The Petersfield-based Sky Surfing Club (SSC) now boasts two champions among its members.

The 2023 British Hang Gliding Championships and Open for class one (flexwing) and class five (rigid wing) have concluded and local pilots achieved medal success.

The event was based in the small town of Ager, in the Catalan region of north-east Spain.

The town is overlooked by the impressive 40km-long Serra del Montsec mountain range – a mecca for hang glider and paraglider pilots.

Each day a task was set. Pilots would navigate a specified route across the mountainous terrain, using sophisticated instrumentation to pass defined waypoints before reaching the designated goal.

Depending on the day’s weather, some routes involved flights of more than 100km.

Three scoring tasks were completed during the competition and by the end some pilots had travelled more than 270km and spent more than six hours in the air.

The SSC was represented by five pilots in the various classes, and each came away with a medal.

Grant Crossingham was first in the class one (flexwing).

Tim King was first in the class five (rigid wing) while Neil Atkinson was third. Jose Pinto was second in the sports class (flexwing newcomers) while Nestor Londono was third.

For Crossingham this was the eighth time he had claimed the title of British champion, and the fifth time in a row. For King, this was his third claim on the title.

Both pilots fly regularly with the SSC and can often be seen soaring above the slopes of the South Downs in North Hampshire and West Sussex.

Brian Parkins