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Name: Stephen Jones
Country: UK
Date of birth:
Class: gp
Glider: Ventus 2A
Contest number: K1

Steve has an excellent record in competitive gliding, having formerly been ranked number 1 in the World, as well as having been the World Champion in the 18 Metre Class, European Champion in the 15m class and having won both the UK National and the UK Junior championships. He won a bronze medal in the European Junior championships in Sweden in 1994, before entering his first World Championships in New Zealand in 1995. Since then, he has competed in internationals in Spain, Germany, Poland and France and is looking forward to competing in Poland again in 2003.

Steve is a professional aircraft engineer, working mainly with composite structures in unlimited aerobatic aircraft and sailplanes, but also restores vintage aircraft such as the Tiger Moth.

Like most of the British team, Steve views gliding as more than just a sport. "I fly various machines from high performance display aircraft to model aircraft and have competed at various levels in several fields of aviation. Gliding however is of most interest to me and the others have always taken second place.”

“The reason that I prefer cross-country competition gliding to other competition types is fairly simple. With cross-country gliding the average flight time is in excess of 5 hours. With a lot of other aviation competitions the average flight time is about 10 minutes and some are as low as 1 minute with the rest of the time spent sitting around”.

Steve comes from a family of glider pilots. As well as brother Phil, his father Ralph is an ex world championship competitor, his younger brother Howard is an up and coming pilot and his mother also flew in the past.