The Bleriot Cup 2004

The 2004 Bleriot Cup was a 6 day event based in the Long Mynd area of Shropshire, England. British Paragliding Team members were Neil Roberts (Team Captain), Steve Pym, Simon Oliphant, Abigail Barr, Charlie Merrett, Burkitt Rudd (Team Reserve) & Flybubble Paragliding's Carlo Borsattino (Vice-Captain). Here's a report from the event, and the final results.

About the Bleriot Cup

The Bleriot Cup, who's name is inspired by one of the great pioneers of aviation, Frenchman Louis Bleriot, is one of the very few events where paraglider and hang glider pilots fly together on the same team.

The British paraglider and hang glider pilots compete together against the French hangie's and para's, over a succession of tasks run over several days, and the scores from both disciplines are combined at the end to find the overall winners of the Bleriot Cup for that year!

The 2004 Bleriot Cup was a 6 day event based in the Long Mynd area of Shropshire, England.

The 2004 British Paragliding Team

Selected by the British Paragliding Competitions Panel, the British Paragliding Team for 2004 is as follows (pictured above, from left to right, top then bottom) :

• Neil Roberts (Team Captain)
• Carlo Borsattino (Vice-Captain, Flybubble Paragliding)
• Charlie Merrett
• Simon Oliphant
• Steve Pym
• Abigail Barr (Team Lady)
• Burkitt Rudd (Team Reserve)
• Chris 'El Calvo Loco' Burns (Team Manager)

Day 1 report

The first task of the 2004 Free-Flight Bleriot Cup, on Saturday 21st August, was a 'Race to Goal' from The Long Mynd in Shropshire, via a turnpoint at Stourport-on-Severn, with goal at Bidford-on-Avon Gliding Club, a total distance of approximately 84km.

The first 'tests' for the British Paragliding Team came quickly! First, immediately after launch, our team frequency became blocked - not good for either team tactics or concentration having a constant hiss in one's ear! Second, female French team member Agnes messed-up her launch on her Ozone Vulcan, stumbling across take-off and into the competition lines of Carlo's paraglider! It looked like this might put an end to Carlo's flying for the day but, fortunately, Calvo - devoted team manager and British gentleman to the end - dived in front of Agnes to catch her and save Carlo's glider, despite having broken ribs from a previous 'nautical' incident!

Once Agnes had been carefully extracted from Carlo's lines - and fortunately neither one or nor thing having been damaged - he launched with 'a mission from Calvo' to reach each of his team members in the air and tell them to change to a new team frequency. He managed to do this, and we got most of our team back on radio.

Having overcome our initial problems, and with conditions around the hill very good, four of the British team (Carlo, Charlie, Neil, and Simon) got to cloudbase together, closely marked by three of the French (JC, Julian and Sebastian). They then all drifted together over the back towards Wenlock Edge, with Carlo leading, to be greeted by the usual dribbly-rubbish climbs that one seems to generally find there!

Meanwhile, other pilots from both teams had lost their climbs as they drifted over the back, and were left struggling to stay up. The first victims were quickly claimed by the sink-hole behind launch as one of each of the British and French paragliding teams went down before reaching the dribbly salvation of Wenlock Edge. British team lady pilot Abigail, who remained out of radio contact throughout the flight, was very low in the valley between the Mynd and Wenlock Edge, but still managing to stay in the air, at least for the moment! French team lady Agnes also found herself low in a similar position, and was being marked by Burkitt - whom she had not realised was in fact our team reserve, not a scoring member!

Up near cloudbase, over Wenlock Edge, the thermals were very weak and broken but Carlo, Charlie, Neil, and Simon decided to stick together and eek-out every last little bit of lift they could before carrying on towards the dreaded sink-hole that usually surrounds the Clee hills. French pilots Julian and Sebastian marked us, much to their 'Chagrin' as they couldn't believe how slowly we were going and the rubbish lift we were staying in, whilst JC took took a more southerly line and quickly found himself low. It seemed that, although the climbs we were in were very poor, there didn't appear to be anything better around! So, we drifted and we drifted... and the French got more frustrated - Sacrebleu!

"Agnes is down", we heard on the radio. Craftily led astray by our devious team reserve, Burkitt Rudd, Agnes had followed the wrong pilot, believing she was marking a scoring member of our team. In fact, Burkitt had been marking Agnes since she went over the back from the Mynd, and led her on a fruitless glide towards the Clee hills from low all the way to the ground. This meant that the British were now effectively one pilot ahead in scheme of things, as they had two scoring members down to our one.

