President Report - 1997 FAI General Conference

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE FAI PRESIDENT,
MR. EILIF NESS, TO THE 90th FAI GENERAL CONFERENCE
IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRASIL, 23 OCTOBER 1997

The year 1997 will surely go on record as the most eventful in FAI history - so far. In this report, I will recount not only with the events of this past year, but also with the major FAI initiatives during the past three years.

Our work during the 1995-97 period has been directed towards three main goals:

1. To modernise FAI in terms of working tools and methods in order to bring us not only on par with the surrounding world but up front.
2. To secure FAI's proper place among international organisations and a proper role in the world of aviation.
3. To create new sources of revenue in order to increase FAI's ability to act on behalf of its Members.

To modernise, we put FAI on the Internet and made our vast documentation available to the whole world. Our electronic information system now provides instantaneous communication between most of our one thousand commission experts. FAI has been opened up to thousands of people, and has asserted itself as a modern, up-to-date organisation.

Not everyone is on the Web, but more than three thousand hits per day on our web pages are proof of our accessibility. We will expand our Internet use further: early next year we will put our magazine Air Sports International on the Net, available to the entire world.

To secure FAI a proper place in aviation we had our historical meeting with ICAO in 1995, and have worked actively with JAA, particularly with aircrew licensing. Together with Europe Airsports, we have developed a clear role in the regulatory processes. In the sporting world, FAI, as full members of the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and the International World Games Organisation (IWGA) put parachuting into the World Games in Lahti this year.

On the world records arena, the quest for last of the great absolute world records, the non-stop around-the-world balloon flight, goes on. This winter, five re-designs and new projects will make new round-the world attempts. The Breitling Orbiter 2, the Virgin Global Challenger, the Rutan/Abruzzo balloon, Steve Fosset and Kevin Uliassi combine in an unprecedented race for this record. FAI is there as the world's aviation and space record authority.

The FAI General Conference resolves that:

As a contribution towards the success of these ventures, FAI declares its encouragement to all the teams and requests all our Members to provide all local assistance within their means to the balloon projects, particularly in their work to obtain overflight permissions.

To create new sources of revenue we established the FAI Grand Prix of Aviation and The World Hang Gliding Series. Both projects are developing well and may hopefully bring income in the future. Of course, the project that overshadows all is the World Air Games.

For the past year we have pursued something wholly new to the FAI: Virtual Flying, or flight simulation on private computers. Millions of persons engage in this exciting activity, competing in cyberspace. The initiator of FAI's engagement, FAI First Vice President, Alvaro de Orleans Borbon, will explain to you the concepts and ideas of Simulated Flight.

You will now understand why FAI needs to continue to engage itself in this. The basic principle is not alien to FAI: not all our pilots sit in their machines when they fly. In this particular world of electronic media, competition is fierce and the stakes are high. To pursue it we created a small expert group that has been working at high speed. The BDC president, Larry Sanderson, will give a short report on that work.

(Extract from the report of Larry Sanderson)

" Over the past year, the Business Development Committee has been focusing our efforts and planning on strategic projects we believe to have longterm business benefit for the FAI. Our most recent meeting here in Rio identified several key projects that we believe are of critical importance to the future of FAI as we attempt to meet our ongoing mission of supporting sport aviators throughout the world.

At the direction of the President, and on behalf of my fellow members of the Business Development Committee, I have been participating in efforts to establish a key strategic partnership in the field of flight simulation. Our goal has been to position FAI in the simulation community in order to contact potential sport aviation enthusiasts as well as generate new business opportunities for the FAI. [...]"

In addition to these projects, we work continuously to make air sports better known and more attractive. The core of the process is the improvement of our television profile. When we experience that the public considers our competitions dull, the fault is ours, not theirs. We are enthusiastic about our respective sports because we are the ones who fly or dive. TV audiences sit and look. If we want their attention, we must be exciting and glamorous.

Catching the attention of the public is the responsibility of the Air Sport Commissions. They must convert the boring parts of their competitions into something that people want to look at. The Lahti World Games and the World Air Games in Turkey both represented quantum leaps in television exposure. We would have liked more, but we did get coverage, as opposed to nothing.

