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2004 National Rankings

Pilot Standings for the 2004 Competition Season

Final National Ranking

Updated Nov 27, 2004 

Fall Fly-By (Ocala, FL)

Nov 19-20, 2004.

Round 1

Round 2

*Kiting war requires a pilot to keep his wing up for 2 minutes in order to earn any points.

American Flyer (Albuquerque, NM)

Oct 3, 2004.

Parastars (Fly-By Ranch)

Apr 7,8 2004; revised Apr 15, 2004.

Paratoys 2004

Feb 7, 2004

2004 Standings Finalized

Nov 27, 2004

After five events spanning the entire country, the cumulative scores have been totalled. And the verdict is... (click here for National Standings.)

Finals Completed

Nov 21, 2004

The final USPPA competition for 2004 is behind us. Cooperative Florida weather gave contestants warm blues skies for two days of practicing and competing. On Sunday the pilots relaxed to a cross country about the surrounding area.

Congratulations to Eric Dufour who took the victory after two rounds, Jeff Goin garnered 2nd place and Marty Hathaway stepped up to 3rd. 

It was a very enjoyable time for the 9 pilots who competed and built friendships even in the face of a strong desire to do well. The results are included under "National Rankings".

Pictured Left is Terry Latimer, new to competition, who is stretching for a spot landing. Above right is the gold "Paramotor Man" Necklace, given to each of the top 3 winners.

Saturday afternoon included two rounds of the kiting war and, in spite of light conditions for much of it, both rounds had the necessary minimum kiting time (2 minutes) to count. 

The National Standings will be updated shortly to reflect these scores. Schedules for the 2005 competitions have not been set but there will be one in April and another in November, again at Fly-By Ranch.

Here are just a few bits of the many memories captured in the brief time together.

1. The Judges are recovering a a humorous moment.
2. Marty Hathaway enjoys a Sunday cruise. Elisabeth is flying the trike beyond him.
3. Eight of Nine competitors meet the camera, it was the shots that FOLLOWED these that were memorable. We'll have those eventually!
4. There is a free ride. 

High Attitude, High Altitude

Oct 8, 2004
by Jeff Goin

Just launching from 5200' above sea level is a challenge. Results are under National Rankings.

We had the requisite five competitors including a new pilot who had never flown one. Second place was earned by another new-to-competition pilot Mike McGuirk.

As with all these events it was fun just to get together with like-minded fellow flyers. And it's always a learning curve. There will be two rule changes to make judging more objective. They are:

1. The bomb drop minimum altitude will be dropped. You can come in as low as you want as long as nothing touches except the bomb. Where it stops determines your distance. So if it touches the cone and bounces off, that is still where it is measured from.

2. The touch and go now has a maximum distance. Stepping outside of that distance zero's the step score (but not the target portion of the score).

Petroleum To Airspeed:
The Ultralight Nationals Completes

Sept 24, 2004
by Jeff Goin

The scores are posted. Congratulations to David Sigier of Canada who earned the most total points and the victory.

Details are forthcoming but the order is David Sigier, Jeff Goin and Dave Rogers, a new pilot who came to Scottsburg with only 20 flights and a desire to learn. We've not heard the last of this up and coming pilot!

The last swoop of David Sigier's "Japanese Slalom" ended two days of the most perfect weather served up to light fliers. Conditions were such that it was possible to fly all day on both days allowing completion of every planned task. 

The last Task was quite the crowd pleaser - a low level course involving 4 sticks where contestants rounded corners and kicked sticks in precise fashion within feet of the ground.

We certainly both wanted to win but didn't let that interfere with tank fulls of fun along the way. Returning from the "Outlanding" field we flew together and David hammed it up a bit with "Big Ears" as seen on the top picture.

