January 20th, 2006
The IGC Bureau has accepted (subject to confirmation) offers from the following Countries to host Qualifying Grand Prix events during 2006.
This support of the Grand Prix is fabulous. Our congratulations to each Country.
The IGC Bureau will now be working closely with the organisers of each event to ensure that each Qualifying Grand Prix is managed so that it meets the IGC expectations.
There are 20 places available for the 2007 2nd International Grand Prix and there are 9 Qualifying Grand Prix events planned for 2006.
So, how do pilots qualify from 2006 for the International GP in 2007?
The pilots placing 1st and 2nd in each Qualifying Grand Prix in 2006 will qualify automatically for 2007. This will fill 18 of the 20 places available.
The remaining 2 places will be filled using pilot positions on the IGC Ranking List valid on the day following the end of the last 2006 Qualifying Grand Prix event.
ALL 3rd placed pilots in the 9 Qualifying Grand Prix events will be ranked according to their positions on the IGC Ranking List. This will create a 2006 GP Reserve Pilot List of 9 names.
Places number 19 and 20 in 2007 will be go to the top 2 pilots on the 2006 GP Reserve Pilot List.
If any pilots who have qualified for 2007 then withdraw, the vacant place will be allocated to the next highest ranked pilot on the 2006 GP Reserve Pilot List.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
January 21, 2006
March 15th, 2006
If the enthusiasm and focus of the Delegates at the 2006 Plenary meeting was to be measured it would surely be the fact that a total of 77 separate votes (including voting amendments to proposals) were taken during the 7 and a half hours of business on the Saturday. And there was still time for coffee and lunch and the meeting concluded on schedule at 5:45pm.
My sincere congratulations to all Delegates, who attended the meeting, for focusing so well on the business at hand.
The voting decisions are available on the IGC website. The Minutes will be posted on the website shortly.
Sir John Allison, President, Europe Air Sports, provided a thought-provoking address on the Friday and this is also now available on the IGC website. M. Pierre Portmann, FAI President, attended the Plenum on the Friday morning and addressed the Delegates on the future of the FAI.
Congratulations are extended to Ian Strachan (United Kingdom) for the deserved award of the Lilienthal Medal and to both Fransois van Haaff (Netherlands) and Martin Simons (Australia) for the award of the Pirat Gehriger Diploma. The citations for each of these recipients are available on the IGC website.
The 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix (2007) was awarded to New Zealand.
The 5th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships was awarded to Szeged, Hungary and the 6th FAI Junior’s World Gliding Championships was awarded to Räyskälä, Finland.
The French Federation have advised that the 4th FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships 2007 will now be held in Romorantin, a suitable airfield 100 km south of Bailleau.
The re-election of the Bureau, with the addition of Goran Ax replacing Arild Solbakken, is very pleasing and indicates strong support for the direction the Bureau is moving with our sport.
For 2006 the single biggest challenge is going to be ensuring that the eight Qualifying Grand Prix events are all produced to a consistent standard and supported by good public presentation of the event, especially on the internet. These events this year give us the chance to educate the gliding community about the Grand Prix; to show that it is not just a short glider race, but that it also creates a high level energy and excitement and inclusion by having other air sport activities occurring on the airfield.
The Bureau is intending to provide direct assistance to each Grand Prix organiser to help them prepare and run the event.
We plan to produce a dedicated Grand Prix Newsletter to keep everyone up to date with developments with the Grand Prix.
The synergies now available to us with this new glider race and the public presentation of the event that have been demonstrated give us a unique opportunity to showcase our sport and to take the sport out into the media and public arena and create interest and attract attention. From such exposure flows interest in the sport, increased activity, sponsorship potential and leverage on both the sporting and political levels.
Finally – for your Dairy - the 2007 IGC Plenary meeting will be held in Lausanne, at the Olympic Museum, on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd March. Key Dates for this meeting are:
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
March 15th, 2006
August 23rd, 2006
What have we been doing for the last five months? Good question!
I am concious that I have not been in touch with you for some time.
During the past months we have seen the completion of very successful World Gliding Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden, and Vinon, France. My congratulations go to the new World Champions and all the competitors. My sincere thanks go to the Organisers for all their hard work and dedication to the task of creating and running these events.
We continue to be reminded that we are almost totally reliant on volunteers to manage and support our Championships. This creates some challenges for us, as the Bureau, because of the pressure to have all the "bells and whistles" at the events - and especially the drive to lift our image and create a better awareness of our sport with the media and the public.
We have also seen the completion of the Qualifying Grand Prix events in Nitra, Slovakia, and Drakino, Russia. The Qualifying Grand Prix at Hahnweide, Germany, is happening right now, and we then have the UK, France, South African and Australian Grand Prix events to look forward to.
Unfortunately, the QGP in Ely, USA, did not go ahead because of lack of entries. Also, the weather was not kind to the organisers and competitors at Drakino.
We continue to learn about how to make a Grand Prix event effective and some of the challenges of marketing the event. Our experiences of this first year of running QGP events will enable us to be much smarter and more efficient for the future.
In the meantime planning progresses in New Zealand for the 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix in December 2007. At this time, we expect hang gliding, paragliding, aeromodels, rotorcraft, general aviation and aerobatics events being run in parallel with the Sailplane Grand Prix. This will provide a vital trial of the 2009 FAI World Air Games concept.
I have been planning to send out a PowerPoint briefing file on the Sailplane Grand Prix for you to use, however, we are still in negotiations with the FAI as to the most appropriate name for the event, and so I will not send this briefing out until we confirm the name.