Speaking of low, JC was still low. Very low. And he stayed like that for quite some time! In fact, so low was he, and for such a long time, that we had several erroneous calls of: "JC is down... Oh no, sorry. He isn't quite yet.", during the flight. Abigial said that she was truly amazed by quite how close to his own shadow JC was for such a long time.

Back to the lead gaggle, the lift was dying out and we were starting to turn in sink. Carlo, who was very nearly at cloudbase and had drifted a good way across the valley, decided that it was time to move on and headed off first towads the Clee hills. Niel, who was at cloudbase and slightly higher, followed shortly afterwards on his Gardient Avax RSE. Charlie took a slightly more southerly route on his Gradient Avax RS and Simon followed on his Skywalk Cayenne. The two French pilots split, with Julian following Simon on his Aerodyne Shaman, and Sebastian following Neil on his Edel Ace.

Carlo took a long glide across the valley, towards a hang glider that had passed our gaggle a few minutes earlier and appeared to have found some lift. For some reason, the hang glider flew staight through the thermal which he had marked. Not wanting to look a gift-horse in the mouth, Carlo took full advantage of it, climbing slowly at first, then steadily up to cloudbase just before the Clee hills. Neil arrived in the same thermal much lower, and started to climb, with Sebastian arriving lower still and losing climb. It looked like Sebastian might land for awhile, but he managed to find another climb and got back up again. Neil also managed to be get back up to cloudbase.

From then on, it was generally fairly slow tricky conditions pushing cross wind towards the turnpoint at Stourport-on-Severn, which put most of the remaining pilots on the ground. Those that made it to the turnpoint found it very hard getting any further, with big areas of sink to cross. Timing one's glides and reading the conditions was crucial - not to mention an element of luck!

Finding himself in a position of advantage, Carlo pushed ahead of the pack, picking up some good climbs on the way to the first turnpoint, and keeping high around the trickiest part of the course. He had to fight to stay up after a very long glide through a large area of dead air all around the turnpoint, then managed to get back up to cloudbase having finally found a good climb that took him back up to 'base. After this, he managed to stay reasonably high all the way to goal, leaving a good climb to get there sooner (after having been warned by Neil that a French pilot was on his way towards goal also), flying through another good climb on the way, and finding another over the goal itself!

Carlo was the only British Team member to make Goal today, with the next closest Brit being Abigail Barr, who landed approximately 19km short of goal. Charlie Merrett and Neil Roberts landed near the first turnpoint which was 45.7km from launch. Only one French Team pilot made goal, over an 1 hour and 10 minutes after Carlo, which was very good for our overall team results!

The Hang Gliding Team had a similar task as the Paraglider Team, a 104km Race to Goal from The Long Mynd. We believe that four of the British Team members made goal whereas all of the French Team landed short.

New British record!

We find out later, from Richard Westgate, that Carlo's flight is in fact a new paragliding British 'declared distance to goal' record!

Carlo's flight was approximately 83 km, landing at the declared goal for the day which was near the Bidford Gliding Club. The flight took approximately 2 hours 45 minutes, and the conditions were generally quite slow and tricky.

Richard Westgate confirmed on Monday 23rd August that this is a new UK 'Declared Distance to Goal' record.

Day 1 results

There was a worrying moment for us when we got back to download our GPS' and Charlie's MLR seemed to be playing up and forgetting it's own serial number!

Fortunately, Calvo was able to sort the problem out, and so Charlie's scores counted as well, which put the paragliding team 470 points in the lead after today.

So, after the first task, the British Bleriot Paragliding and Hang Gliding Team were well in the lead!...

Day 2 report

Weather Forecast for Sunday 22nd August was a light to moderate SE Wind, Team Captain Neil Roberts discussed options for the day and it was decided that 'The Wrekin' would be the place to go!

Conditions were strong and they were unsure if it was safe to run a task, Kitt was the willing volunteer who took off to test the conditions, and general consensus was that the conditions were OK to set a task.

The task for the day was a 60km race to goal from the Wrekin via a turnpoint at Shrewsbury to the goal at Chirk. A 10km minimum distance was set, only 1 pilot needed to make that 10k to validate the task.

An overcast sky, the wind was strong, the day was going to be difficult!

In the air the British Team tactic's were to mark the French, do as well as they did, and to maintain their position in the lead...

So, the Brits were happily chasing the French around the sky marking their targets but, conditions were picking up and then Charlie and Neil both got caught out!

