Barberton Nationals 2021
Barberton Nationals April 2021
Introduction
The Barberton Nationals 2021... to go, or not to go. From January 2021 I was torn with the decision.
Competitive flying for someone at my level simply seemed out of my reach. I was sitting on around 25 hours of airtime and around 50 flights (which in paragliding terms is a spring chicken 🐣).
It wasn't until I attended the Wilderness Festival in March 2021 where I met the (in?)famous Stef Juncker that I was convinced it was the right place for me... And oh my what a good decision!
Sunset at the Barberton Golf Estate where all the pilots met up after each days' flying to debrief and enjoy a brew🍺
Planning
Getting myself to Barberton, finding a place to stay, a way around and all the other logistics was actually quite a challenge. Entering a new sport leaves you in a place where you don't know neither the community nor the areas very well which means I generally had to wing everything I did!
I was staying in Wilderness at the time of the competition. From there, I organised a ride to the George airport to catch a flight to JHB with my glider and other baggage. In JHB, I rented myself a nice VW polo 4x4 (haha) which I then drove for 4 hours solo to Barberton. All on the same day! I arrived at Barberton in the afternoon to find everyone landing after the end of a great training day - awesome 👀
I met the other pilots (approximately 70!) at the Barberton Golf Estate where I checked in for the competition and got a free bag of tricks. I also got to see some of the friends I'd made at the Wilderness festival earlier that year which was awesome.
I stayed in a nice BnB which had 3 other rooms in it - all empty hmmm. anyways the details aside, I was in the place of action, with a vehicle and a place to stay!
First Day
Going into the first competition day without any comp experience and barely knowing anyone was a daunting experience. Pressure to perform respectably was unavoidable - that's just the way humans work!
We kicked things off with a morning briefing at the Golf Estate where we were given some insight into the process. Moods were calm, relaxed and generally positive amongst the competitors. A little banter being thrown around was definitely a good sign!
After that, we embarked on the 25 minute drive up the mountain to Lone Tree Hill launch. The task briefing for the day was given to us by the task committee and we were given some guidance by Stef again on strategies for best taking on our days' challenge.
And with that, 70 pilots began launching themselves off the hill! The thermals were large and smooth and easy to find right in front of the launch area. I was thankfully able to follow the more experienced pilots straight into it and follow them on a smooth turn to the clouds!
Picture of me about 100m above the launch site - probably 10 minutes after taking off - with the town of Barberton in the background.
I'd flown with lots of paragliders in the sky before, but this was my first real experience thermaling in a gaggle with around 15 pilots. I must say the experience was awesome and not really difficult. Everyone seems to move in unison and as long as people don't make sudden unpredictable movements its quite easy. I was one of the last into the gaggle as I took off late which gave me the benefit of being the lowest in the thermal so I got to take it easy and take a cheeky video (pic below)!
The conditions of the day provided a relatively easy flying experience. I was using my phone as my only instrument with no vario, so feeling thermals was a bit of a challenge - especially when not close to mountains for reference.
My primary objective was to stay up and complete as much of the task as possible. Watching the other pilots zooming past me, it was difficult not to get caught ip in the competitive mindset, but I kept my discipline and stayed up.
The only real challenge was at turnpoint 3 where I had to leave the mountains (and hence the nice thermals coming off them) to go over the smaller front ridges. I was fine getting there, but coming back I hit a hell of a lot of sink and was really looking for some decent lift to get me back to the clouds.
I had to resort to what I knew which was look for nice gulleys and potential triggers and veer off to them. This took me off course, but boy did it work!
I turned my glider to what I thought might be a nice trigger point - knowing that if it wasn't I was going down - and all of a sudden had half my wing torn down by a strong thermal. Recovery was quick and easy and fear didn't creep into my mind. I simply leant, pumped brakes and turned right back into the sucker! A solid 4.5 m/s climb got me right back where I needed to be. I also noticed one other pilot coming straight to me to join in!
Once I was up high again, the return trip to launch and the next turnpoint was easy. I got to experience my first cloud highway (pic below) which was quite a notable time in my flying career. Following that was bumpy, but paid its worth as it gave me an awesome glide to the next turnpoint.
Getting over launch and taking the 4th turnpoint forced me to think strategically about my plans from there. The day was getting late and conditions were weakening. As I started heading out to the 5th turnpoint, I was struggling to get any strong thermals to keep me in the game. Coupled with the lack of landing areas around the next turnpoint and my lack of experience in that area, I decided to land safely. I'd done well enough for my first day!
Rest of the competition
The first flight set a good tone for the rest of the competition. It gave me confidence regarding the location, my flying capability with the local conditions as well as the ability to fly with other pilots.
Below is the track from my first flight in Barberton. Definitely one of the highlights of my year and my first proper mountain flight.
Learnings from the Barberton Competition
Thermaling
Thermaling at Barberton was easy compared to most of the sites I'd flown before. This was due to the thermals being much larger (in terms of diameter) as well as stronger (climbs generally 2m/s - 5m/s). I also found that entering and leaving the thermals to not be uncomfortably turbulent.
Thermal sources were relatively easy to find. Following the ridge lines was definitely the easiest way to find the lift. Clouds were also visible indications of where to go. Houses and quarries were also generally reliable sources.
Patience was definitely a learning as well in that one would need to wait for thermals to trigger. I would fly over regions where I would expect something good only to find that I could just maintain my altitude. After waiting in that area for around 5 minutes, a thermal would eventually trigger - in one case I went from maintaining and almost leaving the area to finding a 4m/s climb.
Equipment
Equipment was definitely something I had to factor into my flight decisions. My glider being a mid B (Niviuk Hook 3) did not give me good glides between thermals. I opted to use about half-bar between climbs to try and optimise my glides, but sometimes found myself sinking at 3-5m/s which was horrible!
My instrument being my phone was great in that it gave me thermal assist (tells me where I was getting the strongest lift), but posed the challenge that it gave a delayed response time. This meant that I needed to rely on feedback from the wing to tell when I was in a thermal and try to gauge the strength for myself as to whether or not to make a turn. Once turning, I would look to my phone to see if it was efficient or not.
Community
Being new to the paragliding community is a challenge. One needs to sign yourself up and take a leap of faith to go and join the events knowing there may be nobody you know there. It can be daunting, but is a necessary evil as the new people I met turned out to be amazingly helpful and friendly once I got to know them.
Every pilot was willing to talk about their flying day and what they learnt which was a great learning experience and probably the best fast track to my flying progress.