The Johnny Carr Class 5
National Champions Trophy
An insight into Johnny and Class 5 history
Johnny Carr started flying in 1974, at the age of 24. He entered his first competition that same year and has competed every year since then. He was a founder member of the League which was formed in 1977. The winner of the League was the National Champion.
Johnny first flew a hang-glider with control surfaces in 1976 (A Miles Wing Griffon) and again in 1980 on a Fledge 2. He had considerable success both in national and international competitions. The superior performance of the UP comet in l980 (a Class 1 glider) slowed the development of Class 5 type gliders for several years.
It was the leap-through performance of the Atos and the Ghostbuster in the late 90s that saw Class 5 becoming more popular. Johnny purchased a Ghostbuster but although a significant amount of Class 5 gliders were being sold, competition pilots were reluctant to change to them, and most of the pilots buying them weren’t particularly interested in competing on them.
Johnny tried to change this by sponsoring a trophy for class 5 and to have a separate competition (a sort of fun fly-in) running along side the Class 1 National Championships. This was done in the year 2000 and that year Johnny won it. Numbers weren't great but there were some notable pilots competing.
The trophy went missing a few years later and although Johnny had gone back to flying Class 1 gliders (to show commitment to the glider he was importing) he still wanted to encourage the competition in class 5. When all searches for the trophy had been exhausted he offered to have a new trophy commissioned.
At the age of 70, on 5th August 2019 this was to be his legacy in hang-gliding competition.
Previous winners have not been forgotten and have been included on the new trophy.
Written in 2019