This continuous work brings benefits first to grass roots: to the competitors and the local clubs, and last to FAI. Members who complain that they get too little in return for their FAI membership fee should remember that all sponsorship income is based on the media value of the sport, and that the creation of media value is a central, international task performed by FAI through its commissions.

THE FIRST WORLD AIR GAMES

The First World Air Games dominated 1997. Not only were the Games a success: the synergy effect of combining all the World Championships within the Games created a substantially larger participation than any previous ones. More than 3000 air sport enthusiasts participated in the 17 events. Our hosts, the Türk Hava Kurumu, ably supported by FAI commission experts, passed the test with flying colours.

No everything was perfect. It proved hard to create a feeling of togetherness, because of geographical spread of events and lack of information. To the outside world, however, it was much more of a coherent event than appeared to those inside it. Many hours on Eurosport placed the World Air Games firmly on the television screen. Despite great efforts, however, the opening and closing ceremonies were only for the few, but these are failings can be improved in future Games.

Anyone who experienced these Games knows that we have passed the one single hurdle that matters. Our great dream is no longer a dream, but a reality: We have created the World Air Games!

FUTURE WORLD AIR GAMES

There are four serious proposals on the table for organising the Second World Air Games. Whoever wins the bid will face the challenge of doing it better than Turkey and to meet and beat the standard they set. The bid winner will also have to face sharper terms and conditions of contract.

By joining many separate events into the World Air Games we have created one mega-event which is much more attractive commercially than its separate parts can ever be. So far, we have not received much financial benefits from the Games, and we must all work to make this into FAI's main tool for the future. That requires time and persistence. In the meantime, our grass roots will enjoy ever better opportunities. That is as it should be.

WORLD GAMES, LAHTI 1997

The World Games in Lahti, Finland this August were the "Non-Olympic Games", the manifestation of those events that are not Olympic, to show their potential as candidates for the Olympic Programme. In 1995, we succeeded in placing parachuting as one of 20 sports in the World Games. Roland Hilfiker and Olli Luoma organised an outstanding parachuting event at Lahti’s Jokimaa racetrack, where 80 of FAI’s foremost air athletes delivered top performances.

An impressive array of video and television equipment presented live air-to-ground video to the spectators on closed circuit television. With the same system FAI produced its own TV signal. It was not for free. FAI had to raise USD 150.000 to secure equipment, experts and aircraft of adequate quality. The amount was raised through entry fees for the competitors, from IOC contributions, from sponsors and by substantial use of IPC funds.

The next World Games will be in Akita, Japan in 2001, and parachuting events are already on the programme. With such lead-time, we will secure substantially better financial conditions. With the next games in Japan, where paragliding is widely practised, CIVL should look at adding paragliding or speed hanggliding (or both) to the World Games programme.

FAI WORLD GRAND PRIX OF AVIATION

The FAI World Grand Prix of Aviation is a spectacular aerobatics show. 1996 saw two events, one at the annual Tajima (Japan) Airport Festival, and at the Airshow China'96 in Zouhai, China's first ever international air show with a flying display, witnessed by more than one million spectators. ’97 was less encouraging., with only a demonstration show in Japan. A show on the eve of the transfer of Hong Kong to China, was unfortunately cancelled on very short notice. 1998 has three events programmed this far, in Switzerland, Japan and China. This year, military aerobatic teams were included in the Grand Prix programme, which will no doubt add to the Grand Prix's attractiveness.

In the light of the magificent achievements it is disappointing to note that the FAI World Grand Prix of Aviation is driven forward solely by Jean-Louis Monnet's "Air Masters' Ballet", under an FAI contract. Not a single NAC has come forward with an offer to host an event this or next year. If we want to develop new income for FAI, our membership needs to mobilise.

THE WORLD HANG GLIDING SERIES

CIVL’s World Hang Gliding Series incorporates new competition events including speed hang gliding. 1997 saw events in Korea, Greece, France and USA with at total of nearly 200 participants. TV exposure is increasing, but the concept is still developing and has achieved little commercial success yet. FAI's contract with WHGS continues, however, but comes up for partial review at the end of next year.

