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Event info

The BGD Weightless is a brand new concept for a paragliding competition. An annual event, it will based on weight classes. Up to now flying heavy has always been an advantage. This has resulted in heavy equipment and ballast for competitions.

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Flying site

Kobala is a famous flying site in Soca river valley in Slovenia. With the landing place in Tolmin it is intended for flying hang gliders and paragliders, for sport flying, competitions, events and training hang glider and paraglider pilots.

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  • 120 Pilots max allowed
  • 23 Countries presented
  • ✅ All certified wings allowed
  • 🏆 FAI Status = CAT 2 🏅
  • left before start of event
  • 🛰️

    The organiser will supply Live trackers to you, for safety and scoring

    Live trackers supplied
  • 🚁

    The region supports helicopter rescues

    Helicopter rescue
  • ⚕️

    There will be medical rescue services at launch

    Medic on takeoff
  • 🥾

    There will be retrieve vehicles available to return pilots to HQ

    Retrieve included
  • 💩

    There are toilets at, or near, the launch

    Toilets on takeoff
  • 📢

    The organisers are using Airtribune for registration, tracking, blogging and to publish scores

    Airtribune blogging
  • 🥪

    There will be daily lunch packs for pilots

    Lunch packs
  • 🌲

    The organisers have commmitted to Carbon Offset the event and/or Plant a Tree for each competitor

    Carbon offset / Plant a Tree
  • ♻️

    The organisers support reducing the use of unnecessary plastic at the event. This includes NOT giving disposable water bottles

    Plastic reduction

Prize funds and scoring categories

  • 80kg or less Sports
  • 80kg or less Serial
  • 81 to 100kg Sports
  • 81 to 100kg Serial
  • 101kg+ Sports
  • 101kg+ Serial

Event info

The BGD Weightless is a brand new concept for a paragliding competition. An annual event, it will based on weight classes. Up to now flying heavy has always been an advantage. This has resulted in heavy equipment and ballast for competitions. BGD would like to change all this and encourage people to fly with light equipment. Women and Men will not be separated as the weight classes will help to even up the sexes.

The BGD weightless is aimed at up and coming pilots looking to improve their Cross Country, competition experience or just enjoy a unique experience hanging out with some of the best pilots in the world. Hosted in a relaxed environment, the first event will be held in Slovenia in the famous beautiful Soca Valley from 2nd to 8th September 2018.

Leading the event will be Bruce Goldsmith and he will have a world class team behind him to present one of the most advanced events in the world. The event is particularly suited to leisure pilots that have flown some small XC's(20km+) and have flown in one or two fun competitions, but it will not exclude more advanced pilots, who will also benefit from participation. 2-liners will not be allowed to participate

Flying site

Kobala is a famous flying site in Soca river valley in Slovenia. With the landing place in Tolmin it is intended for flying hang gliders and paragliders, for sport flying, competitions, events and training hang glider and paraglider pilots. Kobala ia a popular paragliding and hang gliding take-off, as well as an excellent starting point for long cross-country flights on the southern crest of the Julian Alps and a well-known competition site. The best conditions for long cross-country flights are with a very weak general N or E wind. However, the western wind, more suitable for local flying, will normally predominate. Allowed airspace up to 2900 m AMSL.

Kobala take-off 1080 m ASL, N46° 10.86, E13° 46.76.
Suitable wind direction: E, SE, SW, W.
A very large ,nicely maintained meadow on the pointed top of the forest-covered Kobala hill. Two take-off directions are possible depending on the direction of the wind. It is located above the town of Tolmin offers good conditions to launch in a wide range of winds, from ENE to WNW. Although not too big, on a flying day gentle breeze allows many pilots to launch quick without any problems. Access 4 km by car, right to the take-off area.

Landing: official Kobala landing is 2 km after the city of Tolmin on the road going to Kobarid, rigth side of the road along a dirt road, 500m from main road. good reference point is the helipad, there're two windsocks on this field. the emergency landing field is in front of Tolmin, where the road splits like figure V. During the competition we will be using the main landing by the campsite Gabrje, located 2,5 km NW from the official Tolmin landing.

Selection and entry fee


The event is open to all pilots, however, a strict selection process will be applied to participants and a place is not assured.

All Pilots must hold the following:
- A minimum of IPPI4 (or equivalent national licence),
- GPS which records a 3D track log,
- Medical insurance (including rescue and repatriation),
- Third party liability insurance (750,000€ minimum).
All the above will be checked at registration
Also:
- SMS text phone,
- Recently repacked reserve parachute,
- Helmet,
- Harness with back protection,
- Altimeter (to comply with air traffic restrictions),
- 2M Radio.
If you do not have ALL of the above you will NOT be permitted to participate.
2-liners will not be allowed to participate

Prize fund and scoring categories

To Be Confirmed

But all categories will be based on Max allowed weight of the Wing

ie if your wing is 75kg-90kg, then you are in the category that allows up to 90kg. It is NOT your take off weight, but the certification weight that counts.

