Competitions
The Malvern Club does not directly organise competitions, but the club recognises the importance of competitions to progression of the sport and individuals. It’s no coincidence that many of the best pilots are, or have been involved in the competition scene.
Club Awards and Trophies
To support the spirit of competitions, the club gives awards each year to recognise the pilots pushing the boundaries and those who are actively improving their flying skills. Details of the awards are given on the Awards & Trophies. page, but there are some common rules for them:
Paragliders
- For the various competitive paragliding awards, only flights in the UK, and logged on the XC League (www.xcleague.com) or XContest (www.xcontest.org/united-kingdom/) under the “Malvern” banner are counted. They are, after all, club awards. If Flights are logged under a club name other than the “Malvern” banner, they will be disregarded for the purposes of the club awards – to qualify, flights must be logged ONLY under Malvern (XC League and XContest) banners.
- The competitive paragliding awards will generally be scored using FIA rules. So turnpoint flights will be scored on optimised distance (no multiple), flat triangles will be scored at a multiple of 1.3 (15-35 km) or 1.7 (35km or above) and FAI triangles will be scored at a multiple of 1.7 (15-35km) or 2.0 (35km or above). Where different distances are shown for the same flight on Leonardo and the XC League, generally the greater distance will be used. This is not uncommon, due to the slightly different optimisation software used on the two websites.
- Where paragliding flights are logged on XC League as “declared”, then flights to goal or turnpoint flights will be scored at a multiple of 1.25 (if over 25km) flat triangles will be scored at a multiple of 2.0 (if over 35km) and FAI triangles will be scored at a multiple of 2.7 (if over 25km). Where declared flights are logged on both Leonardo and XC League, the optimised distances used will generally be those on XC League.
Hang gliders
- For hang gliders, only flights logged on the UK National XC League (www.uknxcl.co.uk) under either the “Malvern Hang Gliding Club” or “Malvern Aerotow Group” banners will be counted, and the scores given for them on the league will be used.
All flights
- Only Malvern Hang Gliding Club members are eligible for awards.
- Flights which breach air law or site rules will not be included. Members are asked to “self-report” any breaches of which they are aware, not risk the shame of being “found out”.
- Flights of less than 10km (open distance), flights which are deemed to be “ridge runs” or where the distance from launch to landing is under 5km will not be included.
- When deciding awards for which both paragliders and hang gliders are eligible, the multipliers used on the hang glider National XC League scoring system will be adjusted to FAI multipliers (as above) to ensure fairness.
- The Committee reserves the discretion to disqualify flights which it considers ought not to be included for any exceptional reason. The decision of the Committee on any matters which it considers doubtful will be final.
The “non-competitive” awards are conferred at the discretion of the committee. Nominations (with supporting details) are always welcome.
British Club Challenge
If there is enough interest amongst newer pilots, we have in the past competed in the British Club Challenge. This gives CP Pilots the ability to go XC under supervision and is a great way to be on the right hill on the right day. If interested, get in touch with the Chief Coach.
Leonardo Flight Logs
Whether or not you wish to be involved in the club’s competitions, Leonardo is a great place to log your flights so that you can refer to them later and analyse how others have flown from various Hills.
Leonardo - All Malvern Members Flights
If you would like to join
- Navigate to the Leonardo homepage.
- Create yourself an account.
- Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. >Simon Dilworth, who will add you to the list of club members
Hang glider pilots, despite it being PG dominant, HG flights can also be registered. If you want your flights to count towards the club awards, though, don’t forget to log them on the National XC League as described above.