A look back at the last season
#1: The XC-achievements of NOVA pilots
Overall winner at XCglobe: Andi Ziegler (SECTOR) while flying in Brazil / Photo: Andi Ziegler
Please note: generally, we do not state the number of points because they are calculated with different weightings in the different XC contests. So, on to the numbers! The 2019/20 season was another successful one for NOVA. Here is an overview of the worldwide rankings in the XContest, XCglobe as well as Leonardo:
| Category | Rank | Name | Country | Wing |
| Standard | 3 | Lukasz Sieminski | POL | MENTOR 5 |
| 5 | Mathias Merk | GER | MENTOR 6 | |
| 6 | Joe Edlinger | AUT | PHANTOM | |
| 7 | Beat Wyss | SUI | MENTOR 6 | |
| 10 | Urs Rölli | SUI | PHANTOM | |
| Sport | 7 | Lukasz Sieminski | POL | MENTOR 5 |
| 10 | Chris Feichtl | AUT | SECTOR (3 flights) | |
| Women | 8 | Julia Jauß | GER | MENTOR 5 Light |
| Tandem | 3 | Stefan Lauth | GER | BION 2 |
| Overall | 1 | Andreas Ziegler | GER | SECTOR |
| 4 | Lukasz Sieminski | POL | SECTOR | |
| 10 | Joe Edlinger | AUT | PHANTOM | |
| Sport | 3 | Lukasz Sieminski | POL | MENTOR 5 |
| 7 | Andreas Ziegler | GER | SECTOR | |
| 8 | Don Duerr | USA | MENTOR 2 |
Successful pilots out of Styria: Berni Peßl and Chris Feichtl
The worldwide rankings feature mainly those pilots who are privileged to be able to travel to XC hotspots, but there are many other achievements to report at national level. Here is an overview of various top 3 rankings (may be incomplete):
| Land | Kategorie | Rang | Namen | Schirm |
| AUT | Fun & Safety | 1 2 | Berni Peßl Joe Edlinger | ION 6, MENTOR 6 PHANTOM |
| Sport | 2 3 | Chris Feichtl Berni Peßl | SECTOR ION 6, MENTOR 6 | |
| Senioren | 1 2 | Joe Edlinger Michael Pohl | PHANTOM SECTOR | |
| BUL | Standard | 1 | Todor Boyadzhiev | MENTOR 6 |
| Sport | 1 2 | Ivan Mateev Todor Boyadzhiev | SECTOR MENTOR 6 | |
| CHI | Sport | 1 | Victor ‚Pope‘ Salinas | MENTOR 5 and 6 |
| Overall | 2 | Victor ‚Pope‘ Salinas | MENTOR 5 and 6 | |
| CZE | Rozlet (EN B) | 2 | Radovan Chrvala | MENTOR 4 |
| FIN | Standard | 1 2 | Antti Haltiamieli Jarno Mattila | PHANTOM, MENTOR 6 Light MENTOR 6 (4 of 6 flights) |
| Sport | 1 | Antti Haltiamieli | PHANTOM, MENTOR 6 Light | |
| FRA | CFD – Classement Circuit Sport 2020 Women | 3 | Evolène Janex | ION 5 Light |
| GER | Standard | 2 3 | Tobias Ehrmann Johannes Jakobi | MENTOR 6 MENTOR 5 and 6 |
| Tandem | 1 | Stefan Lauth | BION 2 | |
| Women | 3 | Julia Jauß | MENTOR 5 Light | |
| GRE | 3 | Aimilios Apostolopoulos | SECTOR | |
| HRV | 3 | Robert Zec | MENTOR 6 | |
| JAP | Standard | 1 2 | Kaoru Ogisawa Nobuaki Ikido | MENTOR 6, ION 6 PHANTOM |
| LAT | Standard | 2 | Edgars Jasmans | MENTOR 6 |
| ROM | Standard | 1 | Martin Dunose | MENTOR 5 |
| SUI | Fun & Safety (EN B) | 1 3 | Urs Haari Beat Wyss | MENTOR 6, AONIC MENTOR 6 |
| Sport | 1 | Urs Haari | MENTOR 6, AONIC | |
| PG 50+ | 2 | Urs Haari | MENTOR 6, AONIC |
Urs Haari won the Swiss Sport- as well as the Standard-Class with his MENTOR 6
A special commendation for Urs Haari. Our importer in Switzerland won both the Fun & Safety Class (EN B) and the Sports Class for the fifth time. In the Open Class his 823 points allowed him to be ranked fourth - and this in a country with a lot of competitors! Urs completed his flights on a MENTOR 6 and an AONIC (EN A).
