And the award for the best T-shirt goes to… Simon, Chris and Berni accept their awards with short speeches and good grace. Photo: Nova
Nova have announced the winners of their annual Pilots of the Year award.
The awards, now in their tenth year, reward “outstanding performance as well as outstanding attitude” and are for pilots flying Nova wings.
The 2016 awards went to Berni Pessl, Simon Oberrauner and Chris Bessei.
Austrian Berni Pessl flew a Mentor 4 and Ion 4 and won the worldwide ranking of the XContest in standard, sport, and serial class.
Simon Oberrauner (AT) dominated the Bordairline hike-and-fly competition series on his Triton 2 Light.
And Chris Bessei, multiple German XC champion, received a special Fairness Award for helping a fellow pilot who had deployed his reserve.
Both Berni and Simon won similar awards last year, but Nova CEO Wolfi Lechner said, “their performance was simply too good,” to ignore. “Normally, we try not to select the same pilots as in the previous years, but Berni Pessl and Simon Oberrauner left us no choice.”
Berni Pessl not only won the Standard class of the worldwide XContest again, scoring 2,058 points – 400 points more than the second placed pilot – he also won the Sport and Serial class rankings of the XContest, while flying EN B wings.
Simon took part in four of the five Bordairline events, coming first and second twice – bringing him a step closer to his dream of competing in the Red Bull X-Alps.
When giving the awards, Nova say they consider flying achievements as well as positive attitude, commitment and good communication skills.
Nova’s Till Gottbrath said: “Chris Bessei is another pretty young but already very experienced pilot. He was a Nova Junior pilot nine years ago at the age of 16 and has since become German Champion various times.
“In 2016, he showed a great sportsmanship when he landing during a very promising XC flight to help a fellow pilot who had to deploy his reserve.”
Till added: “Chris sacrificed a top ranking as it was the best of the year with over 30 pilots flying a 200+ km FAI triangle. To us, his Fairness Award matters more than anything and reflects the core values of the Nova team.”
The awards were made at the annual Nova Team Pilots meeting, when all Nova’s Team Pilots and Nova Juniors get together to mark the end of the European season. This year’s meeting was touched with sadness, as pilots also remembered their friend and colleague Steve Nash, who was killed in tragic circumstances in Mongolia in late August.
