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Event info

January is a great time of year to start your new flying season and where to go if not to warm and colourful Colombia!

For 2020 we are going to take you on an adventure in a land far, far away. Roldanillo, in Colombia, is an amazing venue.

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Flying site

Roldanillo is the principal home for paragliding and hang gliding events in Colombia. Located on the west side of the Valle del Cauca at the foot of the Cordillera Occidental the town sits at an elevation of 966 meters and has an average annual temperature of 23°C.

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  • 90 Pilots Confirmed
  • 90 Pilots total registered
  • 280 EUR Entry fee
Go to Pilot List
  • 90 Pilots max allowed
  • 22 Countries presented
  • ✅ EN-D & below allowed
    ❌ CCC wings prohibited
  • 🏆 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 ballast water available at launch

    Ballast on takeoff
  • 🥪

    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

  • Female class
  • Leisure Class (EN-B & below)
  • Sports Class (EN-C & below)
  • Serial Class (EN-D & below excluding 2-liners)
  • Super (Overall) Class (All wings)

Event info

January is a great time of year to start your new flying season and where to go if not to warm and colourful Colombia!

For 2020 we are going to take you on an adventure in a land far, far away. Roldanillo, in Colombia, is an amazing venue. With a grassy launches, colourful valleys, masses of landing options, some of the friendliest people on the planet, Sun, Flowers, Music, Good food and loads & loads of good flatland flying which everyone can enjoy. Even the inexperience pilots will find a nice challenge to help you improve.

You will find that getting to Roldanillo from the airport in Cali or Bogota is not difficult or expensive. They have great air-conditioned coaches or get a taxi, door to door.

Roldanillo has many place to stay including hotel,, houses, BandB etc. They cost from as little as 6 or 7 euro a night. Book early for the best deals.

January 2020 will be very interesting in Roldanillo. As well as the BGD Weighless, there will also be the British Open and the Colombian Nationals in the two weeks directly after the Weightless. If you are aspiring comp pilot you may be interested to fly all three competitions You will find each event stretches you a little more than the prior event, helping you towards consistent goals by the last week.

Few words about the competition itself:
The BGD Weightless is a New concept for a paragliding competition. An annual event, it will be based on weight as the theme. It is still an FAI Category 2 competition, flying by FAI rules however.... 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.

The BGD weightless is aimed at pilots looking for a sense of adventure, seeking to improve their Cross Country and/or competition experience or just enjoy a unique experience hanging out with some of the best pilots in the world. Hosted in a relaxed environment, Colombia will be the perfect venue, in the amazing and friendly town Roldanillo on the 5th to 10th January 2020.

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.

Remember, the event is a brand-new concept of competition where being big has less of an advantage, and carrying excessive ballast will not help you so much. We want to have a fun week where everyone feels like they have a chance of scoring well, regardless of what they fly, and how heavy they fly.

As always, we will be giving away lots of prizes at the end, all through our famous 'names in a hat'. There will be a brand new BGD glider of your choice, Naviter instruments and more. But you have to be there to win.

The Valle de Cauca is beautiful venue and the flying here is awesome. Large, grassy launches, buses to get you to the start and mountain views to remember. People in Roldanillo are very welcoming and helpful. They will offer you a ride even when you decided to hike and fly. If you ever flown in France you know how easy is hitchhiking there but it is nothing to compare with Colombia. Everyone will offer you help here.

Valle de Cauca is very safe place to enjoy Colombian food, nature atmosphere and to meet great people. With a very westernised element to the town, you will find plenty of places to eat great food, bars aplenty, fresh fruit and juices aplenty, good supermarkets and transport to launch just a few minutes walk from your accommodation.

We look forward to flying with you here!

The schedule for January will be:

BGD Weightless
4th January, Registration
5th January (Sunday) first tasks
10th January (Friday) last task

Colombian Nationals
11th January, Registration
12th January (Sunday) first tasks
17th January (Friday) last task

British Open
18th January, Registration
19th January (Sunday) first tasks
25th January (Saturday) last task

Flights from Europe typically cost 600-800 euros return
Accommodation per person sharing typically costs 7-12 euro (14-20 euro for room)
The competitions will include lunch packs and all transport throughout. Aside from the flight out, Colombia is a low cost venue.

Flying site

Roldanillo is the principal home for paragliding and hang gliding events in Colombia. Located on the west side of the Valle del Cauca at the foot of the Cordillera Occidental the town sits at an elevation of 966 meters and has an average annual temperature of 23°C.

Flying conditions are generally ideal in January and only a handful of tasks over the past few years have been cancelled. Out and return and cats‐cradle type tasks of up to 120km have been successfully flown in recent events using goals to the north, centre and south of the Valle de Cauca.

Primarily an agricultural region, the Valle de Cauca has excellent infrastructure and plenty of open space to land. Main highways runs along the east and west sides of the valley connected by secondary roads. The central valley area is bisected north‐south by the Cauca river. Agricultural roads and tracks provide access to farmsteads and plantations.

The task area is characterised by the foothills of the Cordillera Occidental to the west, the wide open agricultural valley and smaller grassy hills to the east. Primarily a sugar cane growing area, the valley is easily out‐landable in safety. Very few areas are fenced and access is generally unrestricted. Occasional inundation from the Cauca river presents the only landing hazard in certain areas (dependant on preceding rainfall).

Grape plantations and military bases are off limits. These areas will be marked on maps. Goal fields are available in abundance although must be selected on the basis of the cropping and harvesting cycles. They will be defined and verified by the organisation at least 2 weeks prior to the competition.

Airspace and Other Restrictions: There are airports at Cartago in the north and Tuluá to the southeast that have infrequent military traffic. The Meet Director and event team have daily communication with the air traffic controllers and radio contact during the task.

