"Once Brezina's in it, we might as well pack up and go home," somebody said as he glanced curiously through the list of competing pilots at the Partizánske airport on Wednesday evening. And a moment later it's clear from the look of disappointment on his face that he found what he was looking for. Although last year's winner of the championship in Vajnory, Pavel Štěpán, is missing, Pavel Březina and Josef Káčer have come from the Czech Republic. Even the weather has decided to cooperate; after Wednesday's windy cold front came on, the weather forecast calls for warm fall days with a temperature of 20°C.

Thursday, 25 September 2003
    "Okay, 7:30 it is," the competition's director, Mirek Kadečka, and organizer, Matúš Škvarka, said last night as they agreed on the opening of the start window, which means the contestants are getting up before 6 a.m. today. This may be one of the reasons powered paragliding competitions attract so many less pilots than paragliding events - a lot of competitors would oversleep such an early start window!

    First thing at the morning briefing, the organizers announce a 75-km navigational discipline with four turning points, an unknown number of checkpoint markers placed along the route and one timing gate. The pilots can start at any time during the start window (today 8 - 9 a.m.). But prior to taking off they have to announce the time they intend to fly through the timing gate on the route and what time they anticipate arriving at the goal. Then the contestants are awarded points based on how closely they match the two announced times, and points for the number of correctly identified markers along the route.





    The sky has been clear all morning, the temperature drops to 5°C and a hardly recognizable north wind is blowing. At 8:35, Pavel Březina is the first to start, tactically trying to confuse his fellow competitors by taking off to the west. But after a few kilometers, he heads south and selects the first leg of the route so that he doesn't have to return at the end of the discipline against the wind, which will definitely pick up during the day. Jožka Káčer and Ladislav Smrek take off immediately after him and it soon becomes clear that none of the pilots fell for Pavel Březina's little trick.

    But after 9 a.m. the wind picks up considerably and the pilots have no choice but to land successively along the route. At the second turning point, Matúš Škvarka detours from the flat route and tries to struggle his way back to the airport against the wind. With his last drops of fuel on the bottom of the tank, he is the only one to return and land directly in front of the hangar at 11:20, much to the delight of the local schoolchildren. Only Gabriel Kaňuch chooses to fly in the other direction, and because the wind weakens somewhat before noon, he is the only one to fly around all four turning points. But he runs out of fuel 12 km before the airport and has no other choice but to land. The navigational discipline is therefore annulled and the pilots move to the local bar for hot dogs and beer.



    Shortly before 4 p.m., there's almost no wind at the airport and the contestants successively take off for two rounds of the slalom discipline with precision landings. While flying along the course the pilots have to kick each of the nine two-meter-high poles, circle around windsocks and end by landing as closely as possible to the goal with the motor off. Even though the first round is managed successfully by all and had a clear winner, Pavel Březina, the second round has to be cancelled as the wind picks up again and the turbulence increases. Fortunately it ended with just one scratched frame and one sprained ankle.

    Only at 6 p.m. does the wind die down enough for the pilots to finish the third round of the slalom with precision landings. The quickly cooling air above the airport is now completely calm and, with the exception of Matúš Škvarka who had troubles with his motor, the others add points to their credit. Of course Pavel Březina gains the most points. Could his fellow competitors' fears about his entering the competition have been legitimate?




    The winner of all of today's disciplines is Pavel Březina, thus he takes the lead in the overall ranking as well. The start window for tomorrow's first discipline opens at 6:30 and, perhaps to keep some pilots from getting too much rest, closes at 7. Considering the low temperatures, warm clothes are going to be essential tomorrow morning …