Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 1: January 2014 | Page 53

of minutes behind—struggled on his final glide, keeping
us all in suspense as to whether or not he would make it.
We were all jolted when he eventually crossed and helped
Young Guns win the day. Davide came in four minutes
later, giving his Italian Dream Team second place for the
day. Within the next 2.5 minutes, seven more pilots made
it in. The Moyes Boys flew in almost together, taking third
place; Eduardo came in next, 13 minutes after his partner
James, so the Cocaleros took fourth place for the day. And
even though Dave May crossed the cylinder before Matt,
The Swarm was able to pull a good stunt, because Matt
stashed an extra 30 “leading” bonus points that made him
jump to 11th place that day, in front of Pete and Dave,
earning fifth place for the team. Team Americus: World
Police placed sixth, just seven points behind Felicione
Team, who got stuck a couple of times on their way to goal.
This is how the Race of Champions unfolded, how these
fine pilots were challenged with a new way of flying and
how it affected all aspects of what we know as XC competitions, including the jackpot of $7500 that Flytec USA

awarded that day. The Italian Dream Team took a welldeserved first place, the Moyes Boys took second and The
Swarm leaped up to the third spot.
The organizers were thrilled with the outcome, as were
the pilots, with the new experience!
When I was talking to Eduardo Oliveira about his experience in the ROC, some weeks after his claim of the South
American straight distance record of 330 miles flown in
northern Brazil last October, he made a couple of comments that seem to exemplify how many of the pilots felt
about this competition: “I usually keep track of the other
pilots’ positions throughout the course, but with this buddy
system, an added component made the race more interesting. When I was flying for the record with Glauco Pinto, I
realized the drill of staying with my partner, and the very
few times I had to wait for James was great practice, and allowed me to fly better with Glauco. My favorite part of this
comp was having been able to make that low save, under
300 feet, and hop back on track to make it to goal in time
to share a beer with my ‘buddy’ and friends!”

ABOVE Davis Straub launching. OPPOSITE The queens of The Swarm monitoring their drones.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

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