The British Open Paramotor Championships 2023: 28th June to 2nd July
The biggest ever British Paramotor Championship event took place this year at Manston Airfield, in Kent.
Home of No. 3 Squadron with their Hawker Hurricanes and the place where Barnes Wallace tested the bouncing bomb, Manston airfield saw action like never before: Pilot and machine, competing to become the 2023 British Paramotor Champion. The event concluded with a repeat win for Daniel Jones in the footlaunch category, in tricky weather conditions. And for the first time ever, a valid trike class enabled Alex Anderson to become the first official British National Paramotor Trike Champion. Congratulations to them both, and all the other medal winners. Full results available here.
Kindly hosted by the RAF Manston Air Museum, this massive site features a 1.7 mile long runway and proved to be the best venue we have had in years. Huge thanks to the team there for offering to host us, extending such a warm welcome and such delicious meals from the Naafi Cafe!
19 of the 70 Pilots who entered were from overseas, including 10 from Germany entering their own parallel national championships, won by Benedict Bos. The Discovery Class attracted a fantastic 31 foot-launch and 3 trike entrants as well, of whom the winners were Sam Taylor Jones and Tim Dougall. All 7 navigation tasks were attempted, despite the windy conditions, and the event concluded with precision navigation tasks on the final evening.
We were also very pleased to welcome a new group of aviators into our competition communtity. For the first time, BOPC was run in parallel with the Icarus Human Powered Aircraft championship. These incredible machines brought a whole new dimension to the event.
Congratulations to all the trophy winners in the 2023 Championships:
Best Newcomer: Bruce Daniels
Best Precision Flying: Ric Womersley
Barry Holleran Navigation trophy: Daniel Jones
Dan Burton GB XContest Trophy: Daniel Jones
Johan Bossuyt trophy for outstanding contribution to the paramotor community: Andy Shaw
Discovery Challenge PL1 (solo Trike).
1st Tim Dougall
2nd Paul Hunnisett
3rd Koen Demeyer
Discovery Challenge PF1 (solo Footlaunch)
1st Sam Taylor-Jones
2nd Paul Taylor
3rd Tyron Paul
British Open Paramotor Championship PL1 (solo Trike):
1st Carlos Oscar Lemos Carrel
2nd Alex Anderson
3rd David Messenger
British Open Paramotor Championship PF1 (solo Footlaunch):
1st Daniel Jones
2nd Bruce Daniels
3rd Benedict Bös
British National Paramotor Championship PL1 (solo Trike):
1st Alex Anderson
2nd David Messenger
3rd Francis Rich
British National Paramotor Championship PF1 (solo Footlaunch):
1st Daniel Jones
2nd Bruce Daniels
3rd Oscar Haynes
German National Paramotor Championship PF1 (solo Footlaunch):
1st Benedict Bös
2nd Lars Mielke
3rd Nils Von Samson Himmelstjerna