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Competition Clinic

Dec 8, 2003
by Jeff Goin

I haven't been this sore since first going to the gym for a major workout. This is physical!

Eric Dufour invited former world champion pilot Danny Martinez (pictured left) to hold a competition clinic describing how its done in Europe. Held at the expansive Fly-By Ranch training facility near Ocala, FL, it was very informative and challenging.

Besides being an excellent pilot, Danny is a gentleman with a desire to spread his love for the fine art of flying PPG. It was not a profitable venture for either Fly-By Ranch or Danny (it cost both to make it happen and the charge only offset that somewhat) but rather an opportunity to help increase competition awareness and hopefully help us get to the point of having an American team go to the world games.

It was surprising how much I enjoyed it since the low level steep maneuvering has never been appealing. It *IS* more risky. One reason why they have never had any serious injuries is that all the "precision" tasks occur very low with little vertical gain. 

The major cause of the soreness was weight shifting. It turns out to be quite beneficial to be able to aid the turn without having so much brake. The speed at which you get into a turn plays an important part in maximizing performance and weight shift makes it noticeably snappier.

We used a variety of motors including SD, Airfer, PAP and Sky Cruiser (weight shift model). Equipment matters little as long as it offers good weight shift and enough power to fly the pilot around a circle at 70 degrees of bank. With pilot weight below about 180 the Top-80 powered PAP and Sky Cruiser was plenty. Wings used were the Silex, Sting, Action, Octane and Firebird. Speed is important in some tasks and the Action excels there. Use of the speedbar is almost a requirement to be competitive although only Danny used his.

1. Eric kicks a stick as Danny (behind on right) starts the time. This ritual was repeated many times.

2. The group discusses tasks and their strategies.

3. Elizabeth Geurin, Eric's wife, also made her 100th flight on Sunday afternoon.

4. Eric carves a slice around the stick while practicing the "Clover Leave", a challenging but elegantly simple task whose execution is far more difficult than its explanation. At 53 seconds his time would have placed him in within the "placers" and this year's world championship. At 56 seconds, I'm nipping at his heels!

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