Understood
This website is using cookies. We and our partners use cookies on this site to improve our service, perform analytics, personalize advertising, measure advertising performance, and remember website prefrences. By using the site, you consent to these cookies. More details
  • Blog
  • Summary
  • Details
  • Pilots
  • Results
  • Registration

Event info

Shumen-XC is pleased to invite you to the annual edition of its Open Distance Cross Country competition. It will be held from 06 till 11 August.
As we like the endless flatlands surrounding the plateau of Shumen, we decided not to put limits in our competition tasks! Shumen XC Open is not the traditional competition with pre-defined route.

Expand page for more details

Flying site

Shumen plateau is situated in the northeast part of the Bulgaria and is known as the most thermic country part. The place used to be a National Gliders education center in the years of communism. The plateau with it`s 3 take offs for wind directions from North through East to South, surrounded with endless flatlands is a really good point to start your long open distance flight or in the days with less wind your big triangle.

Expand page for more details
Go to Pilot List
  • 50 Pilots max allowed
  • 4 Countries presented
  • ✅ All wing types allowed
  • 🏆 FAI Status = CAT 2 🏅
  • left before start of event

Event info

Shumen-XC is pleased to invite you to the annual edition of its Open Distance Cross Country competition. It will be held from 06 till 11 August.
As we like the endless flatlands surrounding the plateau of Shumen, we decided not to put limits in our competition tasks! Shumen XC Open is not the traditional competition with pre-defined route. A suitable vector (direction) is chosen each day according to the wind forecasts. Winner is the pilot who manages to fly furthest before the deadline. Race the wind, chase the clouds, and reach the furthest horizon!
Video from last year’s comp.

Flying site

Shumen plateau is situated in the northeast part of the Bulgaria and is known as the most thermic country part. The place used to be a National Gliders education center in the years of communism. The plateau with it`s 3 take offs for wind directions from North through East to South, surrounded with endless flatlands is a really good point to start your long open distance flight or in the days with less wind your big triangle.
Every year plateau welcomes pilots from all around Bulgaria and the world for the annual edition of Shumen-XC Open to enjoy big distance stresses flying in the flats.
All take offs are located on top of a plateau with average altitude of 440m ASL and average displacement of 250m. Located 100 km west from the seaside it is well protected from the sea breeze of Black Sea and gives you plenty options for flying to the west. To the north there are 100 km of flatlands till the river of Dunau. On the south there are 20 km of flatlands until you reach the lower part of Stara Planina mountain ridge, which you can easily pass and extend your flight as far as to the Turkish or Greece border.
Average flatlands altitude is between 100m and 200m ASL. Prevailing winds for the area during the winter and early spring are west and northwest. During the summer till the late autumn they vary from northeast to south.
Active flying season starts from April till the late September. As in the beginning of the spring thermal activity time is ~4-5 hours from 13:00 till 17:00.
In June and July the average flyable time increases to 7-7.5 hours from 12:00 till 19:30. Cloud base stays pretty much the same from the spring to the autumn, varying between 1800-2600m ASL. Average thermal strength is 2-3 m/s in the spring and early summer and 2-4 m/s in the summer. Best takeoff time is ~12:30. It is possible to takeoff earlier and work the small thermals and bubbles, but the risk of bombing out is bigger.
Winter is generally non-flyable. Only ridge soaring is possible along the plateau.

The longest Open distance flight in Shumen was done by Yavor Plashilski – 242.6 km in August of 2008.
Here you can check some of the best flights made from Shumen.
There are 3 existing take offs plus 1, which is still in progress. All take-offs are accessible by car or a taxi. It is possible to make top landing on each of the takeoffs available.

East take off - 446m ASL (
N 43.258377 
E 26.926317
)
Exposure: ENE,E,ESE directions with up to 6-7m/s wind speed
The place is suitable for east, north-east and south-east winds with dominant east component. If the north or south component is stronger there’s risk to stick into the airflow and go down.

South take off - 440m ASL (
N 43.251452 
E 26.925203
)


Exposure: SSE,S,SSW directions with up to 6-7m/s wind speed
Suitable for south, south-east and south west winds with dominant south component. There’s a rotor before the takeoff when the wind is southeast.

