Polish Paragliding Open 2011

Monday, 29 August 2011

Last week, 21st - 27th of August, Dudek Paragliders Factory Team took part in Polish/Lithuanian Paragliding Open held in Slovenian Alps. It's main aim was not necessarily to win the comps - much more important was the last stage of testing our free-flying protos, i.e. comparison on the battlefield, in direct confrontation with other brands.

One of the best Polish pilots, Wojtek Maliszewski, flew a competition proto; Piotr Góźdź was using a EN-C category paraglider (5.9 aspect ratio) and Zbyszek Gotkiewicz a planned EN-B wing (5.45). They were accompanied by Jędrzej Jaxa-Rożen on a three years old Atak proto, proving that a 6.8 aspect ratio canopy is safe to fly even for the disabled paraplegic pilots when it is Dudek-made ;)
The competitors were watched from the air by Piotr Dudek himself - he is one of the few designers in the world able both to occupy top places in paramotor competitions and free-fly the Alpine thermals.
The results were very satisfying indeed. All prototypes displayed high performance; apart from a task won by Wojtek, every single transition or a thermal confirmed big potential of these canopies. Another significant information was the feedback received from other pilots - both those worrying about their R.11's domination, and the serial class racers not able to shake off the company of some recreational "carriage", were visibly anxious :)

 

Happy with achieved performance we are going to start the certification process in autumn, so that in a couple of months the whole new range should be available for the broad public. 

The results of the competition can be found at http://sport.psp.org.pl/en/ppo-2011/wyniki, with more details and pictures at http://sport.psp.org.pl/pl/ppo-2011/niusy?start=12.