The objective is to fly furthest in a hot air balloon, taking off and landing within the borders of any chosen County during a given 3 month period, thus winning that counties seasonal challenge. Pilots are encouraged to attempt the seasonal challenge of as many counties as possible.

The Seasonal Challenge

The flight, covering the greatest distance that commences and ends within the borders of any one county during any season, will win the seasonal challenge for that County. At the end of each season the top five Pilots, their distances and points for each county, will be published in The Aerostat and on the Counties Challenge web site.

The Counties Challenge

An engraved COUNTY SALVER will be awarded to the Pilot who makes the longest flight within each county during the competition year. Pilots may attempt to win more than one COUNTY SALVER in any year.


The NORMAN PRITCHARD COUNTIES CHALLENGE CUP will be awarded annually to the pilot scoring the highest number of points during the competition year.


Each CREW MEMBER of the Challenge Cup winning team will be awarded an embroidered Counties Challenge sweatshirt to commemorate their success.

Any pilot may enter with any balloon, and any flight may be entered in THE COUNTIES CHALLENGE. There is no limit on the number of entries that can be made by any Pilot. Only a Pilot’s longest flight within any individual county will be considered for that counties seasonal challenge.


Any flight during the competition year can be entered for THE COUNTIES CHALLENGE.


The competition area consists of the counties of Britain and Northern Ireland as defined by the competition map. The competition map can be viewed and downloaded from the Counties Challenge web site at: http://www.countieschallenge.co.uk/


The organisers recognise and appreciate that Pilots might be tempted to land in crop or amongst animals when a county boundary is reached. Nevertheless, all flights must be conducted within the recommendations of the B.B.A.C. Pilot Code of Conduct. Any flight will be disqualified if, after investigation, it is considered that this code has been broken by the Pilot or Crew of the balloon involved.


To enter, pilots need only notify the judge of the details of their flight within 7 days of the end of that season, please note, however, that an annual entry fee of £7.50 is required from each Entrant. For the winter season, results need to be notified three weeks before the date of the BBAC AGM or the 7th February which ever is the earlier.


The winners will be selected by THE COUNTIES CHALLENGE JUDGE whose decision shall be final.
By kind permission of the BBAC Main Committee, the results will be available and the Challenge Cup and the County Salvers will be awarded each year at the BBAC AGM

Flight
An inflation, take-off, flight of 5km or more without ground contact, landing and deflation of a manned hot air balloon.

County Borders
These are defined as those lines shown as county boundaries on the competition map.

Competition Map
The competition map is the map published by the Ordnance Survey entitled County boundaries 1995 (prior to the introduction of unitary authorities). A copy of this map is available on the Counties Challenge web site.

• View map – gif file opens in new window (97k)
• Download map – with OS Grids – Adobe Acrobat File – better quality for printing (300k)

  

GPS Downloads (.zip files containing...):–

• Memory Map overlay file showing most of the UK mainland county boundaries to make it easier to plan or record flight details for the Counties Challenge.
• Garmin’s MapSource overlay file
• GPS eXchange overlay file

Seasons
For the purposes of this competition the seasons are:-

Seasons have been arranged so as to allow the presentation of the Counties Cup at the B.B.A.C. A.G.M. each year.

Points
The best six flights in each county during a season will be awarded points according to the following table. These points will be totalled at the end of the year to determine the winner of the Counties Challenge Cup.

Published
The top six Pilots, their distances and points scored for flights commencing and ending within the borders of any one county within any given season will be listed in The Aerostat and published on the Counties Challenge web site.

Competition Year
Commencing On March 1st the year ends at midnight on the last day of February the following year.

Proof of Flight
A Pilot’s word will normally be proof enough but details of winning flights may need to be checked in case of dispute by a landowner or any other contestant. Pilots are invited to include any additional information that might assist the judge, such as place names, witnesses etc.

Entry Fee (not applicable competition year 2010-2011)
The organisers will supply a fine Counties Challenge Cup for annual presentation to the winner of the Counties Challenge. They will also supply suitably inscribed County Salvers for each County winner to retain for one year. Counties Challenge Sweatshirts will be awarded to the Challenge Cup winning Pilot and Crew. The entry fees are to be used for this and similar purposes. All associated with the contest act in a voluntary capacity and without recompense. No sponsorship is involved.

Notification
All entries need to be in writing, or by e-mail or through the web page. The attached form need not be used but the same information should be supplied. An entry will be invalid unless the annual entry fee of £7.50 has been paid. (not applicable competition year 2010-2011)

The minimum distance for an entry is 5km but even relatively short flights can earn points for being 2nd, 3rd 4th 5th or even 6th.

Entries will not be collated until seven days after the end of each season, thus allowing for end of season claims to be included. Notification for the fourth quarter is handled differently – see rules above. Claims arriving after this period will be declared null and void. To avoid errors pilots should ensure that entries are clearly marked with the date of the flight.