A most unique task consumed the entire morning airborne. It involved getting maps, directions, a sealed envelope and orders to "fetch" certain turnpoints. Once identified, straight lines were drawn on the map (while in flight)  connecting the points. If done correctly, their intersection gives the new destination - where you should go land. An awaiting marshal recorded the landing time and took your map for scoring. It was like a road rally in the air. Afterward, pilots were free to fly back to the comp field or ride back in a vehicle. Of course we flew back.

A buffet style banquet and awards ceremony with live music completed the evening. Several awards were given by USUA's Dale Hooper and Tom Gunnarson including one that went to PPG pilot David Rogers for flying accomplishment in his pre-ppg craft, a Quicksilver MX.

The amount of planning and time that went into this became apparent - it was enormous. And it was designed to make it fun for the pilots.

The people who made this happen gave unprecedented levels of participation including publicity and participation by the city of Scottsburg. It was very, very clear they wanted us there and made us (the PPG pilots) feel welcome in what has been primarily a fixed-wing event. 

Any pilot that has enough skill to consistently launch and land can compete in these events. Most of the event does not include the low-level work that some fear and even what's there can be flown up high just for practice. Next time we can hopefully have more participate - it is a LOT of work to organize and my hat is off to Tom Gunnarson of USUA and all the other folks who have made this possible.

Contestants were David Sigier (Top 80 Miniplane & Nervures Wing), Dave Rogers (Fly Products Top 80 Powerjet & Apco Thrust wing) and Jeff Goin (Top 80 Paralite Sky Cruiser with Silex wing).

Flying navigation tasks are fun - it's like a rally, you're given these incredibly accurate maps and instructed to "go fetch". Flying within 500' of the point scores a hit which will be read later by the scoring people through your GPS (sealed so you can't read it). 

National Geographic videotaped a feature on two ultralight pilots and was present for much of the proceedings. We plaud the USUA for going to the effort of putting this on.

Friday Day 2

1. Dave Rogers and David Sigier get their gear ready on the launch "Deck". Getting airborne proved challenging in the hot, humid conditions.

2. After flying around and "S" shaped course and marking points for a line, I wound up missing one and had to revert to the "Secret Envelope" - it showed the destination to be this beautiful airport snuggled up to the Ohio River.

3. Reading maps is a completely different skill than the low level maneuvering required for "flight precision"; but it is just another skill to master where getting there is indeed much of the fun. 

1. Epic Helmut Head.

2. David Sigier shows up a few minutes after I did. He found all the points but drew the lines wrong and landed out. I was following my one line (in hopes to find the landing site) when I saw him land and circled down to see if that was the site (or if he had problems). He was fine and I figured this wasn't the site so I climbed back up,  opened my "secret letter" and followed its directions to the outlanding site. He corrected his error and relaunched to head there himself.

3. The Marshall, Rick, had driven to the airport to collect our maps and GPS's.

1. Larry Beckley, the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. You'd like him even if he didn't open up his beautiful airport for this insanity. He is also a commercial airplane pilot and ultralight instructor seen here by his trainer.

2. We ate, the band played and - 

3. A few took the opportunity for fancy footwork.

1. The banquet beckons. Many Chickens gave themselves up to the growth of human girth.

2. Dale Hooper, USUA president played MC for most of the festivities and gave away a number of USUA awards.

3. Tom Gunnarson, competition director, pulled himself away from scoring long enough to present a few awards himself.

Thursday Day 1

1. A color guard marched to attention in the opening ceremony with a performance of the National Anthem and prayer. This was a very nice touch given what goes on around us and helps put the freedom we enjoy in perspective. It was moving.

2. The three PPG contestants L to R: David Sigier with his brother Chris, Jeff Goin and David Rogers 

1. David Rogers returning from a navigation task.

2. Jeff Goin reading the map.

3. One of the waypoints turns out to be a "VOR" which is used by overflying jets. I hope this didn't disturb their signal!

4. Sunshine pours over a dewey blanket of ultralights parked on the flight line.

Wednesday 09/22/2004

1. Pilots measure out each other's fuel with Marshal's supervision. The first task: take a limited amount of fuel on a triangle, do a touch and go on the "deck" then go hunt for other check points.

