The world PPG Champion ships in Beijing China 2007-09-10

What an experience! Every competitor who attended the champs feels pretty much the same as me. We have given our best and flown hard for hours on end. We are tired and satisfied. The Chinese really made our stay comfortable and improved where there was short comings in the organisation at the start of the competition.  The South African SA Home loan PPG team were commented on many times as being the best dressed and always looking professional. Well done to my Team for the camaraderie and manner in which they carried themselves I feel proud to be a part of a team like this. Heiko our team manager worked wonders to make things happen for the team He organises like a pro. It really helps the team when there is someone like him in control and the Efficient Group staff can be proud to have an MD like him in the driving seat of there company. Dawie was a star and with all the flying we were doing still had made time to do interviews with us and other pilots for the TV shows  we will be broadcasting about he trip. Keith managed to keep us informed about absolutely everything. If every there was a question that required an answer Keith had one of two answers the long one or the short one. We did manage to get a ‘I have no clue’ from him once. Keith also flies hard and well he understands the tasks better than most and helped guide us to fly tasks better than we would have other wise. Martin our Super navigator can fly navigation tasks as if he is stuck to rails it is very interesting flying behind him in tasks because you know you will get to your destination. Callie was like a wing man to Martin but the fact that he was slightly faster than him made him take the lead and was a guide to Martin. Callie also has a sense for Nav like I have not seen before. It looks like it must run in there family. I have a lot to improve o on the Nav Flights I lost many points on my Nav tasks. The ground tasks or Slalom as we call it re my speciality. I was second fastest in the Worlds and ‘Chilly’ from the UK team was the fastest. He flew a smaller win than me bt also weighed less than me. His thrust from is motor was more than hs total weight. This is a good combination for some fast and hard flying.

The conditions we flew in were a range of easy to really challenging. The easy were generally from 6:30 am to about 9am and then again from around 5:30 pm to sunset. The mid morning to afternoon flight when the wind had picked up and the thermals were rough was bumpy and you had to trust your equipment and abilities. The area we flew during the comp was stunningly beautiful and we will never forget the flight over the Great Wall of China. One thing is that if you flew like I did most of the time then total trust in your Motor was required. My Simonini motor never failed me once and required no maintenance during the comp, we were flying low level over Power lines that criss- crossed below us like a spider web and would normally never have crossed this in normal flying.

The only time I had to work on my PPG during the comp was when it was destroyed in the Crash during the Japanese Slalom. This was when the marshal was standing right in my flight path. I only saw him standing there after I had started my diving turn and then I was too last for me to go anywhere but straight at him. He never got out of the way but did drop to the ground and by doing this managed to save both of us serious injury. I had to replace a prop and engine mounts and straighten my frame of my PPG it all was sorted out by the Afternoon session. I also learned that I could close my high end screw of my carb for very economical flying and was able to cruise at this altitude with very little throttle input. This will lean out the motor so it will cut if you try to go to climb power but was great for cruise and slow climbs. I would ritchen the motor if I needed to climb.

The Competition was won by Spain and Ramon took the title of world champ. He is the man this is his year. He is now the world Champ and also set the world Distance record for the furthest flight this year for a PPG. He competed in the X-Alps and finished 8^th (I think) so is a pilot who deserves this recognition. He is very humble and a Short man with the tallest Reputation. Well done Ramon I hope you display the South African Flag we presented to you for your fantastic achievement.

The British National will be held next year in June and I have been invited to attend this event as well as to the Spanish and French championships. I would love to do so but may have to skip some of them unless I can arrange for sponsorship to do so. I have been offered a Bailey Four stroke motor by Paul Bailey for the British nationals so this would save me Money in Freighting. I will be making every effort to attend this event as it would mean additional training and experience for the next world that we are hoping to host in South Africa on 2009.

http://www.miniplane.com/competizioni/pagina.htm

sildenafil 50mg