Don Duerr in Wyoming: 387 km with the MENTOR 2 / Photo: Don Duerr
And then we discovered another pilot who would have stayed under the radar, had we not checked Leonardo carefully: Don Duerr from the USA. Don flew 387 km open distance on his MENTOR 2 in Wyoming! The stats of his flight are also impressive: highest altitude 5766 m, maximum speed 95.3 km/h, average speed 59.9 km/h. Although Don only submitted five flights, he was ranked fifth in the worldwide Standard Class on Leonardo.
The NOVA wings
Of course, we are very proud that an ace pilot like Don Duerr can fly such incredible distances with an older wing like the MENTOR 2. This begs the question… how much wing do we really need?
Tailor-made for new records: The AONIC (EN A) / Photo: Urs Haari
EN A – AONIC
We secretly hoped that an AONIC pilot would be able to break Robert Schaller’s ancient record, a 209 km FAI triangle on a PRION 3. The AONIC definitely has the potential - it flies so much better than the PRION 3. Sadly, it has not yet happened. Maybe during the next season?
EN B – ION / PHANTOM / MENTOR
In the Standard Class, we have three irons in the cross-country fire with the MENTOR, PHANTOM and ION. In this season 15% of all flights entered in the XContest were completed with a NOVA glider. A big thank you to all! The majority of pilots were flying a MENTOR, and most of these have a MENTOR 5 or 6. There is also a number of excellent pilots flying older MENTOR generations or the ION or PHANTOM.
Urs Haari flying cross-country at Wallis, Switzerland / Photo: Roli Mäder
Urs Haari flew a 247.2 km FAI triangle on his MENTOR 6 in Fiesch. Anyone looking at the leagues will also find many MENTOR 4s and 5s in the top ranks. In the German flat lands, Wolfgang Pettay showed what can be done on a MENTOR 3. And then there is Don Duerr who flew 387 km in Wyoming with his MENTOR 2! Obviously. you don’t need the newest model to fly far…
Berni Peßl trying for 250 km on his ION 6 / Photo: Berni Peßl
Toni Brügger (CH) flew a 243 km FAI triangle on the new ION 6. Berni Pessl flew a 246 km FAI triangle from Schöckl (Graz) but was unable to close it, as he was flying a course to reach almost 300 km. No question: the ION 6 passed its baptism of XC fire with flying colours. Even with a low-end EN B you can go a very, very long way.
Meanwhile the PHANTOM is still going strong
At the end of 2016 we launched the PHANTOM, our 99 cell EN B wing, and promised great performance with great flying comfort. The 2019/20 season review shows that this formula still applies today and that the PHANTOM is 100% competitive. In the XContest two PHANTOM pilots were ranked in the top 10. Joe Edlinger (AUT) was ranked 6th and Urs Rölli (SUI) was ranked 10th. In Caico (Brazil), Urs flew the best PHANTOM cross-country of the season with a flight of 359.25 km. At this point many of you will be thinking, where is the PHANTOM 2? We want to be completely honest, we were on the verge of certifying it, but then decided against it because this glider would not have meant a significant step forward. The PHANTOM 2 will only be released when it is as balanced and wonderfully flyable as the PHANTOM 1.
EN C – SECTOR
While scrolling through the rankings we noticed that the SECTOR is by no means old hat. In various countries SECTOR pilots had good results. From the Grente, Timon Weber (GER) was able to close an FAI triangle of nearly 268 km.
Stay tuned for #2!
In part 2 of this look back at the season, we will delve deep into the statistics of the XContest: how many pilots upload their flights? What wing class do they fly? How is the performance developing across the categories? We were very surprised by some of the things we found…