Finally, in two weeks time your Bureau is meeting at Cambridge at the end of the UK QGP. We have a very full agenda covering various proposals from the 2006 Plenary meeting, competition reports, a review of the QGP, matters from OSTIV and EGU and preparations for the FAI General Conference and the Plenary meeting in 2007.
Bob Henderson
President, FAI Gliding
August 23, 2006.
Dear Delegates
A very successful Bureau meeting was held last month in Cambridge, England. My thanks to Neil Goudie, of the Cambridge Gliding Centre, for arranging excellent facilities for the meeting.
The Minutes from the meeting are available on the IGC website at http://www.fai.org/gliding/bureau2006_2 and also via a link from the IGC homepage. You will see that we have a large number of action items from the meeting.
Planning for our plenary meeting in 2007 is underway. We have confirmed our intention to provide a programme that will involve the Presidents of all national gliding organizations in discussions on the Saturday. I will be writing to all Presidents shortly to formally invite them to join us for dinner on the Friday evening and to the plenum session on the Saturday morning.
We have now completed six qualifying Grand Prix events. It is great to see that pilots who have missed qualification for 2007 are prepared to enter in another Grand Prix in order to qualify. Such is the spirit of the competition. The South African QGP and Australian QGP events will be held in December, creating more opportunities for pilots to qualify.
As a Bureau we have been concerned about the gap in Grand Prix events between January 2007 and December 2007. We are now exploring the possibility of filling this gap with a series of Grand Prix style races in the northern hemisphere summer season.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that we have reached a successful conclusion to a small problem about the naming of our Grand Prix. The use of the name “World Sailplane Grand Prix” has been disputed by other parties. To cut a long story short, we have now agreed with the FAI Executive Board that the IGC will retain the name “Sailplane Grand Prix (SGP)” to clearly identify this type of glider race. At the international level, then, Air Sports Ltd will market an event called “FAI World Series Gliding” with the SGP being the glider race used for this event.
Looking at our FAI World Gliding Championships we have decided, after being invited to visit Rieti in September to review their preparations for 2007 and 2008, that we should be more pro-active in helping WGC Organizers.
This is part of the role of the Chief Steward, but we have now decided that this role will include the Chief Steward, in company with a Bureau Member, visiting each Organizer and their WGC site six to nine months prior to a WGC. The purpose of this visit will be to see how preparations are progressing and to see what assistance we may be able to provide to them.
The FAI General Conference has just been completed in Santiago, Chile. The format of Conference was adjusted to allow time for discussion topics and to work on the organization of the 2009 World Air Games.
While in Santiago I had the opportunity, along with many others, to visit the Santiago Gliding Club. They have done something quite dramatic – they have managed to protect their gliding site and to also develop it as a “public reserve” within the city boundaries. I hope that we will be able to have members of the Club make a presentation on the Saturday morning to the 2007 Plenary meeting so that we can learn from them about the development and implementation of their very successful strategy.
The 2007 Plenary meeting will also decide the venues for the following competitions:
If your NAC is interested in bidding for any of these Championships, please contact the FAI office or Eric Mozer at emozer@deltamold.com for a bid form.
The deadline for receipt of the bid form by the IGC bid specialist and for preferred consideration for these contests is the 15th of November, 2006.
Finally, I am working with the FAI Secretary General, Max Bishop, to prepare a response to the Draft Accident Report into the fatal accident at Husbands Bosworth during the 2005 FAI Junior World Gliding Championships. The Draft Report makes sobering reading and I anticipate that the Final Report will be published prior to the 2007 Plenary meeting.
Best Regards and Safe Flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
October 30th, 2006
18th April 2007
Following negotiations between the IGC and various potential hosts, the IGC is pleased to announce that the IGC Sailplane Grand Prix race Final will be held in New Zealand this December.
The event will be covered by all of the pioneering media features that marked the first qualifying event held at Omarama in January 2006.
This is the breakthrough we have been waiting for – the world’s best pilots have competed for a place in the Final through eight qualifying events around the world, and now the final battle, with the pilots racing head-to-head, will be seen globally using the latest innovative TV technologies.
Coverage of the Final, managed by Air Sports Ltd, will be broadcast via the internet and will involve live air to air shots, multiple on board cameras and live 3D graphics from Animation Research – who are currently providing the 2007 America’s Cup graphics from Valencia.
The event will be held at Omarama, recognised as one of the world’s best gliding locations, between the 19th and 24th of December 2007. Two additional days will be staged at Wanaka, on the 27th and 28th of December, as part of a new multisport event. Other FAI sports such as skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, aerobatics and ballooning are expected to participate in the Wanaka event.
The glider pilots who have qualified for the World Series Gliding Final include an impressive array of World and European Champions. A total of 20 pilots will take part.
Apart from internet coverage, it is planned to feature both the Glider and multisport events on both New Zealand and global television. Confirmation of the event follows confirmation of major financial backing from Air Sports Ltd, the company which staged the initial competition at Omarama last year.
The events at Omarama and Wanaka are planned to be the first of a new global competition circuit designed to meet the needs of the media and sponsors.
The pilots who have qualified are:
| Pilot | Representing | Qualifying Grand Prix |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Flewett | New Zealand | Omarama, NZ |
| Giorgio Galetto | Italy | Omarama, NZ |
| Sebastian Kawa | Poland | Omarama, NZ |
| Herbert Weiss | Germany | Nitra, Slovakia |
| Petr Krejcirik | Czech Republic | Nitra, Slovakia |
| Victor Panafutin | Russia | Drakino, Russia |
| Tim McAllister | USA | Drakino, Russia |
| Uli Schwenk | Germany | Hahnweide, Germany |
| Tassilo Bode | Germany | Hahnweide, Germany |
| Mario Kiessling | Germany | St. Auban, France |
| Didier Hauss | France | St. Auban, France |
| Christophe Ruch | France | St. Auban, France |
| Peter Harvey | UK | Gransden Lodge, UK |
| Phil Jones | UK | Gransden Lodge, UK |
| Steve Jones | UK | Gransden Lodge, UK |
| Mark Holliday | South Africa | Bloemfontein, Sth Africa |
| Oscar Goudriaan | South Africa | Bloemfontein, Sth Africa |
| Bruce Taylor | Australia | Gawler, Australia |
| Peter Trotter | Australia | Gawler, Australia |
| Michael Sommer | Germany | Gawler, Australia |
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
April 18th, 2007
12th May 2007
In April we announced that the Final for the first GP series will be held in New Zealand. This news was greeted with very positive responses from the qualified pilots and many Delegates also sent me emails of support for our decision.
Thank you to you all for your support of the Bureau.
This newsletter will, I trust, fill in some of the gaps from the April announcement.
The Final will be at Omarama starting on the 19th of December and with the last competition day planned to be the 24th of December. An additional two days of GP racing will then take place at Wanaka on the 27th and 28th of December as part of a wider multi-sport event.
The Final will be managed by three parties:
The GP is being held in New Zealand because Air Sports Ltd have found an investor who is prepared to back their vision of creating air sports as a media-presentable product. The investor, who is not from within the aviation industry, is in this for the long-haul and is willing to work with ASL to create the right market to enable us to all benefit from significant sponsorship in due course.
How do I see this benefiting the IGC? My dream is that we will derive sufficient funding from the media exposure created through ASL’s products to be able to provide funding from IGC to support our core WGC events. But, we need to be realistic; it is going to take some time to create the demand.
The investment in ASL guarantees the coverage for the Sailplane Grand Prix Final in New Zealand using streaming on the internet and on standard size indoor screens on site of:
These are the same products that were demonstrated in January 2006 with the addition of the internet coverage.
The investment in ASL also underwrites the cost of supporting the IGC officials and the pilots and their gliders to attend the Final.
It is not planned to provide any large-scale spectator facilities at Omarama, but to focus instead on providing high quality internet coverage, and hopefully some level of broadcast TV exposure.
The Wanaka event is being prepared and managed by “Flying-NZ” (the Royal New Zealand Aero Club – the NZ NAC) and it will include all of the media capability that ASL have available. Skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, aerobatics, helicopters and ballooning are expected to participate in the Wanaka event.
I have recently written to all the other Air Sport Commission Presidents to ask for their support for this event.
This will, in a small way, allow us to rehearse the formats for the 2009 World Air Games.
For 2008 and 2009 we are now continuing with our plan, announced at the Plenum meeting in March, of running Qualifying GP race in 2008 with a Final in 2009.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
May 12th, 2007
Dear Delegates
Two new items have been added to the website - the Membership Report, that was not available for the Plenary meeting, has now been completed and is attached for your review, and the results of the Plenary Meeting survey recently completed by our Secretary.
I share the concerns stated in the Membership Report about the accuracy of figures. If we are to measure what is happening in our sport we need data – this includes information like time in the sport and age so that we can build a true picture of the demographics of our gliding fraternity. We will look to find a better way to obtain these details in future, perhaps via a standard report on the website.
On the other hand, the response to the survey from our last Plenary meeting was fantastic. The results show that, while we are making the Plenary meeting more effective, there is room for improvement.
You will now be aware that the FAI Selection Panel awarded the 2009 World Air Games to Turin, Italy. This event will launch the FAI community down a new and challenging path. The Bureau has decided that the pilots who will compete in the Gliding event (using the Grand Prix race format) will be the World Champions from each of our classes and championships. Brian Spreckley has been appointed as the IGC Liaison Officer for the event with Jean-Marc Badan being the FAI Coordinator.
The Air Sport Commission President’s meeting was held in Lausanne on 2nd June. This meeting is proving to be an excellent opportunity for the Commissions and the FAI Executive Board to liaise and look at how the FAI (as a body) can work towards the development of air sports and how we can support each other.
Next month, July, sees the 4th FAI Women’s WGC being hosted by Romorantin in France and the 5th FAI Junior WGC being hosted by Rieti, Italy. My best wishes to competitors and organisers and all involved in these two Championship events.
We had originally looked at running a series of Qualifying Grand Prix races in 2007, but time has caught up with us. We are therefore now opening up bids for Qualifying Grand Prix races in 2008 and also for a Final in 2008. Please circulate this request to all your Clubs. These bids should have the support of your national body.
Finally, I would like to remind all Delegates that we will be selecting the hosts for the 2011 FAI Junior WGC and the 2011 FAI Women’s WGC at the Plenary meeting in Rome next year. Please advise your NACs of these bids.
If your NAC has any interest in hosting one of these events, please contact the IGC Bid representative, Eric Mozer (emozer@deltamold.com) for the bid form.
The deadline for submission for bids for the Junior and Women’s events is September 15th, 2007.
Best Regards and Safe Flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
June 30th, 2007
Dear Delegates
Our mid-year Bureau meeting is being held in Paris at the end of this week. Next week is the Air Sports Commission President’s meeting and the FAI General Conference in Rhodes, Greece.
Unfortunately I am not going to be able to attend these meetings because I have a course I need to complete at Air New Zealand starting on the 8th of October. Great timing I know!
Our 1st Vice-President, Eric Mozer, will therefore be chairing the Bureau meeting and attending the Air Sports Commission President’s meeting and the General Conference on my behalf. I know that Eric will do a great job and I’m sure that he will find the General Conference interesting.
I have sent a copy of my IGC Report to the General Conference to you all in a separate email. Please distribute this Report within your National Body.
Congratulations to the organizers, winners and participants of the Women’s, Juniors, and two European Gliding Championships held this past summer. The winners are listed in my attached report.
The Bureau is reviewing the planned GP Series for 2008 and 2009 and will decide on the timing of qualifying events and the Final at the Bureau meeting this week. We are keen to minimize any potential conflicts between the primary World Gliding Championships, the World Air Games and the GP series, so want to be careful about the timetable that we create for the GP. I appreciate that this is frustrating for many people, but we need to establish the best timing for these events.
An interesting development this last European summer has been the production of a dedicated TV series featuring the "world’s best airborne action" and many official FAI Championships. This project was undertaken by of Mr Jeff Zaltmann, CEO of Flying Aces Ltd, a London-based media company. Television coverage of FAI events was produced at no cost to the Organisers.
The Women’s WGC at Romontin was included in this coverage and footage from this WGC has been shown on Reuters, SNTV, EBU, Transworld Sport and Sports Unlimited series (which includes Fox and Sky Sports).
Finally, the IGC Ranking List will be archived at the end of September and from October this year will be calculated under the new Annex D rules. The rules for inclusion of the GP in the Ranking list are not yet finalised but will be included before the World GP Final.
Best Regards and Safe Flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
October 2nd, 2007
Dear Delegates
A very productive Bureau meeting was completed in October. Key outcomes from that meeting are noted in the Minutes on the IGC website.
The FAI General Conference in Rhodes was also successful. Eric Mozer has been elected to the Statutes Working Group and I have had a message from FAI President Portmann acknowledging the contributions Eric made to the GC. The GC agreed to establish a new Technical Commission for Navigation and Airspace and we have nominated Bernald Smith as our Commission representative with Ian Strachan as the alternative. I know that they will serve this new Commission well. The GC also agreed to allow Commissions to have 2-year terms for the Bureau and we will now need to decide, at our next Plenary meeting, if we want to adopt this option.
Thinking about the next Plenary meeting, may I remind you all that Proposals and Reports that require a vote must be with our Secretary, Peter Eriksen, eriksen@cegetel.net, no later than Monday the 17th of December. This is to allow us time to ensure that the proposal is worded clearly, to ensure that the decision being asked for is clear to everyone. Reports not requiring a vote must be with Peter by the 10th of January 2008. Any questions about accommodation in Rome please contact Marina Vigorito at marina_vigorito@yahoo.it.
FAI President Portmann will be attending the 1st FAI World Sailplane GP Final in Omarama this month. He will also be attending the New Zealand Air Games, being held immediately after the GP, to see how blending all airport disciplines into one location can work. It is my hope that we will learn valuable lessons from the NZ Air Games that can be used to help the FAI make the 2009 World Air Games in Turin an outstanding success.
Looking forward to 2008, we have the:
I have an important message from Ross Macintyre and the Sporting Code Committee. This message has also been posted on the IGC website:
World Records using multiseat gliders
The Sporting Code rule 4.2.1 regarding declaration content requires the names of both pilot and crew. Some flight recorders approved for verifying World Records do not have a second field/line for the crew's name. In this situation, the following must be observed:
New claim forms for World Records are now on the website. Forms A, B and C have additional certification to be signed by the pilot confirming that the flight was done within the airworthiness and airspace regulations. All new World Record claims must use these new forms from December 1st 2007.
Finally, the Sailplane GP series:
Best Regards and Safe Flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
3rd December, 2007
24th March 2008
Dear Delegates
As I sit here in 24 degrees C in the autumn in New Zealand it is a bit hard to imagine that it is snowing in the UK! The climate variations are really interesting this year.
The Plenary meeting in Rome, and the associated Bureau meeting, were very productive. My thanks to the Aero Club of Italy and the Italian Gliding Federation for hosting us all in Rome, especially to Senator Leoni, Andrea Tomasi and Marina Vigorito.
Congratulations to Derek Piggott (UK) on the award of the Lilienthal Medal and to Maksymiliana Czmiel-Paszyc (Poland) on the award of the Pelagia Majewski Medal. Both awards recognise a lifetime of service to our sport of gliding.
Peter Platzer (Austria) joins the Bureau after Vladimir Foltin stood down and Goran Ax has taken over the Chairmanship of the Annex A Group from Axel Reich. Vladimir and Axel have devoted many hours to the service of the IGC over the past four years and I am pleased that they will both continue to be closely involved with IGC work in other roles.
The key decisions from the Plenary meeting have been posted on the IGC website and a number of action items will be completed in the next month, including setting up two new working groups to look at “Country Development” and “Continental Records”.
The 2009 Plenary meeting will be held in Lausanne on Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th of March, 2009. Bureau meetings will be held on the 6th and 7th of October 2008 and the 4th and 5th of March 2009.
The World Air Games 2009 are rapidly approaching. The current World Gliding Champions and European Gliding Champions will be invited to fly the GP race at the World Air Games. Invitations will go out shortly to each of these pilots.
Best regards and safe flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
24th March 2008
February 16th, 2005
Dear Friends
The Northern hemisphere period for submission of flights for the IGC contribution to the FAI Centenary now occurs at the same time as a major military exercise – “Clean Hunter 2005” - in central Europe. This exercise is likely to interfere with VFR flights over a wide area. As a result we have decided to alter the dates for the Northern hemisphere period to July 9th to July 24th. Please advise your national organisations about this change of dates.
A reminder that the agenda, papers and reports are available on the IGC website at
http://www.fai.org/gliding/meetings/
I am aware that some NAC’s may not be able to send a Delegate to the meeting. However, I would encourage those who cannot attend to participate by appointing a proxy to carry their votes. The FAI By-Laws provide for a proxy to be given to one of the other delegates (except to the Commission President). Each Delegate may only hold one proxy. All proxies must be given in writing and be signed by the President or Secretary General of the FAI Member concerned.
Wolfgang’s topic is “IGC’s Top Task: How To Protect The Future Of Our Sport”
And will focus on four main topics:
Klaus will speak on World Records and Reiner on the OLC on Saturday afternoon.
The agenda includes a presentation from Garmin on the potential for Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Flight Recorders for verifying badge flights. Unfortunately the representative from Garmin is now unable to attend the meeting but we are making alternative arrangements to ensure the presentation is still available.
It has been a tradition for the IGC Plenum to focus on the Sporting Code and competitions. Despite attempts to divert the debate, it always turns back to the same subjects. But this is only a very limited part of our responsibility. In principle the IGC should deal with: Competitions, Records, glider design, airspace, licenses, and not at least have a strategic view on gliding as a sport now and in the future.
Luckily OSTIV is dealing with all scientific and technical matters of world-wide gliding including training and safety. EGU takes care of regulations regarding licensing,
operations, certification, airworthiness, airspace in Europe. But who looks at the future of gliding? Who takes a serious look at the way we want gliding to be in the future? Who defines our gliding vision, the IGC strategies? Who imagines how gliding will fit in tomorrow’s society?
At the last Bureau meeting we discussed Strategic Goals and it was not difficult to dream up some goals: be the biggest air sports commission in FAI; have all members at the IGC meeting; and, increase the number of participants in competitions. That is all very nice, but how do we get there? What is it we have to change in our behavior to achieve the goal?
During the past year we asked for comments on the "burning issues" that Delegates identified as problems. That list is (in no order of priority):
This list shows that competitions and the sporting code are not high priority items for NAC’s. The Bureau believes that we need to establish a clear IGC Strategy with a long-term Plan. This should encompass:
We have some time set aside to discuss “IGC Strategy” at the Plenary meeting. We have an existing Strategic Plan that we acknowledge requires updating. To do this we need input from you, the Delegates. We need to make the best use of the time we do have available in Lausanne.
Please come along prepared to comment on the things we need to make gliding a healthy and growing sport and be prepared to offer some ideas as to how we should achieve this aim.
Piero Morelli has written a paper entitled “Development of the Microlift Glider” and includes an annex on “A Brief History of FAI Glider Classes”. This paper is available on the website at http://www.fai.org/gliding/documents/microlift.pdf I recommend it for reading.
It gives me great pleasure to close this Newsletter with a note of thanks to the members of the Bureau who have all devoted generously of their time and personal energies to help look after and manage our sport for us all.
Take care and safe flying
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
April 10th, 2005
Dear Friends,
IGC PLENARY MEETING
It is now a month since our very successful Plenary meeting. It was great to see so many of you there despite the weather and the travel disruptions.
The key points from the meeting have been available on the IGC website for a while now, and Peter Eriksen has sent the Minutes to the FAI Office for inclusion on the website.
I, for one, greatly enjoyed the presentations from Wolfgang Weinreich and Klaus Ohlmann and my thanks to each of them. Wolfgang and Klaus both threw out challenges for us, the Plenary, to consider regarding the future of the sport and the control of world records. Wolfgang has kindly consented to his keynote speech being made available publicly and it has been posted on the website, but, more importantly, it is attached to this newsletter.
I ask each and every one of you to pass this speech on to your national President and also to the editor of your national magazine.
While Wolfgang has stated that there are a number of initiatives that the “IGC can do” may I plagiarise FAI Secretary General Max Bishop’s comment and remind you that: "You are IGC!"
My thanks also to Oliver Rennert, for providing the update on the OLC developments, and to Joerg Stieber, for the COTS presentation. Again, both presentations provided food for thought.
We have a very strong Bureau and while I am sorry that Dick Bradley has stood down from the Bureau I am very pleased that he has agreed to remain the IGC Treasurer. I am also very pleased to welcome Arild Solbakken to the Bureau. The establishment of the Business Development Group and a Communication Strategy are now the top priorities for the Bureau.
My congratulations to those NAC’s that have been awarded World Championship and European Championship events in 2007 and 2008. I look forward to strong and healthy competitions at each of these events.
FAI CENTENARY 2005
May I remind you that the Northern hemisphere period for submission of flights for the IGC contribution to the FAI Centenary is July 9th to July 24th. To ensure that this on line contest is a success we all have a responsibility to promote it in our own country, on the Website of our NAC or Federation and in our Gliding Magazines.
IGC RANKING LIST
The IGC Ranking list is one of our key products. The IGC competitions over the last season have been included and your pilots should be seeing their names there. If they are not they need to ask the competition organisers why the results are not there. It’s great to see a fellow Kiwi at the top of the list – but is there no one else out there who can outperform him?
It is also boring to have only names and competition results available on the ranking list. This is a list that the media and the public access – and it is the most popular IGC web page by a factor of 20. I ask you to please encourage your pilots to insist that competition organisers provide photos and biographical information for the list.
2006 PLENARY MEETING
The discussion on strategic issues this year has provided us, the Bureau, with useful thoughts and ideas on how to develop a sound strategic plan to protect and develop our sport. For 2006 we propose to have a similar format with a keynote speech and discussion time on a specific topic on the Friday afternoon.
There are 46 countries that have Delegates to the IGC. This year we had representation from 34 countries actually at the meeting. In 2006 I would like to see at least 40 countries attending the Plenary meeting and the Bureau will see what it can do to provide assistance to those who routinely do not attend.
I am also going to issue an invitation to every national gliding President to attend the meeting in Lausanne in 2006.
I believe that this is critical for us to be able to develop our battle plans to ensure the survival of our sport. The Presidents hold the political strings in each country and I believe that we need them to come together in Lausanne to help us – IGC – to understand exactly what we can do on the international scene to help each national gliding body, and for them to understand what they can do to help us – IGC.
Take care and safe flying.
President, IGC
Bob Henderson
April 10th, 2005
April 22nd, 2005
The IGC believes that the Sailplane Grand Prix (SGP) series will become our premier sporting events for the media and the public. The SGP will provide the opportunity for us to showcase gliding in a simpler and more easily understandable contest. I firmly believe that without public understanding and media support we cannot progress the sport of gliding. This year’s 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix in Saint Auban will be the springboard to the 2006 Sailplane Grand Prix qualifying series and the 2007 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix.
I request that each of you pass this newsletter to your national President, the editor of your national magazine and to your contest pilots.
The following decision was taken at the Plenary meeting in March this year:
"The meeting empowered the Bureau to receive bids for National Grand Prix, which will be open to international participation and qualifying for the next World Grand Prix. All these Grand Prix will be run according to the same rules but the organisers will have the choice of the class. The National Grand Prix will be category 2 events. Bids should be received via the NAC’s before 1 October 2005. It should be noted that the Plenum preferred the term 'Qualification Grand Prix' to the name National Grand Prix."
The following timescale is now being put in place for bids for 2006 and 2007:
30th April 2005 - a simplified Bid Procedure will be available.
31st August 2005 –Bids close for the series of 2006 Sailplane Grand Prix qualifying contests. The Bureau will review these bids in September 2005.
31st October 2005 –Bids close for the 2007 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix.
The Bureau will review these bids in November 2005.
I believe that these timescales are appropriate. The Sailplane Grand Prix events are limited to 20 competitors and, as a result, the logistics are really a lot simpler than those required to support a full IGC WGC with 100+ sailplanes present. Our experience from Saint Auban in 2003 is that one needs a Director, Tasksetter, Scorer, Admin person, competent PR person, Referee, a small number of enthusiastic club members to look after the bar - meals - crowd control, and a small number of tow pilots.
A "unified" image will be maintained by using the same name for all, for example: Grand Prix de France, Grosser Preis of Deutschland, Grand Prix of New Zealand.
A copy of the rules is available from the IGC Secretary Peter Eriksen at eriksen@cegetel.net and a summary of the rules will be sent out to you all in a few days via a separate newsletter.
This programme is vital to the health and growth of our sport and I ask all NAC’s and National Federations to support this initiative.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
April 22nd, 2005
April 29th, 2005
The following is a summary of the Rules applying to the Sailplane Grand Prix. Please pass this summary to your national President, the editor of your national magazine and to your contest pilots
Objective – To select the champion Grand Prix pilot on the basis of the pilot's performance in the tasks set.
Class - The FAI Class nominated by the organisers.
Officials – A Director shall be named and the IGC Bureau shall appoint a Referee. The Referee will be responsible for adjudication of any complaints or protests during the Grand Prix, he has the right to terminate the Grand Prix and he shall approve the final results.
Entries – The 2006 qualifying GP shall be open to entries from all Nations. A maximum of 20 pilots is permitted. World and Continental Champions will have first priority. The IGC Ranking List or other suitable selection procedure shall be used if there are more than 20 preliminary entries. The IGC Bureau may vet the preliminary entry list.
Qualification for the 2007 World Grand Prix – Pilots will qualify for the World Grand Prix by gaining a placing in a 2006 qualifying Grand Prix. The number of pilots eligible from each qualifying Grand Prix will be decided by the Bureau and will depend on the number of qualifying Grand Prix events. It is not intended that pilots would fly in more than one qualifying Grand Prix to gain entry to the 2007 World Grand Prix.
Technical, Airworthiness and Insurance Requirements and General Flying Procedures – Competitors and sailplanes shall meet the same requirements and comply with the same general procedures as required under Annex A for a World Gliding Championship.
Control Procedures – Flight verification shall be by GNSS flight recorders.
Tracking – Organisers are expected to use tracking devices to maximise the public display of the event. Pilots shall be required to carry these as part of their conditions of entry in the event.
Starting – All sailplanes shall start at the same time (Regatta Start) using a Start Line placed across the airfield to maximise public viewing.
Tasks – Annex A Speed Tasks over closed circuit courses of approximately 100 kilometers, completed twice if appropriate.
Turn Points – Classic “beer can” 0.5 kilometer radius observation zones will be the only turn points used. Altitude may be strictly controlled at Turn Points to maximise public visibility of the sailplanes. The departure airfield should also be a Turn Point.
Finish – A Finish Line shall be used and it shall be placed across the airfield to maximise public viewing.
Scoring – Elapsed time scoring shall be used for finishers. Non-finishers will be given the time of the last finisher plus one minute for every kilometer between their landing position and the finish line (thus assuming that they had flown home via all turn points at 60 km/h).
Penalties – Penalties are given in time units and accumulated for the duration of the event. For example, missing a turn point by being between 0.5 and 1.0 kilometer will incur a time penalty of 5 minutes.
Protests – Adjudicated by the Referee.
1st World Sailplane Grand Prix Rules – These Rules are available for review at
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
April 29th, 2005
June 8th, 2005
Dear Friends
FAI Meetings
I recently returned from Lausanne from a series of FAI meetings. The City also hosted the FAI members to a formal function as part of the Centenary Celebrations of the FAI.
A meeting between the FAI Executive Board and the Vice-Presidents (Air Sport Commission Presidents and the NAC representatives) spent a considerable amount of time discussing how to develop the World Air Games for the future. The proposal is that a series of Regional Air Games (RAG) will be held over the next two or three years, leading up to a larger World Air Games.
The RAG will be designed to be held at a single venue with only a limited number of Air Sports present. For us this fits exactly with the new Sailplane Grand Prix event that we have designed – as short, sharp competition with opportunity for other Air Sports to also hold events on the same airfield.
We are looking forward to being able to work with the FAI Executive Board and other Air Sports to develop the RAG.
A subsequent meeting of the Air Sports Commission Presidents endorsed support for the RAG concept. A number of other issues were discussed at this meeting, including:
Sailplane Grand Prix
The 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix, being held in Saint Auban (France) from the 2nd to the 11th of September 2005, is on track for being a showcase event with a full field of 20 entries. We are very grateful to the FFVV and the people at Saint Auban for their support of this event.
Bids are already being received for the 2006 Sailplane Grand Prix qualifying contests and for the 2007 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix.
Remember, bids for the 2006 Sailplane Grand Prix qualifying contests close on 31st August 2005 and for the 2007 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix on 31st October 2005.
IGC Officials
The Bureau recently conducted an audit of all those currently nominated as Officials (Jury and Stewards) for IGC sanctioned gliding championships. This audit revealed that there were a number of people who had not actually been involved as either Jury members or Stewards in the recent past. As a result the respective NACs have been contacted to confirm that the persons they have nominated are still available for duty as IGC Officials.
The Bureau will be conducting these audits frequently in future as part of the quality control of our Championships to ensure that we have the best possible people overseeing our events.
Anyone can be nominated to take on these roles, but they must be experienced in competitions at an international level and be very knowledgeable of the Annex A Rules. All nominations must come through NACs, or Gliding Organisations, so that the Bureau knows that the person nominated has the support of their national body.
Plenary 2006
Sir John Allison, President of Europe Air Sports (EAS), has agreed to be our keynote speaker at the Plenary meeting in 2006. By March next year we may well have seen a significant amount of legislation introduced by EASA, which will impact directly on the 90,000 glider pilots in Europe. By building a close relationship with EAS we anticipate being able to support the EGU in protecting the sport of gliding in Europe. I would like to again note that I believe that all Gliding Presidents should attend our plenary session in Lausanne in 2006 as I believe that this meeting will be a critical turning point in the development of our sport.
The Bureau will be considering a number of options to try and ensure that all NACs that have Delegates nominated to the IGC actually attend this meeting.
Enjoy your soaring safely
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
June 8th, 2005
July 24th, 2005
Anti Collision Devices in IGC Championships
Dear Friends
In 2004 the anti-collision system FLARM was introduced to the IGC at our Plenary meeting in Lausanne. It is now in extensive use in Europe and is also used elsewhere in the world.
The IGC endorsed the use of such technology as providing a significant benefit to flight safety.
In April 2005 the gliding board of the German Aero Club endorsed the use of FLARM in soaring competitions and championships.
In May 2005 Aerokurier published a comment about FLARM:
"The Swiss collision avoidance system for gliding, FLARM, cannot be used in international gliding competitions. The exclusion is purely a formality. The FAI competition regulations forbid the exchange of data during competitions, but FLARM relies on extensive exchanges of data in order to work." (Translation courtesy of Fred Weinholtz).
This opinion was picked up by at least one other gliding magazine, the Gliding Kiwi in the June/ July 2005 issue:
"FAI has ruled that Flarm (sic), the Swiss collision avoidance system cannot be used in international gliding competitions. FAI competition regulations forbid the exchange of data during competitions. FLARM relies on extensive exchanges of data in order to work. Common sense will prevail on this issue for sure."
I do not know if other gliding magazines and publications have picked up this erroneous opinion, but the time has come to end this speculation.
Fact: FLARM uses a comparison of electronic data between aircraft to determine if a collision risk exists (no collision risk equals no warning).
Fact FLARM only provides relative position information for the aircraft creating the risk (position in a 360 degree circle).
Fact: FLARM is very short-range.
Fact: FLARM does not provide relative position information if there is no collision risk (so it cannot be used to leech!)
The relevant Annex A Rule currently states:
5.3.1 Radio Transmitters and Transceivers Radios are for voice transmissions between team members and between them and the Organisers only.
b. Any other data transmission between competitors, or between them and the ground, except as required by the Organisers, is prohibited.
This Rule was written to stop the transfer of data - such as from GNSS units that would provide information about air mass and rates of climb, etc - especially when gliders were out of sight of each other. It was never intended to void flight safety.
The existing Annex A wording competition permits organisers to require all gliders to carry FLARM, for example, as a means of reducing the risk of mid-air collisions.
We have had a number of debates in the last few years about how to minimise the mid-air collision risk in competitions. As a result, I find it extremely frustrating that interpretations have been placed on a sound and workable Rule in this way without seeking advice or clarification from the Bureau.
I would be very concerned if I thought that someone might lodge a protest about the carriage of a device such as FLARM during a contest.
As a result of this situation the Bureau is making an immediate amendment to this Rule so that it will now read:
5.3.1b "Any other data transmission between competitors, or between them and the ground is prohibited, except as required: (i) by the organisers; or (ii) for safety purpose or; (iii) for anticollision warning,"
I have received an email that suggests that this is just a "storm in a teacup", but this action is, I believe, necessary to make the Bureau's intentions absolutely clear.
This does not, however, help us in our aim of making the Rules simpler.
Enjoy your flying and keep a good lookout!
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
July 24th, 2005
September 21st, 2005
Dear Friends
Sailplane Grand Prix
In April this year I wrote to you with a timetable for the Sailplane Grand Prix event bids for 2006 and 2007. Since then we have had a very successful 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix event at Saint Auban, France. I am extremely grateful to the FFVV, the team at the CFHN, and especially to Roland Stuck, for the initiatives to undertake this event. I know that the 17 pilots representing 12 nations had a great time and really enjoyed the competition.
Your Bureau has received a number of bids to host Qualifying Grand Prix events in 2006. The original timescale was for bids for the Qualifying events to close at the end of August. However, there has been additional interest generated in hosting Qualifying events in 2006 following the success of the 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix in St Auban.
As a result we would like to advise you that:
IGC Bureau meeting and FAI General Conference
The IGC Bureau is meeting in Paris on the 10th and 11th of October to review progress on our strategic aims and general business. A number of us will then be joining the FAI at the General Conference at the Aero Club de France to celebrate the Centenary of the FAI. I will send out another newsletter following these two meetings.
Attached to this newsletter is my report to the FAI General Conference.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
September 21st, 2005
The International Gliding Commission held it’s annual meeting in Lausanne in March 2005. Changes to the format of the meeting included having keynote speakers and presenters and providing a significant period of time for discussion on the strategic question of where gliding, as a sport, should position itself for the future.
As a result the Bureau has been working on a long-term Strategic Plan for the IGC.
Key decisions taken included the intentions to:
Awards conferred were:
During 2005 the following Championships were held:
Strong bids were provided from several countries for the new calendar of gliding championships in 2007 and 2008. The bids were awarded as follows:
Two “gliding weeks” were held to contribute to the celebration of the FAI Centenary. The aim of these two-week periods (one northern hemisphere and one southern hemisphere) was to record the total number of kilometres flown by all glider pilots during the nominated days. The German OLC website and the French NetCoupe were used to log and record the flights. The total distance flown was an astounding 2,511,421 kms, achieved with a massive 5,224 flights. This is equivalent to 62-and-a-half times around the Earth! Diplomas will be awarded to the best flight in each FAI class.
We are moving to a “per-pilot” sanction fee system and transferring the responsibility for the costs of providing Event Officials from the Organisers to the IGC with the expectation that the latter will be in place for Fiscal Year 2007. This is part of our strategy to improve the quality control of our International Championships. This will see the IGC committing to between 20 and 25,000 EUR expenditure per annum commencing in 2007.
As reported last year, the marketing of our sport to the public remains a challenge. The use of in-flight tracking devices, in-flight video, new styles of glider racing and the use of the internet to turn a glider race into a public spectacle are all being pursued to try and make the sport more visible. There are a number of commercial solutions now being developed to meet this challenge and we look forward to their continued development over the next year. We also look forward to being able to integrate our Sailplane Grand Prix into the FAI Regional and World Air Games events as part of this marketing strategy.
Airspace, Membership and global participation remain other key issues. We continue to push our airspace requirements, we are developing our communication tools to reach more pilots and are examining ways to ensure that all countries are able to participate in IGC and to have the opportunity to compete in and host World Championships.
Finally, I would like to extend grateful thanks to Secretary General Max Bishop and the staff at the FAI Office for their untiring work and generous support on IGC’s behalf.
President
International Gliding Commission
November 11th, 2005
Dear Friends
Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix 2006
The interest in the SGP events for 2006 as been great following the very successful 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix held in St Auban by the FFVV.
As a result the Bureau decided in our mid-year meeting in October to extend the time for bids for Qualifying Grand Prix events in 2006 to 31st December 2005. Incomplete bids will not be accepted.
Currently we have accepted the following 2006 Qualifying Grand Prix events:
The reason for choosing this date is to ensure that the pilots who fly at Omarama, New Zealand, in January 2006 will know how many places are available for qualification towards the 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix in 2007.
A very successful Bureau meeting was held in Paris in early October. My thanks again to our colleagues at the FFVV for their hospitality and the use of their offices.
Key points from this meeting were:
The FAI General Conference was a grand affair, with the functions being quite stunning – both the venues and the banquets. The Centenary Dinner on the last evening was magnificent and it was a pleasure to be able to be present to recognise and applaud the outstanding achievements of eight men and eight women from all air sports and across the years for their contributions to aviation and for their achievements.
The website for The 29th FAI Multi Class World Gliding Championships is now online at http://www.wgc2006.se/index.php.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
November 10, 2005