Don’t want to fly the competition but still want to be part of the action? Please consider volunteering as a Marshal – we need your help!

Marshals are undoubtedly the most essential members of the entire event, and all of the pilots are universally grateful to the efforts they put in. We quite literally couldn’t do it without them. They help to us to manage all aspects related to the safe and efficient delivery of the competition and the site, providing the support base that enables competing pilots to perform to their best abilities.

Marshalling is a great way to meet the competition community, and also to learn about the competition tasks in preparation for competing in the future. It’s a very rewarding experience, and it carries the additional bonus of free meals and camping at the event too.

Typical vital roles that marshals play are:

• monitoring and regulating the takeoff deck – ensuring that pilots take off in a safe and ordered manner;
• ‘spotting’ on precision tasks – green flagging pilots for entry, and providing vital eyes to mark and record exactly where ‘first touch’ was on a spot landing, or operating the stopwatch for timed aspects of tasks;
• overseeing pilot fuel weighing in and out for economy tasks, and the quarantine processes associated with that;
• scrutineering paramotor aircraft for airworthiness and competition rule conformity;
• helping collect land-out pilots if necessary (we’ll cover any fuel costs of course);

Don’t worry if you have no previous experience – our expert Chief Marshal will give you all the help you need. Please note that Marshals with any responsibility for aviation or airside related activity must also be BHPA members. If you are not BHPA however, we will also be very grateful for your help with general organisation and administration.

Alternatively, are you a spreadsheet guru? We could certainly use your help in the scoring cabin instead of on the airfield.

We have to do some careful planning this year to make sure we have the right cover for both the events, the BOPC and the World Paramotor Championships. So we are going to start by asking all those who are able and keen to help, to fill out an expression of interest form to let us know which dates you have availability for. If you’d like to register as a marshal, please register your interest using the marshal expression of interest form on the link below.

Thanks in advance, from all of the organisation team and the pilots!