North take off - 450m ASL (
N 43.242365 
E 26.921227

)
The place is situated exactly above the visitors’ place of monument “1300 years Bulgaria”. Suitable only for north winds, the place is featured with its “step-shape”. It is not recommended to try taking off in light winds and it is not possible to do it in windless conditions. The closest landing places are the school yards situated from the right.

Selection and entry fee

Max number of participants is linited to 50 pilots.
Registration start date August
Entry fee 30 Euro
Bank transfer:
Bank: ProCredit
Bank Bulgaria
Name: StanislavVelchev

Bank account number: BG12PRCB92301029511327
[BGN]
BIC Code: PRCBBGSF
PayPal: svelchev@gmail.com
Cash on registration

Entry fee includes
- T-Shirt
- Lunch Packet
- Transport from HQ to Takeoff
- Scoring
- Live tracking

Prize fund and scoring categories

1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked - Overall in the competition
1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked - Serial in the competition
1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked - Teams in the competition

General schedule

Tuesday, 6 August 2013
12:00– 18:00 Training flights
18:00 – 23:00 Registration

Wednesday, 7 August 2013
9:30 – 10:30 Mandatory Safety Briefing
11:00 – 11:30 Transport to the take-off

Wednesday, 7 August 2013 - Sunday, 11 August 2013
Contest flying days

Sunday, 11 August 2013
Prize giving and Closing ceremony

Daily schedule

09:00 - Headquarter opens
10:00 - Deadline for the previous day protests
11:30 - Transportation to Take off
19:00 – Scoring office opens
22:00 – Provisional results

Accommodation and Activities

How to get here

HQ is located at Hotel Rai in Shumen.

Shumen, Ohrid 26A str.
Shumen Bulgaria

Plane

The nearest airports are in Sofia and Varna.
From Sofia Airport: 
Taxi from Airport to Central Bus/Railway stations: ~7 Euro (max. 10 Euro)
- by train with Bulgarian Railways: ~400 km, ~13 Euro
- by bus from central bus station: ~400 km, ~18 Euro
From Varna Airport:
Taxi from Airport to Central Bus/Railway stations: ~7 Euro (max. 10 Euro)
- by train with Bulgarian Railways: ~100 km, ~6 Euro
- by bus from central bus station: ~100 km, ~6 Euro

Car

Shumen is located on the main road Sofia – Varna.

Downloads

Waypoint files

Organizers

Shumen-XC paragliding club
Shumen, Bulgaria
Stanislav Velchev
Tel: +359895522715
Email: svelchev@gmail.com
Yavor Plashilski
Tel: +359895522709
http://shumen-xc.org
Stanislav Velchev
Meet director
Retrieval coordinator
Scorer

Contacts

Socials

confirmed
   
selected
registered
Sorting by
Women     confirmed

ID:
Men     confirmed

ID:
# Name Rank Sponsor Glider Status
Category Tagline Participant Email Phone Description Price
Please sign in and register before posting your own classifieds.

A record is broken!

Shumen competition was always unusual. But this time we may well call it outstanding. Shumen plateau offers perfect conditions for open distance flights. Still our pilots refused to fly within its geographical boundaries and ventured far beyond. It resulted in flights of some 100-150 km even up to 200. But we felt that this is not the limit. Our forecast predicted a suitable weather for very long fights, so we just waited for the day and tried to guess who will manage to tame the wind and thermals. And it happened! Though the winner was not at all unexpected. On the fourth day Niki Velev - who has already won three previous tasks made a new Bulgarian National record flight of 313 km, crossing the whole country from East to West - from Shumen (which is not far from the seaside) to Sofia region. The previous record 303 km was made in 2011 and belongs to Daniel Dimov. Well done Niki! We are very proud this record was set at Shumen XC Open 2013!

Overall

  1. Nikolay Velev (66)
  2. Georgi Topuzov (117)
  3. Karen Kyoshkeryan (34)

Overall results

Tasks and results

Task 1

07 Aug, 2013

Open distance

Replay:
Task results:
Comp. results:
Tracks:

Task 2

08 Aug, 2013

Open distance

Replay:
Task results:
Comp. results:
Tracks:

Task 3

09 Aug, 2013

Open distance

Replay:
Task results:
Comp. results:
Tracks:

Task 4

10 Aug, 2013

Open distance

Replay:
Task results:
Comp. results:
Tracks:

Task 5

11 Aug, 2013

41.5 km — Race to goal

Replay:
Task results:
Comp. results:
Tracks:
Please sign in first.