Answers to a questionnaire circulated to the members of the OSTIV Sailplane Development Panel were received showing that an empty weight limitation of the single-seat ultralight glider exists in USA (70 kg), Germany (90 kg), and Italy (80 kg). No regulation, definition and, therefore, weight limitation in Austria, Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Poland, Switzerland, and UK.
The rules, where they exist, are mostly operational, not airworthiness requirements, except in Germany where LFG (Lufttüchtigkeitsforderungen für Gleitflugzeuge) exist, issued by the German Aero Club. They are much less demanding than JAR-22 and specify a maximum pilot's weight of 90 kg.
In the USA, some of the popular UL gliders (Swift, Dragon, Super Floater) comply with FAR- 103 (empty weight less than 70 kg), some do not (Monarch, Tempest) but they are below the FAI empty weight limit of 100 kg.
It is evident that most of these gliders are a development of hang gliders. Many of them can actually be foot-launched, although aero-tow by trikes becomes more and more frequent. The Hang gliding Commission seems to tend to consider them within their competence. During the next European Hang Gliding Championships in Hungary (August 1996) a category of "UL aero-towed hang gliders" will be flown experimentally.
According to Professor Morelli, if IGC wants to keep the UL gliders within its domain of competence this should be clearly stated and a discrimination should be made between those UL gliders which are (or can be) foot launched and those which cannot, only the latter belonging to IGC.
If the actual FAI definition of an UL glider (empty weight not higher than 100 kg) is to be replaced by an all-up weight limitation, a reasonable figure would result by adding to the German upper empty weight limit of 90 kg a max. pilot weight of 90 kg, i.e. 90 + 90 = 180 kg.
A higher all-up weight limit than this could generate gliders quite close to the lightest of those complying with the World Class Technical Specifications and competing at Oerlinghausen on September 1992 (Velino, Russia 1, Russia 2). They were designed on the basis of JAR-22. The main difference between the two categories of gliders would then be the compliance or not with JAR-22, largely a matter of safety.
14.2 The applications of the Austrian and the Italian Aero Clubs to change the definition of an Ultralight Glider (SC 3, paragraph 1.1.1.1) were dealt with by the rules sub-committee. The decision see under item 8.1.1, 1).
1) Main event since March 1995 was the meeting of the Sailplane Development Panel at
Zlin, Czech Republic, 14. to 16. September, 1995, with 30 attendants from 12 countries.
The most important items were:
a) Ground Loads: The OSTIV Standards have been revised completely;
b) Crashworthiness in an innovative way, aiming at better shock absorption characteri-
stics and improved protection of the pilot in the cockpit. The benefit of these new
requirements will be seen in future designs.
c) Glider Parachute Recovery Systems: OSTIV specifications have been finalised.
Together with the German (LBA) regulations they are now available as design guide-
lines for the manufacturers of such systems.
d) Towplane Upsets: This subject has been given again the panel's attention. A mathe-
matical model of the glider aero tow has been developed at the Technical University
Torino, taking into account all relevant characteristics of the towplane, the cable and
the glider. The computer-aided solution of the non-linear differential equations
allows an evaluation of the possible occurrence of this very dangerous situation. New
possibilities are open to designers to adopt a suitable location of the tow hook on
both glider and tug, and to operators to adopt a suitable cable length and mechanical
characteristics.
2) The Meteorological Training Seminar was held at Lesce Bled, Slovenia, from 5. to 16. August, 1995. The event focused on the importance of pilot's meteorological knowledge and needs in competitions.
3) The following events are scheduled for the near future:
a) Meeting of the Training and Safety Panel, to be held in the Headquarters of the
Danish Sports Association near Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, 22. to 24. March,
1996.
b) Meteorological Training Seminar, to be held at Nötsch, Austria, 13. to 21. April,
1996.
c) Meeting of the Sailplane Development Panel, to be held at Helsinki, Finland, 5. to 7.
September, 1996.
d) The XXV OSTIV Congress will be held at St. Auban sur Durance, France, 26th June
to 4. July, 1997.
