Elisa Olivieri: 2025 PPG Championships Journey
10-07-2025
#Competition
Congratulations to #bgdteampilot Elisa Olivieri, who has just returned from the Italian Paramotor Championships 2025 with a medal for the Best Navigation round her neck.
Elisa, who flies a LUNA 3 18 with Atom 80 / Eclipse / Rider frame with 140 prop, was the only woman competing in this year’s Italian Championships.
Her journey this year started with the French National Championships in May / June, which she described as a beautiful, intense, and very educational experience. Here’s her in-depth look back at how it went:
Let’s start with the Performance Navigation Speed task: 60 minutes – collect as many turnpoints as possible. Overall, navigation went well. I missed one turnpoint I thought I had passed – turns out it was a planning mistake on my end. I hadn’t understood from the briefing that each turnpoint had a different score value. (Spoiler: Google Translate didn’t exactly shine during real-time translation!).
Snake + Photo task: was brand new to me and very interesting. There’s a different navigation approach required, and I definitely did better in the second half than in the first. At first, I got quite off-track – I was overly focused on matching the photos and, for the first time ever, I made the mistake of watching what others were doing instead of flying my own race. Lesson learned! All things considered, the task went fairly well.
Estimated Time task: also went fine, even though we had much less wind than expected. My arms, however, kindly reminded me I’d been holding the brakes for 40 minutes straight. Ouch!
Economy Triangle task: Optimism may be the scent of life… but maybe I took that a bit too literally here ????. I miscalculated my flight plan and landed outside the field. And of course, when I tried to get back in – surprise! – the wind had picked up.
Pure Economy: went very well – I actually placed second in my category. My gear definitely helped me out here.
Pylons: also went great, although I misunderstood the landing location from the briefing and ended up with a 20% penalty. By the way… my French still needs a bit of work!
Precision is where I clearly need to focus the most. I’ll be dedicating most of my next training sessions to it. The Luna 3 has great flare potential, and learning to make the most of it will surely improve my results.
Right now, I feel most confident in navigation, but I’ve also grown a lot in economy – especially with the new engine. That said, I haven’t yet shut the engine off in flight – haven’t found the right moment to go fully silent yet.
I don’t think I’ll make the national team for Worlds this year – still a bit of a way to go – but the goal is there, loud and clear.
Next trainings will be focused mainly on precision landings. Also, I realised I need to collect more data on fuel consumption between 7000 and 8000 RPM, which is where I usually fly trimmed in. There’s a huge difference in consumption across those 1000 RPM!
I also made a small set-up adjustment: since Nature didn’t bless me with long model legs (I’m 164 cm tall!), the 140 cm propeller was getting a little too cozy with my thighs during take-off runs. I re-attached the shoulder straps lower on the frame and – wow – those extra 5–6 cm made a big difference!
The LUNA 3 gives me a great sense of security even in turbulence (which helped a lot in the economy tasks) and it has excellent speed for navigation tasks. Plus, I received tons of compliments on the wing’s look – aesthetics matter too, right?
In general, the French Championship was a fantastic experience – demanding and motivating, a prefect training. It really helped me see where I currently stand and what I need to improve in this final month before the Italian Championship. It also opened up new learning opportunities for the future.
The tasks were in line with what I expected, although some misunderstandings during briefings and a couple of small oversights cost me a few points.
As for my set-up – Luna 3 18m, Atom 80, Eclipse, Rider frame with 140 prop – I’m super happy with the performance. I can climb even on full trim and speed bar, and I’ve never had to fill more than 12l in the 18l tank so far.
The event organization was truly top-notch. Flying with the French pilots was very inspiring, and the weather was kind – max 20 km/h, smooth and mostly sunny, except the first day that it was raining.
Thanks again for all your support and the amazing gear — I’m genuinely happy with everything.
Photos from both the Italian and French Championships: Elisa Olivieri / Facebook
Other news
Elisa, who flies a LUNA 3 18 with Atom 80 / Eclipse / Rider frame with 140 prop, was the only woman competing in this year’s Italian Championships.
Her journey this year started with the French National Championships in May / June, which she described as a beautiful, intense, and very educational experience. Here’s her in-depth look back at how it went:
Let’s start with the Performance Navigation Speed task: 60 minutes – collect as many turnpoints as possible. Overall, navigation went well. I missed one turnpoint I thought I had passed – turns out it was a planning mistake on my end. I hadn’t understood from the briefing that each turnpoint had a different score value. (Spoiler: Google Translate didn’t exactly shine during real-time translation!).
Snake + Photo task: was brand new to me and very interesting. There’s a different navigation approach required, and I definitely did better in the second half than in the first. At first, I got quite off-track – I was overly focused on matching the photos and, for the first time ever, I made the mistake of watching what others were doing instead of flying my own race. Lesson learned! All things considered, the task went fairly well.
Estimated Time task: also went fine, even though we had much less wind than expected. My arms, however, kindly reminded me I’d been holding the brakes for 40 minutes straight. Ouch!
Economy Triangle task: Optimism may be the scent of life… but maybe I took that a bit too literally here ????. I miscalculated my flight plan and landed outside the field. And of course, when I tried to get back in – surprise! – the wind had picked up.
Pure Economy: went very well – I actually placed second in my category. My gear definitely helped me out here.
Pylons: also went great, although I misunderstood the landing location from the briefing and ended up with a 20% penalty. By the way… my French still needs a bit of work!
Precision is where I clearly need to focus the most. I’ll be dedicating most of my next training sessions to it. The Luna 3 has great flare potential, and learning to make the most of it will surely improve my results.
Right now, I feel most confident in navigation, but I’ve also grown a lot in economy – especially with the new engine. That said, I haven’t yet shut the engine off in flight – haven’t found the right moment to go fully silent yet.
I don’t think I’ll make the national team for Worlds this year – still a bit of a way to go – but the goal is there, loud and clear.
Next trainings will be focused mainly on precision landings. Also, I realised I need to collect more data on fuel consumption between 7000 and 8000 RPM, which is where I usually fly trimmed in. There’s a huge difference in consumption across those 1000 RPM!
I also made a small set-up adjustment: since Nature didn’t bless me with long model legs (I’m 164 cm tall!), the 140 cm propeller was getting a little too cozy with my thighs during take-off runs. I re-attached the shoulder straps lower on the frame and – wow – those extra 5–6 cm made a big difference!
The LUNA 3 gives me a great sense of security even in turbulence (which helped a lot in the economy tasks) and it has excellent speed for navigation tasks. Plus, I received tons of compliments on the wing’s look – aesthetics matter too, right?
In general, the French Championship was a fantastic experience – demanding and motivating, a prefect training. It really helped me see where I currently stand and what I need to improve in this final month before the Italian Championship. It also opened up new learning opportunities for the future.
The tasks were in line with what I expected, although some misunderstandings during briefings and a couple of small oversights cost me a few points.
As for my set-up – Luna 3 18m, Atom 80, Eclipse, Rider frame with 140 prop – I’m super happy with the performance. I can climb even on full trim and speed bar, and I’ve never had to fill more than 12l in the 18l tank so far.
The event organization was truly top-notch. Flying with the French pilots was very inspiring, and the weather was kind – max 20 km/h, smooth and mostly sunny, except the first day that it was raining.
Thanks again for all your support and the amazing gear — I’m genuinely happy with everything.
Photos from both the Italian and French Championships: Elisa Olivieri / Facebook