2. The City of Scottsburg is providing a web cam atop this pole and Larry, the airport owner is providing wireless internet for pilots.

1. David Rodgers, PPGer from the Tallahassee area, refuels his fly. All competition pilots are flying top 80 motors.

2. We're being nice to this group: the Marshals.

Big Win For Four

July 14, 2004

by Kevin Tayler

Four strokes that is. The relatively new Bailey 4-Stroke motor made a big competitive splash this year in Europe when Michel Carnet (four times British Paramotor Champion) and Paul Bailey, its creator took consecutive winning titles. Michel garnered the highest score in the French Nationals and then two weeks later was beaten into second place in the British Nationals by Paul Bailey. They were flying Bailey Aviation 4-Stroke motors and Paramania Action wings.

Pictured right is Paul Bailey, the 2004 British Champion. 
Photo by Pascall Campbell Jones.

The British Championships, held in rural Norfolk, were concentrated into two days' flying with 20 finishers (including two Belgium entrants). Bailey and Carnet were in a league of their own throughout and one or other was always going to take the title. Their strengths and weaknesses balance each other out and it was impossible to say who would gain the upper hand until the final scores were calculated. Paul Bailey is cool and determined, giving little away and always performing consistently, especially on those notorious forward launches in nil-wind or shifting-wind which he nailed every time. Michel, with more to lose, made some uncharacteristic launch and landing errors but was true to his free-flying background with a great thermalling task, airborne on two litres for an hour longer than most other pilots. 

A complex low moved across the area, making it difficult to judge the weather. Conditions allowed two days of competitive flying, but not without drama. At a crucial moment in the middle of a fuel-economy task a huge cunim produced a rush of cold air and dragged the wind dramatically from SW to N, meaning that pilots who'd flown their into-wind legs at the beginning were also battling the wind on the way back, with the result that many landed out. On another occasion the whole field was laid out ready to launch into seemingly flat conditions to fly a 62km circuit when a deafening rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning ripped through the sky, directly upwind. Task aborted. Ten minutes later it deluged.

Competition Director Mike Campbell-Jones responded with some multi-tasking, an innovation in paramotoring which involves cramming as many challenges as possible into the same flight. We launched in pairs, raced flat-out for 10km, descended to ground level for measured fast/slow runs, moved over to the kicking-stick slalom, then powered up to 500 feet for a timed accuracy landing. In the evening we did the same thing all over again. 

The best task was the ‘cat’s cradle’, a complex piece of navigation and route-planning on limited fuel. Numerous turnpoints were specified in different sectors and the trick was to fly the largest possible distance between points while optionally collecting bonus scores by returning to the field to kick a stick after every three strikes: all on 6 litres within a time window. This required detailed preparation as well as masterful flying and a thorough knowledge of one's equipment, and it was notable that the two competition leaders planned and flew exactly the same route as each other (clearly the optimal one), without any cross-referring.

We are grateful to those who supported this year’s Nationals, including Sky Systems, the BMAA, FFPLUM, Bailey Aviation and Paramania.

First Dedicated Competition Completes

Fly-By Ranch, NW of Orlando, Florida

Photo at right by Bud Johnson - Competitors L to R Ron Hultin, Dan Kriseler, Paul Bailey, Mike Ralph, Jeff Goin, Marty Hathaway, Richard Good and Eric Dufour holding "Tiny". Phil Russman, an excellent pilot, competed but slipped away from the photo ("I'm not gonna be in that thing after my performance!")

This is the way to run a competition! Starting April 8th we flew two days of  very challenging conditions without as much as a broken propeller.

Kicking Sticks has been modified so that pilots have only one try but can kick either of the first two sticks to make their run count. Before this the pilot could have up to three tries but that caused pilots to be doing low altitude circles while other competitors had to overfly the task. This also makes it far easier to judge

All Contents Copyright © 2007 USPPA