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UK Nationals, Dean Eldridge takes first and second with the GTR

Dean Eldridge — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:51:14 +0000

Having built a fresh Parajet Zenith paramotor just a few days before and without having any time to test with it due to our inclement British weather, I arrived at the 2012 British Paramotor Competition with a little bit of trepidation.

Rule of thumb, don’t change anything right before a competition!

However, having the same geometry as my previous prototype machine but with the additional power of the bigger Polini 200 motor I had some idea that things would be OK. And the week previous I had gained useful information about my Paramania GTR20 while working with Lolo Salinas and Mike Campbell-Jones at the French Open competition.

With a break in the weather on the Saturday evening we started the comp. I also came armed with points gained from the previous 2 league events where I came in 2nd. Consistency through tasks is the name of the game for a good result in a championship and that was my focus, to do well in each task and not do anything silly.

I managed good, solid and consistent results and was elevated to 1st place where I stayed for the rest of the competition by keeping at the intensity and focus. My Paramania GTR 20 was the perfect choice for this competition giving wonderfully safe, agile handling in the slalom tasks and being fast, solid and incredibly efficient in the economy and navigation tasks.

A British Championship title for me and the first ‘classic’ style competition win for the GTR, Polini 200 and Parajet Zeneth with many more comps and wins to follow.

Final Day, Strong finish, GTR Takes the win.

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:41:36 +0000

A Whole book could be written on the final day of Fly Games World but here’s a summary of how it all went. For the first two posts of this event go here and here

The morning started with Pascal V, Emi, Grzegorz, Alex, Laurent (Lolo) and myself getting a penalty for illegal early practice only for this to be revoked half an hour later! My current 3rd place wouldn’t have been affected though thankfully.

First, in a great series of events was the 5 slowest pilots in a shootout for two places to join the top 10 to make a 12 pilot quarter-final. Dhiego unfortunately sucked a line from his Revo2 into his propeller on launch taking it down to four with Emi and Raul getting through.

We then had some dramatic action during the next two tasks of the semi-final with Grzegorz catching and breaking his little finger in the propeller on launch but still finishing the first task but unfortunately not able to continue from there.

Alex had a big, downwind collapse and had to land, sadly breaking a propeller and ending his task prematurely.

Lolo and I both flew fast and smooth with my result taking me into first place!!

The wind then picked up quite strong with the pylons dancing around and collapsing all over the place and there was word that the competition was valid at this stage and could be stopped with the top five pilots taking the podium positions and me being the winner.

Needless to say I was hoping and praying that it would not continue but it was decided after 20 minutes that it would go on.

I flew the first part of the task well but made an error coming downwind that put me too close to the last pylon. This sent me beyond where I wanted to be to slingshot myself to the finish and possibly the win.

The miscalculation cost me vital seconds and allowed 3 of the other pilots to make better times giving me 4th overall.

Laurent, flew the perfect head-to-head race with Alex, flooring him down the straights with the speed of his GTR18 and covering the corners well. It was very close at the end though with Alex making some aggressive tight turns to close on some of the distance but by the end of the race Lolo was there in front, a fairytale ending for him as he hadn’t received his engine until Friday night and got just a 10 minute practice in the dark!!

A first place win for the Paramania GTR the first of many!!

-Dean Eldridge

Fly Games World Championship, Brazil: Deanos Update: Day 2

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:14:26 +0000

Just a quick update before an early start tomorrow.

As the organizers have been waiting for everyone to turn up and everything to be fair, the briefings were not until today and the flying will start early tomorrow morning.

Thankfully everything arrived in one piece and I had no problems with customs, unlike a few others.

We are now all chomping at the bit to get in the air after chomping on the local delicacies the past day and a half, less eating more flying!!

Tomorrow will just be a shakedown test, no testing of tasks although we now know them all inside out after lengthy but very informative briefings. The organizers have obviously done their homework, have setup an amazing course right on the beach outside the hotel and have covered most eventualities with logistics and weather conditions, should that arise.

It’s really going to be a wonderful, visual spectacle for the people of Santos!

Friday will be a more intense day with timings of the actual tasks but in a practice scenario should there be the necessity to change anything.

Some of the tasks involve two pilots racing together at the same time, I am up against Grzegorz Krzyżanowski from Poland..! Then all hell breaks loose at the weekend with two frantic days of racing.

The scoring system seems very fair and is in a knockout style. 17 of us will be whittled down to 12, the top 10 plus the best 2 of the 7 remaining in a separate shootout. Sounds strange but is actually very fair. The 12 will then go down to the last 5 on the Sunday and then it’s an actual race between the top 2 of the 5 pilots, head-to-head for the final. All very interesting!

I am desperate to get out there fresh tomorrow and strut my stuff so will now catch up on some much needed sleep.

-Dean Eldridge

British Open 2011 Review

Theron — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:38:48 +0000

Besides being a bit of a rain-out, the British Open Paramotor Championships was a hit. People felt it was very organized and well run. Andy Phillips, chairman of the UK Paramotor Competitions Committee did a great job as the event organizer and was appreciated many times at the event. Andy told me he was relieved to have Michel Carnet, nine-time British champion as the task director this year. In talking with the participants the overall feeling was that it was interesting to see how someone different would run the task portion of the Open.

Between the rain storms full energy was put into the tasks, many winners were announced including Phil Jennings who took two places on the podium! Phil took 3rd overall in the British Open and 2nd in the National League results.

I would also like to note our other honored pilots that took the stage but not the podium Pascal Campbell-Jones and Dean Eldridge.

Please view the final results listings on the Paramotor Mag site here

I would also like to mention Nirvana for there great LED evening displays and thank Paramania for supplying the Pylons, although they were not used at the event for a Parabatix show they lit up the sky on the first evening of the Nirvana display!

There was also a spectacular ribbon show done by Dean and Pascal.

Per the usual, it is a bit of a worry when it comes to possibly disturbing the towns people of the area but they ended up showing their excitement for the Open with their own groups outside of the organized event space with clapping and cheering to encourage the event on.

I personally hope the event will be held in the same place next year, the turf farm was perfect! Some minor crashes happened but all in all it was a great event, I believe everyone left satisfied.