Leighton Joll, Leo Geary Memorial Trophy 2016 winner

Leighton Joll writes:

"For me the Leo Geary prize is a great way to encourage inexperienced pilots to get outside their comfort zone and step into the world of competition flying. As a novice pilot the idea of entering a competition is daunting and can be quite off putting if the focus becomes winning rather than enjoying yourself. This can become even more daunting when your first round of competition is in another country amongst over 100 pilots, including some great competition flyers and a distance world record holder.

"What I learned during the experience of my first competition is that it's actually a very open and social environment full of people that have a wide range of experience and ambitions. This makes it the ideal environment for novice pilots to fly with and learn from a vast pool of people and learn new sites, flying styles and skill sets that will help them in the future. Whether that future includes more competitions or not is something they won't know until they try it out.

"Personally, I'm definitely looking forward to more competitions and the chance to improve my skills while learning from more great pilots both local and international. Where that takes me is yet to be determined but I know I'm going to have fun along the way."

Leighton Joll was the recipient of the Leo Geary Memorial trophy in 2016. It was the first time that Leighton had competed in the national competition and he managed to get to goal three times in the Manilla, NSW, Australia event - here are the results:

Manilla: http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=185 Nelson: http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=184

The photo of the five guys is of four past winners of the Leo Geary Memorial prize who were also at the Nelson competition. From left to right: Bruce Vickerman, Louis Tapper, Rob Boyle, Jeff Ripley plus Leighton Joll.

Blog about the awards night: http://nzhgpa-latest.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/pg-open-round-2-nelson-day-8-final.html  - more blogs on the right-hand side.  Also check the February listings for blogs about the Manilla, NSW, comp.

Note: Reuben Muir is one of the owners / instructors at Wings and Waves Paragliding (www.wingsandwaves.co.nz) who sponsor the award. Poster says, “To support your future flying, we offer you 50% off a new GIN harness”.

Leighton sent these pictures, saying: "Flying in Manilla on one of my 100k days." Click either small picture to enlarge.

 

Back to Leo Geary Trophy page.

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