While Tor Johannessen had left the conference room, a debate arose on the question if IGC was the competent commission for Jerzy Makula, because he is primarily an aerobatics pilot and the FAI commission responsible for glider aerobatics is the CIVA. It was agreed that the Polish glider pilot has done a lot for the benefit and the publicity of gliding generally, and the proposal was accepted.
The first secret ballot resulted in an absolute majority for Tor Johannessen, the long-standing and well-deserved First Vice President of IGC and Chairman of the Rules Sub-Committee. The President congratulated him on the high award, and the plenum honoured him with much applause and a standing ovation.
Mr President, dear members of the IGC, I am sorry that I am not able to join the conference in Paris. First of all I want to thank you for approving the Barron Hilton Cup an official FAI competition. Barron Hilton himself was very pleased and impressed by this.
A few words about the last cup. It was very interesting and I may say unusual. In the past, mostly German glider pilots took part and won. This time, we have an Austrian winner in the 15m class, with a 1 000 km triangle flown in the Alps, and two French winners in the standard class. The open, sports and double seater classes were won by Germans. These results show that now, after all these years, the acceptance in other countries than Germany has taken place and I am very glad about that. I hope this will increase, especially in the East European countries.
The present competition rules will be handed to you by the IGC President and I would be glad if you would hand them to your national gliding secretaries, so that every country will have the chance to participate. The official rules can also be ordered from the German Aero Club, Gliding, Rudolf-Brass-Straße 20, D-63150 Heusenstamm, or from Annette Reichmann, phone 0049-681-811382, fax 0049-681-814291.
There are rumours the Barron Hilton Cup will be stopped. I can assure you, we will carry on.
In a short discussion it became obvious that the Barron Hilton Cup - sponsored generously by the US glider pilot Barron Hilton who every two years invites the winners of the five contest classes to participate at a gliding camp on his "Flying-M-Ranch" near Reno in Nevada - enjoys high esteem among the glider pilots world-wide.
Unanimously it was agreed that the rules for the cup 1996/97 - which are nearly identical to the ones of the last competition - will be approved by the Bureau. A copy of these rules, the index list of the German Aero Club which applies for the cup, and the winners' list of the competition 1994/95 are enclosed as Annex L.
Departing from the rule 5.4.8 of the FAI by-laws to the Statutes, the delegates decided by 22 to 4 votes, with one abstention to elect the Vice Presidents by simple majority.
The results of the elections by secret ballot were:
President: Professor Peter Ryder, Germany;
First vice-president: Tor Johannessen, Norway;
Vice Presidents: Dick Bradley, South Africa, Åke Pettersson, Sweden, Tapio Savolainen, Finland, Patrick Stouffs, Belgium, Roger Woods, Australia. Secretary: Fred Weinholtz, Germany, was re-elected by acclamation.
The President thanked the departing Vice Presidents Bruno Liège, Alvaro de Orleans Borbon and Bernald Smith for their valuable and - in part - long-standing contributions to the Bureau and welcomed the new Vice Presidents Dick Bradley, Patrick Stouffs and Roger Woods.
The European meeting will be held in Paris on 26th October, 1996. Although the Hotel Frantour had already been chosen as place of the meeting, a majority of the delegates expressed their wishes to go to the INJEP in Marly-Le-Roi again. The General Secretary of FAI is requested to investigate this matter and to inform the President or Secretary of IGC as soon as there are final information.
Note: The INJEP has been booked according to an information received from the Secretary General in the meantime.
The German Aero Club requested that this matter be reconsidered, on the grounds that the late submission was not the fault of the pilot. It was also pointed out that having a national record exceeding the present world record was an unsatisfactory state of affairs. Although the IGC has no direct jurisdiction in this matter, the meeting agreed that the IGC President should write to the CASI President and ask him to reconsider the matter.
This high distinction was awarded by the Polish Aero Club only thirty-two times since 1956 "in recognition of outstanding contribution to the development of gliding in Poland". The Schleicher factory and Fred Weinholtz are the first medal holders of other than polish nationality.
The short ceremony met with much applause.
Shortly before 19.00 hrs the President voiced his satisfaction that the marathon task was finally brought to a successful end. He thanked all attendants for their good co-operation and endurance, and the General Secretary of FAI with his co-workers for their great assistance and adjourned the meeting.