British Open Competitions

The Panel has reluctantly decided that owing to on-going uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic there will be no British Championship Open in 2020. We had hoped to be able to organise something later this summer but with general concerns over renewed outbreaks and the potential for further travel disruption we felt we couldn’t be 100% sure of holding a fair and sporting competition.

We are planning our next event, the British Winter Open, once again at Roldanillo, Colombia, in January 2021. It would be great to repeat last year’s epic event with the legendary racing conditions of the Cauca valley. Local organiser Lucho Jimenez has exciting plans to take us on a mini tour of the valley to include the Piedechinche and Anselmo Nuevo launches. Obviously all will depend on the situation with regards Covid-19, so fingers crossed. We hope to have positive news for you later in the year.

The Competitions Panel has reluctantly decided to cancel the British Championship Open in Grand Bornand in June.

We had left the decision as long as possible hoping that the situation would improve sufficiently for a safe and sporting competition to be run. Unfortunately despite the positive statements from the French government this week the local organisers are not sufficiently confident that the local infrastructure will be able to cope with an international competition in June. We totally understand and agree with this position and hence in the interests of safety for competitors and the local community the competition is cancelled. All competitors will receive a full refund in the next few days.

Over the coming weeks the Panel will review whether we can stage the Championship Open in August/September at different overseas venue; currently our options include St. Andre, Tolmin and Ager.

The main issue of unknown future control conditions on overseas travel however remains and should the situation not improve sufficiently by early June we will look at running a mobile UK round (North South Cup style) in late August.

We hope to return to flying soon and will post here again as soon as we have more news for you.

Payment for the British ‘Championship’ Open, Le Grand-Bornand, 2020 is now open for British Pilots.

In light of the uncertainty over Coronavirus the panel and local organisers of the competition have agreed the following refund policy in the event of cancellation for whatever reason.

100% refund up to 15 days before the start of the event on 20th June.

80% refund up to 7 days before the start of the event.

20% refund within 7 days of the start of the event.

Thereafter any refunds are solely at the discretion of the local organisation.

The British Championship Open 2020 will be held in Le Grand-Bornand, France from Saturday 20th June to Sunday 28th June.

Registration and practice task will be on Saturday 20th June, first task will be on Sunday 21st June and final task will be on Sunday 28th June, thus allowing for 8 potential task days.

Online registration for the competition will be open soon.

We have a lot of pilots registering for the Winter Open. Just to reiterate your place at the competition is not confirmed until you have paid and we will not be opening payment until 21st September for non British pilots; payment for British pilots will begin on the 14th September. Until that date other pilots will continue to register who may have a higher WPRS ranking than you and so if you are a non British pilot your position on the pilot list is liable to change until that date.

Online registration for the British ‘Winter’ Open 2020 will commence on Monday 9th September at 12.00 (midday). Please note British pilots will be ranked by date/time of registration. Pilots of other nations will be ranked by WPRS.

Live tracking for the British Championship Open, Pedro Bernardo is at https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2713

Daily updates and results for the British Championship Open, Pedro Bernardo can be found at https://airtribune.com/british-championship-pedro-bernardo/

The British Open will return to Roldanillo in 2020. We are just now trying to finalise dates, but for sure will be between end of January and beginning of February. So pencil in your diaries, but do NOT book your flights just yet!

The British Championship Open 2019 will be held in Pedro Bernardo, Spain from Saturday 22nd June to Friday 28th June 2019.

Registration and practice task will be on 22nd June, first task will be on Sunday 23rd June and final task will be on Friday 28th June.

Registration is now open.

Registered pilots will be ranked by their highest WPRS position in the past 2 years. Full details are at https://pgcomps.org.uk/?page_id=511

The British Open Competitions 2019 will comprise for the first time a Winter Open at the beginning of the year and a British Championship Open during the summer.

The British Winter Open will be held in Roldanillo, Colombia from Saturday 26th January 2019 to Saturday 2nd February 2019.

Registration and practice task will be on 26th January and final task will be on 2nd February.

Roldanillo is a world class paragliding competition venue, having hosted numerous National events, the World Cup and the World Paragliding Championships in 2015. The venue boasts exceptionally reliable flying conditions in January/February, with only a handful of tasks over the past few years have been cancelled. The Winter Open will be run back to back with the Colombian Nationals, which will take place either the week before, or the week after the British Open, giving pilots the opportunity to extend their winter flying in Colombia. We will let you know when the Colombians have confirmed their dates.

Pilot must have previous competition experience, for example FAI Cat2, BPCup, GWO, Chabre Open, etc., to qualify for a place.

Online registration for the Winter Open will begin at 12.00 on Saturday 15th September 2018 and payments for the competition will be accepted from Saturday 6th October 2018. Payment for the competition will be taken in order of date/time of registration until the competition is full, so register early to avoid disappointment.

The International airport at Bogotá is 1 hour by air from the regional airports of Pereira and Armenia. Roldanillo is 1 hour by road from Pereira and Armenia. Cali International Airport is 90 minutes by road from Roldanillo.

The venue and dates of the British Championship Open have yet to be finalised, but it can be confirmed the competition will be in held in Europe, likely in Spain in June. The venue and exact dates will be announced as soon as possible.