General schedule

Saturday 1st September
REGISTRATION CANCELLED

Sunday 2nd September Task 1
Tasking is cancelled* for this day. Instead we will organise Registration on the Sunday

14h00 – 20h00: Registration and GPS Upload

Monday 3rd September Task 1
From this day we will carry on as originally planned, but this day is now Task 1

08h30 Introductory and Safety Briefing MANDATORY, all competitors
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ

Tuesday 4th September Task 2
09h00 Daily Briefing
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ
21h00 Mid week party

Wednesday 5th September Task 3
09h00 Daily Briefing
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ

Thursday 6th September Task 4
09h00 Daily Briefing
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ

Friday 7th September Task 5
09h00 Daily Briefing
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ

Saturday 8th September Task 6
09h00 Daily Briefing
09h30 Transport to launch
17h00 - 19h00: GPS Download @HQ
19h00 Drinks and Food
20h00 Prizes and Trophies
21h00 Party and merriment

Daily schedule

On competition days:

08h30: Headquarters open
09h00: Morning briefing @ HQ
09h30: Transportation to take off
10h15: Task and Safety Committee meetings
11h15: Pilot briefing/Task briefing
11h30: Take-off window opens (depending on the actual weather conditions)
16h00: Scoring office opens
19h00: Provisional results (depending on the last pilot being retrieved)

The daily schedule is subject to change. Any changes to the schedule will be posted on the whiteboard in HQ. Changes will be announced by the Meet Director at the Daily briefing

Accommodation and Activities

Tolmin is an Alpine holiday town, both winter and summer. It has a multitude of options to suit all budgets
The base for the competition will be at Camp Gabrje, which offers a 10% discount to competitors for the period of the competition. Camp Gabrje is a few kms from Tolmin town. The campsite caters for tents,caravans and camper vans. It has on site shower facilities, a bar and basic food. Alongside there is also a landing field, which will be the prefered goal field during the competition. HQ will be located at Camp Gabrje.
Tolmin, the nearest town, has a multitude of accommodation available. You can search in Tolmin, Gabrje, Volarje, Kamno and Kobarid there are many private guest-houses, with prices at around 15-40 EUR.

The Camping Gabrje campsite is the location of competition HQ. All the facilities you need including electricity, toilets & showers, restaurant & bar, Wifi, and the competition HQ are within 2 minutes walk of the camping pitches. For camping there is no need to pre-book, simply register at the front desk on arrival.
Further details of the campsite can be found at:
CampGabrje http://www.camp-gabrje.com/

Hotels & Pensions:
There are several pensions and hotel options in and around Tolmin.

The Tolmin Tourist website: https://www.dolina-soce.com/en/
Local goings-on and services.
In: English, Italian, German, French & Slovene

Booking.com https://www.booking.com/
A large selections of hotels in the region available for booking.
NOTE: Almost all hotels will require some form of transport to get to the HQ as they are minimum 1km from the camp site.

How to get here

By car:
Tolmin is about a 14 hour drive from Calais/Dunkirk, about 6 hours from southern France and just under 3 hours from Venice, Italy.

Airports
The nearest main international airport is Venice(VCN) (3 hours drive). Trevesio (3 hours), Trieste (45 mins) and Ljubljana (90 mins) airports represent attractive alternatives. Venice airport is serviced by many airlines.

Train:
Trains from Venice to the Tolmin region (Most na Soci) cost about 40 Euro.

Taxis:
Taxis from Venice to Tolmin cost about 300Euros.

Car hire:
There are a multitude of car hire companies operating out of all the airports. If hiring your car in Italy please make sure you have insurance and permission to cross the border into Slovenia. There is not normally any additional charge for this.

3310 Galicija, Slovenia
Tolmin Slovenia

Plane

The nearest international airports are Ljubljana (85 km away) and Trieste (70 km away) in Italy. From there you can catch a bus to Tolmin.

Bus

You can get to Tolmin by bus from most of the major cities in Slovenia.
If you travel from Ljubljana, you will find the timetable here:
http://www.ap-ljubljana.si/en/
If you travel from Nova Gorica, you will find the timetable here:
http://www.avrigo.si/potniski_prevozi/linijski_promet/vozni_red/

Train

There is a train station at the nearby town of Most na Soci. It is about 10 minutes by taxi to Tolmin. Connecting trains are hard though as it is a small service. You can come from the north, through from Austria, with a change at Jesenice. You can also board at Nova Gorica in the south.

There is a Car Train service from the north than can turn a 1 hour car drive into a 35 minute ride through the beautiful valleys. But there are only 3 or 4 services a day, from Bohinska Bistrica.

Car

You can get to Tolmin either from Kobarid, Nova Gorica or Ljubljana/Idrija. The Headquarters are located at Gabrje Campsite, which is ca. 4 km NW from Tolmin by the Soca river.

Downloads

Waypoint files

Organizers

Brett A Janaway
Event Organiser and Meet Director

Contacts

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