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2024 Team Time Hang gliding & Paragliding Competition - New Zealand

Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Dic 13 - Dic 15, 2024
CONTENT
GENERAL INFORMATION
The aim of this mixed hang gliding and paragliding comp is to help encourage more low airtime pilots into competitions (including those who have never flown a competition before) while giving higher air time pilots a fun format to practice tactical team flying.
 
Each team will have 3 pilots varying in experience:
 
- One pilot with less than 50 thermalling hours,
- One with over 100 hours thermalling and cross country/competition experience.
- A third pilot who is either very experienced or less than 50 thermalling hours
 
Teams can be mixed hang gliding and paragliding. Tasks will be set as in a normal competition. Each team will try to fly as far (and as quickly) around the task course as they can.
 
However the difference to a “normal” comp will be the amount of points awarded. The lowest airtime pilot (less than 50 thermal hours) will have the points they earn from their flight increased by a multiplication factor of 3x, while the most experienced XC/competition pilot will have no multiple applied. The third pilot will have either a 3x multiplication factor or nothing applied depending on their experience. This means that it is in the interests of the more experienced pilot(s) to help the lower airtime pilots fly further since they will get more points for the team.
 
Published results will be only for the teams, not individuals. Radios will likely be helpful for team communication. One pilot of each team will need to have a second radio on the competition safety frequency. For the lowest airtime pilots who have not entered a competition before, you just need to have done some thermalling and preferably a short cross country, but if you haven't not to worry, you'll get to do that in this comp.
SELECTION

The competition is open to all hang gliding and paragliding pilots, with a maximum of 30 entries. All places will be awarded as first-registered-first-offered ultimately at the discretion of the comp director and no discussion will necessarily be entered into. You must be a member of the NZHGPA with at least a PG2 (paragliding) or Novice (hang gliding) rating. You should be reasonably confident in thermals and turbulent air and be able to launch and land unsupervised in windy conditions. 

You will need to form yourself into teams of 3 with the various experience levels. If you are new and don't know many people and/or are missing a team member, you will be able to use the comp whatsapp group to do this. In the worst case contact the organisers who will be happy to help join people up.

Entry is FREE.

 
FLYING SITES

Flying will be at one of the following locations:

* Kaimais Range - near Matamata in the Waikato
* Paeroa Range - Waikite Valley, near Reparoa in the Waikato

A site briefing will be given at the beginning of each weekend for those unfamiliar with the two sites. The main site will be the Kaimais, with the Paeroas only as a back up. 

TRANSPORT

Please note that no transport is included as part of this competition (getting there, getting up the hill and retrieval), so please try and organise a car pool group with your team before the comp. We'll have a Whatsapp group, so you'll be able to organise with others that way. If you have an extra driver, we encourage you to bring them.

TASKS, WAYPOINTS, LIVE TRACKING AND SCORING

Pilots will have to download waypoints (available on the "Downloads" tab of this page) onto their instrument, set a task and may need to upload their own tracklog after a flight to the scoring system - Airscore - after each task. The best is if you can get yourself familiar with this before the weekend. However don't worry if youre not able to make sense of it, ask one of your more experienced team members.

Live Tracking via the Volandoo app for iPhone and Android (www.volandoo.com) will be COMPULSORY for the competition. If you have a satellite tracking like a Garmin Inreach or Spot, these can be integrated wtih Volandoo to provide tracking in the areas of poor cell phone coverage. To ensure your cell phone battery does not go flat while running Volandoo, you will also need to have an external battery capable of powering your phone in the air.  Live Tracking for the competition will be available here: https://volandoo.com/events/team-time-2024/live/all 

In addition to providing Live Tracking for the competition, I am hoping we can also export tracklogs automatically from Volandoo for scoring, meaning no one will need to upload their tracklogs manually. However since parts of the Volandoo live tracking functionality are still in beta so there may be a need for you to manually upload your tracklog to Airscore. The Airscore scoring page for a manual upload of tracklogs, you will find here: https://xc.highcloud.net/comp_overall.html?comPk=406. 

NEEDED FOR THE COMPETITION

You will also need:

  • A certified wing with a valid NZ WOF
  • Emergency/reserve parachute
  • UHF Radio (baofeng and similar are prohibited in NZ) on the team channel and an extra radio for at least one member of each team that is tuned to the safety channel a
  • A device capable of providing a tracklog in IGC format (most varios will do this of course)
  • A harness with certified back protection (paragliding)
  • A mobile phone with an extra backup battery capable of running the Volandoo app (see below)
  • The Volandoo app (https://volandoo.com/apps ) installed and working for tracking and scoring (note that Volandoo is free for pilots)
  • Everything else that you need to legally fly a hang glider or paraglider in New Zealand

 

GENERAL SCHEDULE

All communication will be done via the official WhatsApp group. To give us the chance of the best weather, location for the weekend will be announced by 20:00 on the Thursday before the event.

We will meet and gather somewhere for a briefing at 9:00 each morning:

Kaimais - meet near 60 Barton Rd, Okauia by the intersection of Barton Rd with Old Te Aroha Rd - https://maps.app.goo.gl/MzFyPwNmg6Tx28rN7

If at Paeroas - meet at Ngapouri Road junction - https://goo.gl/maps/QZTbDYTryyWdj5j2A 

We will then convoy up the hill. Please note that walking up the Kaimais is not permitted.

During task briefing a suitable watering hole will be nominated for after flight briefing and the chance to learn from the day. We will also help with track uploads as mentioned earlier. But it is better if you can familiarise yourself with this before the first weekend. 

 

ACCOMMODATION AND ACTIVITIES

Since the weekend will primarily be at the Kaimais, most people will stay at the Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park (https://www.opalhotsprings.co.nz ) or nearby.

Carpooling is encouraged 😀

We will have a competition dinner somewhere on Saturday night. Like this will be potluck/BYO BBQ or even just dinner in a pub. We will see. 

ORGANISING TEAM

Competition Organiser and Meet Director

Phil Southward  027 274 3689

Launch Director

TBC

Meet assistants and coaches

Others to be confirmed