What could be more thrilling than head to head competition with the National Championships of the United States on the line? How exciting would it be if YOU were one of the competitors competing for the right to be National Champion? It can happen!
The bidding process is announced in the summer of each odd-numbered year (2001, 2003 etc.) by the USUA Competition Committee, and is open to anyone interested in hosting the event. The National Championships are then held in even-numbered years (2002, 2004, 2006 etc.). In 2002 a group led by USUA member Dave Hempy hosted the 7th US Nationals near Springfield, Kentucky, in 2004 the Nationals were hosted by the Scottsburg Aero Club (USUA Club 167) in Scottsburg, Indiana, and in 2006, Aero Sports Connection hosted the event in Marshal Michigan.
The US National Championships are run by the rules set forth by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the FAI. This World Air Sports Federation establishes regulations for air sporting events, which are organized by member countries throughout the world. The rules are published as the FAI Sporting Code and Section 10 covers Microlight competition.
Why the term Microlight instead of Ultralight? The FAI classification Microlight includes aircraft that are heavier than US Ultralights and can have two seats. In the US, some Microlights would not meet the limitations of FAR Part 103 and would have to be registered with the FAA and flown by certificated pilots.
The FAI classification of Microlights includes many types of aircraft including single and two-place fixed wing aircraft, single and two-place weight-shift trikes, powered Paragliders, single and two-place powered parachutes. All of these classes are eligible to fly in the US Microlight Championship.
Competition events flown by FAI rules have to have a balance of the different types of possible tasks. 50% of the tasks must be navigation tasks, 25% limited fuel tasks, and 25% precision landing tasks. Within that framework a lot of fun and challenging tasks can be called by the Contest Director. Let's go along on the first two tasks called for the 2004 8th US Nationals.
First stop is the briefing tent where we'll get the details of the tasks. The first task is the takeoff of the flight. The takeoff will be from the "deck", an area 328 feet long and 75 feet wide. A ribbon will be suspended one meter off the ground at the upwind end of the deck and the object is to takeoff without breaking the ribbon is as short of a distance as possible.
The second task starts as soon as we cross the ribbon. We have ninety minutes to visit as many of the waypoints marked on the supplied map as possible. A good plan is necessary to maximize the score on this navigation task. Also crucial to a good performance are accurate maps. Most of all, we need to make sure we don't neglect safety so we do a careful preflight.
It's our turn to go so we taxi down to the end of the deck and wait for the Marshals to wave us on the runway. The density altitude is pretty high, so we use all of the deck and still take the ribbon with us for a zero on the first task. No time to fret, we're headed for the first waypoint. We climb to 1200' AGL, a good compromise altitude for accurate navigation. Utilizing traditional pilotage, we keep finger on map as we follow our flight plan, eventually visiting 25 waypoints and returning to the airport just within the 90 minute limit. No zero on this one, 25 waypoints was good enough for third in this task.
Two days of flying later, a National Champion has been crowned. The rest of us vow to get ‘em next time. Will you be there to join us?
Past Championships: