Sailplane Grand Prix Newsletter 5 (14.11.2006)

Dear Colleagues

With the naming of the Sailplane Grand Prix (SGP) now resolved, I am pleased to be able to confirm that the SGP Final, in New Zealand in December 2007, will be the

"2007 FAI World Series - Gliding"

And talking of New Zealand - the countdown is really on for next year.

The event planned for Omarama has unfortunately been cancelled. The date and place of the GP final will be announced later.

With six qualifying events completed, the list of qualified pilots is now:

  • Ben Flewett, New Zealand
  • Giorgio Galetto, Italy
  • Herbert Weiss, Germany
  • Petr Kreicirik, Czech Republik
  • Victor, Panafutin, Russia
  • Tim McAllister, USA
  • Uli Schwenk, Germany
  • Tassilo Bodo, Germany
  • Mario Kiessling, Germany
  • Didier Hauss, France
  • Peter Harvey, UK
  • Phil Jones, UK

I congratulate a number of pilots on this list for their tenacity. Having missed a 1st or 2nd placing in one qualifying SGP, they have turned around and flown in another event to ensure they qualify for the final. Well done!

Remeber there are two qualifying SGP events still to be held in 2006:

  • The South African qualifying SGP, Bloemfontein, 3rd to the 9th of Dec, in the 15m Class. Riaan Bezuidenhout is the contact person at rbez@mweb.co.za .
  • The Autralian qualifying SGP, Gawler, 30th of Dec to 6th of Jan, 2007, in the Standard Class. Terry Cubley is the contact person at cubley@netconnect.com.au .

SGP 2007 - We are looking forward to filling the gap in SGP events in 2007 (from Februaty to November) with four additional qualifying SGP events, flown at Northern Hemisphere venues. Our plan is that Air Sports Ltd will cover these four events using their telemetry downloaded into the Internet. The winner from each of these four additional qualifying SGP events will have automatic entry to the Final in New Zealand in December 2007.

Bids for 2007 and 2008 - We have already requested bids for a Sailplane Grand Prix series in 2008. The addition of four SGP events in 2007 may cause some potential bidders for 2008 to review their plans. We are, therefore, extending the time period for bids for both 2007 and 2008.

Please forward bids for SGP events for 2007 and for 2008 to Eric Mozer at emozer@deltamold.com by the 31st of December.

Please remeber, when preparing your bid, that the successful hosting of a SGP event will depend on a combination of factors. These include those normally associated with a gliding competition (local infrastructure, access to airspace and predictable weather conditions) but also require additional factors that will be successful in attracting and holding the interest of media, sponsors and the public.

Media Support for the SGP - The FAI Executive Board is in negotiations for the delivery of media support for the SGP events along with the other FAI airsport events. This media support may well provide a significant opportunity to bring sponsorship into the IGC to cover SGP events. Please note there is no plan to include the WGC events in this media support agreement.

Check out dates and results of the events, list of qualified pilots, rules etc. at http://www.fai.org/gliding/sgp.