It’s hot in Manilla right now, with temperatures soaring to over 40C as paraglider pilots battle it out at the the Manilla XC Camp, which runs 24 January to 3 February.
Organiser Godfrey Wenness has reported that the practice day was by far the best day so far, with the best pilots flying around 240km helped by a 20km/h tailwind, 3,000 m cloudbase and 4-5m/s climbs.
Since then the days have seen best flights of around 115-140km, but with another week to go there is plenty of big sky to look forward to.
The open distance XC comp was free to enter, a first for this size of competition.
“My idea was a no-cost XC gathering in one place for like minded pilots who just want to fly their own way,” said Godfrey. “Saving over $200 on entry fees frees up money for retrieves and other things.”
Scoring is being done by XC-Open organisers, and points go towards that.
Godfrey is posting daily updates on paraglidingforum.com and scoring is on XC-Open.org.
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