Bay pilots put NZ on top of world

Hawke's Bay remote-controlled glider pilots won gold in Croatia.

Hawke's Bay has glided on to the podium, winning gold in Croatia.

Hawke's Bay's Joe Wurts and Kevin Botherway were part of the winning Team New Zealand for the 2015 FAI F3K World Championship, for hand-launched remote-controlled gliders and also placed in the top 10 for the individual competition.

Team manager Jonathan Shorer, also the Model Flying NZ president, said tension grew daily as each pilot completed 18 flights.

The team took first place and were just 32 points short of a perfect score of 51,000 points. The second-placed team were 860 points behind them.

The third team member, Alex Hewson of Christchurch, won the individual title. "They won the teams by a mile," Model Flying Hawke's Bay club member Mike Shears said.

"There were about 90 or more [competitors] from around the world, so to get three in the top 10 is pretty good."

Mr Shears said he was not surprised by the team's success against 33 nations. "They have placed pretty well in the last couple of events and Joe Wurts - he's an American now living in New Zealand - is a multiple world champion," he said.

"He's most probably one of the best glider flyers in the world - he's dragged these other guys to that standard and they are doing very, very well."

Club member Robert Wallace is organising a welcoming committee for Mr Botherway at Hawke's Bay airport tomorrow.

"We are going to line up some troops to welcome him back. They certainly deserve it - they have been practicing very hard and gone over there and won the damn thing," he said.

F3K gliders are known as tip gliders - they are launched by the wing tip with a spin, similar to a discus throw.

The club's main base is at Awatoto, off Waitangi Rd.