There is traditionally an extremely high level of cooperation with the civil aviation authority, air traffic control and the event organisation. In previous events domestic flights have been rerouted to avoid the task areas.

The area south of Tuluá has a ceiling of 9000 ft (approximately 2700 m) while to the north is 10,000 ft (approximately 3000 m).

Roldanillo and Valle de Cauca is a ‘friendly’ site suitable for all qualified pilots. The conditions are generally light with 3‐4 m/s maximum climbs. Wind is usually negligible.

The only area of strong climbs and known possible turbulence at the quarry to the south is avoided through sensible tasking.

Close attention is paid at all times to the meteo forecast to ensure tasks take pilots away from the mountains in the later parts of the day to avoid any leeside rotor due to the Pacific breeze.

Thermic breeze enters launch at around 9:00 am and tasks traditionally start at around 11 a.m. Breeze is generally very light throughout the launchable window with conditions occasionally becoming tail‐wind if the meteo indicates a strong Pacific breeze.

Site Safety Record: The area has an excellent safety record with few incidents. Thermic conditions are generally regarded as light and conducive to safe tasking for all levels of pilots. The few accidents in recent events have been generally caused by aborted launches or by inexperienced pilots failing to consider the necessary glide to the valley after thermalling up behind the take off area.

Take off "Aguapanela" D01 N 076 W April 24 14.00 12 41.00 1860

Competition tasks setting issues at Roldanillo:
Tasking will generally keep tp the following established logic:

1. Up to start: Start cylinders will be selected to allow pilots to climb and stabilise in various points close to the western foothills and Roldanillo in areas of known thermic activity. Experience and local knowledge allows us to select points that give various options for gaggles to wait, thus relieving congestion.

2. Start > midday : Flying in the western foothills to take advantage of thermic activity before the valley heats up and becomes active.

3. Midday > early afternoon: Flying out & return or cats cradle type tasks in the valley and utilising the eastern hills.

4. Goal: Located in the central / eastern part of the valley. The end of the speed section will be a cylinder, size & position to be decided by the task setting committee. The goal will be either a cylinder or a line for the end of task.

Maps of task area: Pilots will be issued with an A3 printed waypoint map showing waypoints, restricted areas and topography. Excellent base maps are available from the Colombian cartographic institute.(www.igac.gov.co). Large scale task maps will be available at launch / pilot briefing.

Roldanillo take off video

Selection and entry fee



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

All Pilots must hold the following:
- An FAI IPPI-4 licence
- An FAI Sporting Licence
- GPS which records a 3D track log,
- Medical insurance (including rescue and repatriation)
- Third party liability insurance

All the above will be checked at registration

Also:
- SMS text phone
- Recently repacked reserve parachute
- Certified helmet
- Harness with certified back protection
- 2M Radio capable of 143.900 Mhz FM

If you do not have ALL of the above you will NOT be permitted to participate.

The event will have weight limitations set accordingly:

Equipment weight maximum - 22kg*
Ballast maximum** - 3kg*

* Exceptions will be given where more weight is required for safety, ie being underweight for the wing
** Ballast is considered as any additional weight you carry exclusively to increase the wing loading, including but not limited to Water, Lead, Stones etc

The organisation will be providing GPS trackers at the venue for your safety.

Prize fund and scoring categories

We will give further details of the scoring categories in the coming weeks. Typically we expect:

- Superclass
- Serial Class
- Sports Class
- Leisure Class
- Womens Class

In the situation we have two liner wings at the event then they will be separated into a 'superclass'

There will be NO prizes for winning the competition. We will however be offering several prizes by way of a prize draw/lottery, which will include a brand new BGD glider, an instrument and more.

General schedule

More detail will be published in due course.

4th January, Registration
5th January (Sunday) first tasks
10th January (Friday) last task

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

How to get here

Avianca Airlines is the local operator to Colombia from Europe and is a good one to consider. But there are several airlines that fly to Colombia.

Ultimately you are looking at flying to Cali. You may find a direct flight, or you may fly via Bogota

The local organisers will be able to assist with your transfer from Cali to the venue.

Cra. 7 #824, Roldanillo, Valle del Cauca, Kolumbia
Roldanillo Colombia

Plane

Most international flights layover in Bogota's "El Dorado International Airport". The international and domestic terminals are connected by a shuttle. From Bogota take the quick domestic flight to Armenia, Pereira, or Cali where you can easily find ground transport to Roldanillo. For cost and convenience we highly recommend you fly into Pereira.
If you would like the organization to pick you up from Cali or Pereira please contact us with a detailed itinerary and plan. We would also appreciate a call or email during your layover in Bogota confirming your on time arrival.
Local airport taxis are safe and offer competitive pricing for 1 or 2 pilots with gear. Groups should contact the organization for pickup. Budget travelers can find buses to Roldanillo from Pereira, Cali, or Armenia. The bus terminals and airports are separate.

Pereira
Recommended city to fly into. 1 and 15 minute drive to Roldanillo.

Cali
The second most important airport in Colombia. Cali's “Alfonso Bonilla Aragon” airport services domestic and international flights and adds new international routs regularly. 2 hour drive to Roldanillo.

Armenia
Smaller airport and city with less service. 1 and 30 minute drive to Roldanillo.

Bus

From the bus terminals in Pereira, Cali, or Armenia look for the Roldanillo's local bus company De Occidente for safe and comfortable transport.
De Occidente: www.deoccidente.com/roldanillo/
The company is comfortable servicing international Paraglide pilots and very helpful.

Downloads

Waypoint files

Organizers

Brett Janaway
MD
Bruce Goldsmith
Competition Host
Brett A Janaway
Meet Director
Stan Radzikowski
Safety Officer

Contacts

Socials

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