CIVL Plenary 2022 has awarded the 6th FAI Pan-American Paragliding Championship to La Rioja Argentina. The proposed dates are 5 to 12 October 2024. The event will be organised by CADEA / Confederación de Entidades Aerodeportivas together with Martin Romero Garayzabal and Marco Escudero from Asociacion Riojana de Vuelo Libre.

The launch site is El Morro – Cerro de la Cruz. Take off direction Northeast, East, and Southeast. Height above valley 600 m and 1150 m ASL. It is an east-facing slope, covered with a cloth on the ground, without obstacles, on which 125 pilots can take off in a short time. In the rear sector are the facilities and shaded space for competitors to relax, prepare their equipment and wait for the window to open. The take-off has 2 ramps. Access to the take-off site is by road, no special vehicle is needed to get to the place. From the HQ, the bus ride can take about 35 or 40 minutes.

The flying area proposed for the competition presents a mountain range whose axis runs north-south and the most used slope is oriented towards the east, its name is Sierra del Velazco. This mountain range has a length of about 100 km and separates the plain where the city is located (500 meters ASL) and the cultivated lands.
The plain to the east and south of the Sierra del Velazco presents innumerable fields of olives and farms. The organizers inform that there are no places that they identify as non-landable. 

CIVL Bureau has studied the bid and the experience of PWCA event that took place there in 2021 and made recommendations that are to be implemented by the organizers before the test event.

You can get familiar with the bid here.

CIVL recommendations here.

Photo credits PWCA