Two French team pliots had led them both to a position where they were pinned into wind behind the hill, leaving them one option of turning and gliding over the back to their safe landing only a few kilometres away. The French had chosen their victims well, they had specifically targeted Charlie and Neil who were light on their wings and then chose 2 of their heavier loaded pilots to lead them astray!

Now the British were not in such a favourable position, 2 team pilots down, meaning less pilots to score those important points.

Things started to look up when the one decent climb of the day only had the remaining British Pilots rising to base and none of the French team. Abigail, Steve and Simon sat nicely above the French while Carlo and Kitt 'distracted' the French pilots!

French Team leader 'JC' pushed around the hill and then too got caught out by the conditions and was being blown over the back, having to take a glide to the ground. The wind and the conditions were picking up more and more, Abi was the next victim she too was caught in venturi, turned, ran and landed. Those that managed to stay in the air were in fact gale hanging for over 3 hours, eventually (and fortunately) pre frontal clouds were appearing, the wind was getting stronger and then rain started.

Not a moment too soon the task was 'canned' and everyone landed safely.

Meanwhile the Hang Gliders were having similar conditions at Bache Hill, but managed to take glides over the back. The furthest glide was 13km by a British Pilot this meant the Hangies had managed to beat the French once again.

Results after 2 days

Paragliding Team - 470 points in the lead.

Hang Gliding Team - 2718 points in the lead.

British Team overall results winning by a fantastic 3188 points!!!

The Brits are in a very strong position, but anything can happen at this stage!

Report Day 3, 4 and 5

No Flying - Monday 23rd, Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th August.

However there might be a slim possibility of some flying tomorrow... the last day!

Final day

We went to the Long Mynd and, whilst it was gale-hang-able, it wasn't safe to run a task.

Darn, no flying again! An opportunity for a full British and French team photo, though!

Final results

And the final result is.... the 2004 British Paragliding Team win the 2004 Bleriot cup! 😁

The 2004 British Paragliding Team (pictured above) :

Top row, from left to right:

• Neil Roberts (Team Captain)
• Steve Pym
• Simon Oliphant
• Burkitt Rudd (Team Reserve)
• Carlo Borsattino (Vice-Captain, Flybubble Paragliding)

Bottom row, from left to right:

• Abigail Barr (Team Lady)
• Charlie Merrett

About Louis Bleriot

Louis Bleriot (1872-1936)

(some text taken from the London Science Museum website)

Louis Bleriot made the first cross-Channel heavier-than-air flight in his No XI monoplane on 25 July 1909.

Though his small, air-cooled three-cylinder Anzani motor was barely adequate for the task, Bleriot bravely pressed on, landing in Dover to immense acclaim.

After crossing the Channel on 25 July 1909, Bleriot's aircraft was taken directly to London for display at the Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, where people queued to see it. It is believed that 12 000 people passed through the display.

The flight had a potent political effect in Britain. David Lloyd George (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) observed: "Flying machines are no longer toys and dreams, they are established fact. The possibilities of this new system of locomotion are infinite. I feel, as a Britisher, rather ashamed that we are so completely out of it."

Louis Bleriot was one of the pioneers of the standard-control layout still used today and patented his system in 1908.

Some say that Bleriot was almost as important as Orville and Wilbur!

Photos

Photos from Bleriot Cup 2004.

Bleriot Cup 2004 'Best Of'

A selection of pictures from the 2004 Bleriot Cup...

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Bleriot Cup 2004 - Practice Day

We were hoping to fly this day and get into the swing of things but, as with most of the competition, the Weather Sods did not wish to cooperate!...

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Bleriot Cup 2004 - Day 1

The first task was a 'Race to Goal' from The Long Mynd in Shropshire, via a turnpoint at Stourport, with goal at Bidford-on-Avon Gliding Club, a total distance of approximately 83km.

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Bleriot Cup 2004 - Day 2

The weather forecast for Sunday 22nd August was a "light to moderate SE wind". We discussed options for the day and it was decided that 'The Wrekin' would be the place to go...

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Bleriot Cup 2004 - Days 3 to 5

Weather stopped play from Monday to Wednesday, so we found ways to pass the time at Neil's Bleriot Cup "Big Brother" house. Kites, yoga, space-hopper hacki-sack and the odd barbeque...

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Bleriot Cup 2004 - Final Day

We went to the Long Mynd and, whilst it was gale-hang-able, it wasn't safe to run a task...

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