STOL: why not you?
If there is one event that is growing ever bigger, it is STOL!
STOL stands for Short Take-Off and Landing, in other words short take-off and landing. Its origin lies with bush pilots, who have always had to take off and land in very short distances because strips are rare in some parts of the world. At the outset, then, pilots simply adapted their machines for a strictly practical purpose: to stay safe in regions poorly suited to taking off and landing.
Then, little by little, necessity turned into a discipline, first in the United States, where pilots began to get together to play at taking off and landing short.
The first competition in France took place only very recently. It was in July 2020 at Belmont. About twenty participants turned up. Since then STOL has grown well, and this year there are:
- 2 introductory courses
- 4 regional competitions
- 1 French championship
on offer to competitors!
Federal calendar: https://ffplum.fr/actualites/2023/agenda-sportif-2024
The competitions are open to three-axis microlights, weight-shift microlights and gyroplanes. The aim is therefore to take off and land in the shortest distance. Of course, there is no question of going outside your flight envelope or taking risks. In fact, mastering STOL is a guarantee of safety.
Anyone can enter STOL, but you still need good flying experience. In fact, competitions always begin with free practice, during which pilots have time to get to know the site and the weather. It is an opportunity for the race director to assess the competitors' abilities.
Competitors then take part in pools of 3 to 7. Each has two attempts. The best are therefore those with the smallest combined take-off and landing distance. The winners of each pool then face each other, as do the second-placed, and so on, to establish the final ranking. This method means everyone has almost identical weather conditions within a pool.
So why not you?
For more information: http://stol.france.free.fr/
