Nova Pilots of the Year 2011. L-R: Dominic Schaertl, Hannes Papesh, Hans Tockner, Wolfi Lechner and Mitja Jančič. Photo www.nova-wings.com
Every year since 2007 Austrian paraglider manufacturer Nova have awarded a Pilot of the Year award to a high-achieving pilot flying their wings. This year, they say, the task was so difficult they made not one or even two, but four awards!
After much deliberation, the prizes of four GoPro helmet cameras were given to Michi Mueller (CH) and Hans Tockner (AT) for coming out top in the standard class of the World XContest, and second and third in the sports class. The other two prizes went to juniors Dominik Schaertl (DE) and Mitja Jančič (SI) for outstanding performances in various competitions.
At the award ceremony, team manager Till Gottbrath said that he would have liked to have awarded even more :
“All our four participants at the X-Alps: Max Fanderl (CA), Masayuki Matsubara (JP), Martin Romero (AR) and Steve Nash (GB) would have definitely deserved the title as well, since generally every X-Alps participant demonstrated unbelievable performances.
Likewise our numerous national masters or top ranked pilots like Dimitris Bourazanis (GR), Peter Ertle (DE), Hans ter Maat and his son Chavert (NL), Dušan Durkovič (SI), Mauro Pianaro (IT), Micha Pohl (AT) or our newcomers Eirik Johansen (NO) and Idris Birch (GB)… If it were up to my choice, we would have liked it best to award them all.”
The company has enjoyed its most successful year ever, thanks in no small part to the EN B Mentor 2, which was flown by 19 of the top 20 pilots in the 2011 World XContest standard class, an amazing record!
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