Furious residents in villages including Minster, Monkton, St Nicholas-at-Wade, Cliffsend and further afield in areas such as Tilmanstone and Nonington were awoken at 5am today (August 7) by the noise of numerous paramotor pilots overhead.
The first FAI World Paramotor Endurance Championships are being hosted at Manston airport this month ( 3-10 August) but people are questioning why those taking part had to launch at such an early hour.
Taking to the Miniplane Paramotors and the FIA championship social media pages to vent their frustration, one tired villager said: “Completely unacceptable to be launching at 5am and flying so low across the local villages. The noise has disturbed everyone in Minster, Cliffsend and the surrounding villages.
“At the very least we should have been notified that some disturbance was likely but at best, launch later at a reasonable time and take other people into consideration.”
Another added: “5am! How has this been allowed with no consideration, consultation or information for local people, it’s completely unacceptable. Everyone in Minster has enjoyed watching you fly up until now so it’s a shame you’ve managed to upset a whole community with such an early, unnecessary start.”
Paramotoring is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a back-pack motor, which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider. Steering away from live flight paths, paramotor pilots can ascend several thousand feet into the air, but typically fly at around 1,000 feet, their small motors making a buzz as they pass overhead.
The FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale – World Air Sports Federation) World Paramotor Endurance Championships involves pilots to compete in both foot launch and trike classes. Sponsored by Liberty Paramotors and Vittorazi Motors, it is the first time the endurance format has been delivered as a championship event at this level.
The competition involves a series of navigational and piloting challenges. Pilots are permitted a maximum number of flying hours each day, within a longer flying window that uses the majority of daylight hours.
According to the competition website, flying will normally take place between 7am and 9pm throughout each day of the competition.
However, some pilots launched at 5am today with two and a half hours of flight.
A message sent to a resident by the organisers says: “We are very sorry you were disturbed so early.Legally we can fly from 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset.
“We took this difficult decision to fly early this morning as the weather has been bad for our world championship. We have pilots who have travelled from across the world to compete, we have to ensure we have a valid championship.
“We will always do our best not to disturb anyone if possible. Again our sincere apologies.”
Barney Townsend, Chair of the British Paramotor Competitions Panel, said: “Due to unexpectedly high winds throughout this week, which are now forecast to remain too high for the rest of the week to allow safe flying, we were faced this morning with the difficult choice between using the light winds in the early morning hours in order to achieve a valid championship, or probably not flying again, which would result in an invalid championship and a huge disappointment for all the pilots and teams who have come so far to be here, from as far away as Japan, Australia, and the USA.
“All flights this morning conformed to Air Law: pilots took off within 30 minutes of official sunrise, and were flying in class G Airspace at a minimum of 500 feet height. Furthermore, the pilots were explicitly requested to fly closer to 1000 feet, which we can see from the GPS track logs that they did.
“We are very sorry to have disturbed the local residents this morning. It was essential for the needs of the championship; now that we have achieved a valid number of flying hours, we will be able to confer the award of official world champion status to the top pilots.
“I can promise that the early starts will not happen again – and due to the weather, it is highly likely that there will be no more flying at all. Furthermore, due to the redevelopment plans of Manston, we will never be returning to use this site again after this week.”
