Competitions

The 3rd edition of the X-MAX trophy, which is now recognized by the FAI, has given the free flight fans 3 marvellous flying days.
Amongst the flex wings there were all the best national pilots, and the World Champions
Christian Ciech and Alex Ploner as well as the multi adorned Manfred Ruhmer, the winner of the last X-MAX edition.

Amongst the Paraglider pilots there were other prominent names like Patrucco, Bottegal, Berta and Dondi as well as other very good local pilots.

Sunday is definitively THE “X-MAX” day!

The sky is spangled with very nice streets of cumulus under which the thermals are very generous.

In these conditions the pilots are able to show their flying skills.

The hang gliders fly in overall 3060 km, with an average of 110 km each! While the paragliders fly in overall 738 km, with an average of 57 km per pilot!

Christian Ciech wins this day on the flex wing (LAMINAR MR14) with a sensational triangle of 178,8 km (Bergamo-Monte Ledù-Laveno), followed by Manfred, who makes a triangle of 170 km with an average of 38 km/h, then Tullio Gervasoni (LITESPEED 4) with a triangle of 164 km, followed by Davide Guiducci, who closes a triangle of 162 km and then followed by Ignazio Bernardi (LAMINAR MR13) with a triangle of 160 km. The remaining pilots follow with flights between 90 and 133 km!

With the rigids, Grossi and Salvetti accomplish 2 flights of 112 km each, the first with an average speed of more than 40 km/h which makes him the winner of the day.

The Paraglider pilots are not less than the others. In fact, the winner of the day is Patrucco who flies a triangle of 85 km with an average speed of 21 km/h, followed by Bottegal with a closed triangle of 72 Km and then Marini who closes a triangle of 61 Km. Emilio Bonzanini flies 96 Km towards Northeast and lands right before St. Moritz.

The general results, considering the 2 best flights of each pilot, are the following:

Flex wings:
1° MANFRED RUHMER (Icaro2000 - Laminar MR14)
2° DAVIDE GUIDUCCI (Moyes – LITESPEED 4)
3° CHRISTIAN CIECH (Icaro2000- Laminar MR14)

Paragliders:
1° PIERANDREA PATRUCCO (APCO – Keara s)
2° MAURIZIO BOTTEGAL (SWING – Stratus 4)
3° EMILIO BONZANINI (PARADELTA – BORA 2)

Rigid wings:
1° ETTORE GROSSI (Air-Icaro2000 – ATOS)
2° FABIO SALVETTI (Air-Icaro2000 – ATOS)

The winners are awarded by the president of the CIVL, Olivier Burghelle, who was very thrilled by the X-MAX formula, and promises his insertion in the international PWC competitions (Paragliding World Cup).

The new way of doing competitions

Read the sky, choose the route, fly fast and go far

In any other competition the important thing is to fulfill the flight task, which is indicated by the competition director, in the shortest possible time.

To win the X-Max competition, you need much more !!!

Flight skill is important but you must use much more your brain:

be able to interpret the evolution of the weather conditions
decide your take off window
choose how and where to fly
decide if it is more convenient to fly
- a free distance
- a round trip
- a triangle
- alone or with other pilots

The opinion of Angelo Crapanzano

Thanks X-MAX

Finally we have a free distance competition without retrieval hassles. It's nice to see it's possible to fly, in competition, triangles from 100 to 170 km and get back to goal in normal days, instead of tasks of 80 km where the fast pilots get goal in just over two hours but many pilots land out and have to be retrieved...

With the X-MAX format, pilots are flying more against themselves than the opponents and some brain has to be used: one have to fly the longest distance... but needs to get back to score high points.

In this kind of competition it's useless to follow somebody else trying to beat him on the final glide; pilots do fly often alone and to choose the best route is as important of piloting skills.

During the X-MAX most pilots get back in goal and are often quite happy because they got the maximum they could achieve in that day (it's not by accident that both last year and this one, several pilots made their own personal record). In case are not satisfied they can only blame themselves... like I did in the last day where I was not confident going forward, and made a "V" shaped flight of 160 km (which has been scored like a 110 km triangle) instead of trying a true 170 km triangle :-(

You probably understood I like this competition format, mainly because some "new" flying skills (which are not so important in classic competitions), are required.

- it's the pilot to choose when to takeoff... and he cannot blame conditions were not good enough

- it's the pilot to choose his route... and cannot blame the task setter if it was too difficult or too easy

- it's the pilot to decide when to go back toward goal... and cannot blame anybody if he lands short

Maybe some good pilots will find this difficult, after many years of flying controlling the opponents, but good pilots learn fast and the ranking proves the good ones are, more or less, still on top.

A competition like the X-MAX is also safe and very easy to organize:

- safe because any pilot can respect his own safety margins and is not pushed to fly a task above his skills

- easy because it's enough to have a good map on a wall (... which was missing at Laveno), plus a good meteo forecast and a computer in the goal field. Pilots go on takeoff when they want and do whatever they want.

Having paragliders and hanggliders together was not at all a problem; it was even interesting to note the differences in performances and flying characteristics (just note Patrucco, the winning paraglider, would have been 14° in the hangglider ranking). Even in takeoff, despite different needs and limited space, there were no problems staying together and everything went fine. In flight we had no crowding, even above takeoff.

The X-MAX format proved itself and Olivier Burguelle (CIVL President), who came to check it out, is now convinced to use it in the Paragliding World Cup too. He asked me to modify the formula (which have been designed specifically for Laveno) to adapt it formula to any flying site and to be able to have an "X-MAX" day within a classic competiton format.

The second requirement is already made, while the first one will be very soon and Ivan Twose will implement it into the next version of Compe-GPS. We'll check everything on May 24th during the Valerio Albrizio Trophy (in Laveno again).

Just a quick note: Manfred won (like always) but the "old guys" (read Mino Bricoli and Angelo Crapanzano) proved the experience is not for nothing... and did well against the "youngs".

Next year, young and olds, we'll have to start the Manfred hunting :-) :-)

nice flying,

Angelo