FINANCES

Many members, large countries among them, find themselves in financial straits and look to FAI as one of the areas in which to reduce their expenses. Some Members object to any subscription increase, and some are requesting downgrading on the FAI scale of subscriptions. It is a continuing paradox that this happens at a time when most air sports are growing, and the participation levels in our World Championships are higher than ever.

I repeat for the third year in a row my statement to the General Conference: FAI's efforts to develop new revenue must not be construed as efforts to prop up failing organisations. Too often we see FAI Members grow weaker when the air sports in their countries are growing stronger. It should be clear as daylight that such a development threatens FAI just when the organisation on its way to higher efficiency, higher profile, more influence and an improved economy. This situation needs to be addressed.

POLICY MATTERS

INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

Our Honorary President Mr. André Dumas maintains our contact with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Heavy commitments in areas such as the World Air Games have prevented us from adequately developing this link to ICAO. This Conference's discussion group on devolution, however, has revealed great need among our Members for guidance and methods to help them with local devolution. We will follow up this by systematising our collection of existing laws and by renewed contact with ICAO.

Our co-operation with Europe Airsports proceeds well, and we are looking forward to active participation in the development of JAR-OPS 2, the regulations for general aviation and airwork. This work has been repeatedly postponed, and may not come up until 1999. We will follow this extremely important regulation closely. FAI and Europe Airsports in co-operation with IAOPA are potential key players in this process.

We have further developed our relationship with the International Aircraft Owners and Pilots Associations (IAOPA), and regular contacts are being maintained on policy matters. The basic difference between our respective organisations makes differences of opinion unavoidable; however, all issues of common interest are discussed so as to maintain a united front within aviation.

The co-operation between the Conseil Internationale du Sport Militaire (CISM), the international organisation for military sports, and the FAI International Parachuting Commission, continues successfully.

The Organisation Scientifique Internationale du Vol à Voile (OSTIV), a long standing international affiliate member of FAI, monitors, among other things, the development of solar powered. This field is of great interest to FAI, and promises a breakthrough in practical applications of solar power.

The Confederación Latinoamericano the Paracaidismo (COLPAR) has been accepted by this General Conference as an FAI International Affiliate Organisation, with a Memorandum of Understanding to co-operate through the IPC. We are looking forward to an increased future participation by Latin American countries in FAI through this instrument.

OUR BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

In trying to improve our organisation, we wasted valuable years contemplating our own navels, before finally turning towards the outside world. I believe that the strategies I have described contribute to improving FAI by modernising our processes and shifting our focus towards the future. Now, if we are to succeed, we need more than ever to secure our ability to exploit the opportunities we are creating.

In order to do that, we need to change the way FAI does business. The secretariat simply needs more capacity. The Secretary General is reorganising the secretariat in order to cope with the growing workload, and no staff increase is proposed at this time. It is clear, however, that as soon as we achieve a sufficient increase in our non-membership revenue, it must be used first to consolidate our new position.

BUSINESS STRUCTURE AND LOCATION

A recurring theme over the years has been the status and location of FAI as an organisation. Legally, FAI is not an international organisation but a French association, ever since 1905. Previously debates about status and location have centred on costs and convenience, and only lately on the insecurity of tenure in offices provided by the French Ministry of Transport. FAI needs both an appropriate operational platform and better working conditions for our staff.

FAI is moving fast towards larger financial engagements in international arenas. We need both to change status and to work in a business friendly environment. Council has, because of the insecurity of tenure in Paris, a working group looking at alternative locations for the FAI Secretariat. This group is now looking at relocation options.

FINAL WORDS

It has been an eventful year, and great new challenges lie ahead. We must always be ready to meet these challenges without hesitation. Some challenges prove empty, others of vital importance to our future. FAI's role changes over the years, but more than ever we are "the sole world body in control of flying and air sports".

Eilif NESS
FAI President
October 1997