quietly

Comp Day #2 - Close... but no cigar!

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Well, we went up to the Chabre's lower north take-off this morning and were greeted with a not entirely unexpected howling gail at the top. What did surprise us was just how cold the wind was, which caught many pilots and batten bunnies out in their skimpy shorts and pleasingly tight T-shtirs. This blog doesn't record the effect the cold wind had on Meet Director Heather Mull's nipples, but we imagine that they were no hardship to gaze upon! If anyone has any photos then do please let me h

Langer? What's a langer?

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Well, it's a local Irish expression. You'll have to go here for a full definition!

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21:38 - 22nd June - It Sucks when it Blows Well, as forecast the Mistral is still blowing hard today but is forecast to drop off over night, and pilots have been put on notice to prepare for a southerly task tomorrow (Tuesday.) With no flying so far and little in the way of real news to report, I've had to work doubly hard to scrape together enough scuttlebutt to keep you up to date on the rumour mill. But in the best traditions of journalism, when you can't confirm facts, fiction can do

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Sunday 21st June - 23:29 - My skull hurts. Yours would hurt too if you'd been drinking the same quantities on booze we have been consuming... mostly courtesy of Le Brasser O'Neill. Good stuff... just too much of it! So, what happened today? Being a non-starter for flying (still blowing like a $50 hooker) and with no pressing engagements to fulfil, we took a lazy morning, crawling out of bed at a leisurly 9am for a little brekkie alfresco. Plans for our approach to the competition were d

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Saturday 20th - The caravan was rocking hard last night... but that was purely due to the Mistral wind that was howling all night! It's still blowing hard this morning and it looks like there won't be any flying today... and possibly for the next few days. This means that there won't be any practice day to sort out GPS and other issues before the first task, so fingers crossed on that score. Shaun has been getting in some good flights here recently and Geoff has managed to bag three flight

Booming skies, dodgy transport and Dutch Girls

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Friday 19th - 18:00 Marseille MP2 - Successful escaped the clutches of Ruinair's execrable passenger and baggage handling 'services' and was shocked to find that the limousine that was booked for me by my fellow team mates had failed to turn up. Transport finally arrived to pick me up in the form of Shaun in his ancient, temperamental (but apparently well loved) Landrover Defender that looks like it hadn't quite survived WW2. Predictably the heavens opened just as he pulled up in front of

Party Time!

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WooHoo! Swarming bees, empty bank accounts and aged rellies dropping dead inconveniently close to my departure notwithstanding... I'm in the air and headin' south to Laragne for some serious fun and games at the 2009 Hang Gliding World Championships at last!Although flying with Ireland's lamest excuse for an airline, suffering Ruinair's torture flight to Marseille has got it's benefits. I find myself pleasingly wedged into the seat next to a pneumatically enhanced vision of sexiness in the form

Meet the Irish HG Worlds Team

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The Irish Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association are proud to sponsor Geoff McMahon and Shaun O'Neill in the 2009 Hang Gliding World Championships in Laragne this summer. It would have been even prouder to be able to sponsor a larger team (as it did in the 2008 Pre-Worlds) but the other three pilots basically turned out to be pretty crap and we weren't going to waste any more money on them after they eliminated themselves from the last year's pre-Worlds comp in a variety of spectacular accid



Welcome to the British Hang Gliding Competitions web site.

Within these pages you will find information, Competition News, results and various other pieces of useful information relating to the BHPA hang gliding competitions

Its Primary role is to keep UK hang glider pilots informed about what is happening where, when, and keeping a historical record of those events, both home and abroad.

Latest News

Worlds 2009

Markus is on the ball here, and all stuff relating to the 2009 worlds Comp will be found here:
http://www.film41.co.uk/F41/09WorldsNews.html

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The Nationals

The forms required for the nationals have recently changed. They can be found at the bottom of the front page or here

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Panel Updates

There have recently been some major changes to the Comps Panel.
For the latest roles and responsibilities please see Here

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Recent Posts

Many thanks to all who responded, I've now found myself a LS 4.5S & Tenax harness
(by miles hockliffe (guest) 1245074861|%O ago, posts: 2)
I Have been asked by the organisers of the HG Worlds in Laragne to post the following: For safety...
(by Nicky Moss (guest) 1243931204|%O ago, posts: 1)
WANTED Litespeed 4.5 S or 5 S or poss RS 4.5 Cash waiting for the right...
(by Miles (guest) 1242829157|%O ago, posts: 2)
I reckon the little calendar of HG comps would be better on the front page than hidden in the...
(by Andrew Hurst (guest) 1242731328|%O ago, posts: 5)
Thanks!
(by nrbray 1242620624|%O ago, posts: 3)
I was asked to pass my details on to you via Geoff May who flew with us here over the weekend. I...
(by Phil Chett 1242606045|%O ago, posts: 1)
And hopefully its a bit better now. or is it?? :-)
(by Phil Chett 1242593415|%O ago, posts: 3)
Comps Panel * John Aldridge * Kathleen Rigg * Mike Armstrong * Nigel Bray I shall redesign the...
(by Phil Chett 1242586680|%O ago, posts: 3)

2009 season Forms

BOS

icon_PDF.gif BOS Application Form
word.jpg BOS Rules

Nationals

icon_PDF.gif Nationals GUEST Pilot Application Form
icon_PDF.gif Nationals UKPILOT Application Form
word.jpg Rules for the Nationals
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