Minutes of the IGC Bureau meeting

Wasserkuppe 6th and 7th October 2008

Present:

Bob Henderson, President (BH)
Eric Mozer, 1st Vice-president (EM)
Göran Ax, Vice-president (GA)
Visa-Matti Leiniki, Vice-president (V-ML)
Peter Platzer, Vice-president (PP)
Brian Spreckley, Vice-president (BS)
Roland Stuck, Vice-president (RS)
Peter Eriksen, Secretary (PE)

Welcome
Mr Harald Jörges welcomed the IGC Bureau to Fligerschule Wasserkuppe, and gave a short presentation of the history of the site and the Gliding School.

1. FAI matters
1.1 Initial feedback from FAI General Conference in Aosta, Italy
The president Mr. Bob Henderson (BH) gave an initial feedback from the FAI General Conference that was held in St. Vincent in the Aosta Valley just before the Bureau meeting.

He explained that the organization of the World Air Games (WAG) seemed to be well under way, and added that Mr. Brian Spreckley (BS) had been attached to the organization to support FAI.

The Italian organizers are still missing 30-40 % of the required funding. All the public funding is OK, but it has been more difficult than expected to establish sponsorships.

There is still some concern about the international media coverage of the event, where FAI may have to step in. The coverage in Italy looks fine, with national television chains in place.

The cooperation between FAI and Red Bull will be extended, the races are now going to be FAI events, using FAI logo and anthem. In return they will pay a yearly fee to FAI.

A 5-year contract with Flying Aces (Breitling) is being negotiated.

The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has informed FAI that they are non-compliant with WADA's procedures. There are a number of actions for the FAI to fulfill. This is being processed by FAI.

FAI now has 80 members, 41 were present at the general conference. Some countries from Asia, South America and Africa are notably absent.

70 countries participated in one or more FAI competitions last year.

Several Sporting Commissions have had problems with bids, either where the organizer pulled out very late, or changed conditions, e.g. cost, considerably after the bid was accepted. FAI will look into ways to improve the process from a bid is honoured to the event.

The Bureau decided to reinforce the reporting from organisers to the Chief Steward by formalising a report that needs to be submitted at regular intervals.

Action 08/21+08/22: EM to draft templates for a formal agreement with organisers and for reporting on progress.

BH was elected to the FAI executive board. This means that the distribution of tasks within the IGC Bureau needs to be adjusted, and that BH can no longer represent IGC, e.g. at the General Conference.

1.2 Report from CASI meeting in Aosta, Italy
Mr. Tor Johannessen (TJ) participated in the CASI meeting held in St Vincent. The overall status of CASI and the statutes are under consideration. TJ is directly involved in that activity.

1.3 Coordination of Media and TV rights issues
FAI expects to sign a contract with a provider during this month.

1.3 Status of the ATMOS project
FAI has decided to stop the further development of ATMOS.
Many air sports already have on-line competitions, and other air sports are in the process of developing their own competition.

1.4 Status of CANS Commission
The FAI Commission on Airspace and Navigation Systems (CANS) is up and running. The first meeting was held on the same days as the IGC Bureau meeting. The President of CANS is Lars Holmström from Sweden. Ian Strachan, who is representing IGC in CANS was elected secretary.

The IGC Bureau felt that there is a need to develop an FAI Airspace Policy. Work done by Europe Air Sports and the European Gliding Union can probably be used as input to this policy.

2. Championship Management
2.1 Reports, feed-back and actions from 2008 championships
2.1.1 Chief Steward's report, WGC 2008 Rieti
The report had been received and was noted. The competition was well organised and conducted.
The Annex A recommendations in the report are being addressed by the Annex A group:

• The Club class is still not well defined and needs consideration including the handicaps.
• The airspace files were changed/updated very late. It is considered to define a deadline for these updates.

2.1.2 Chief Steward's report, WGC 2008 Lüsse
The report was received from the Chief steward and was noted.

One of the main issues was the use of start line speed limitations, which was a last minute change not in line with the Sporting code or the published Local Procedures. It will be made clear to future organisers of competition that the approved local rules must be followed unless there is agreement with the Chief Steward to change procedures, e.g. due to safety concerns. The Bureau sees no need for a speed limit when passing the start line.

The Bureau will consider how to ensure that organisers respect Annex A and FAI/IGC rules and procedures. This will be one of the issues on the agenda for the Steward seminar that will be organised in conjunction with the IGC meeting in March 2009.

2.2 Future championships
2.2.1 6th Junior WGC, Räyskälä, 2009
The Chief Steward has not had direct contact with the organisers for some time. He will be asked to take direct contact to get an update of the status of the preparations.

Action 08/31: EM to contact the Chief Steward.

2.2.2 5th Women's WGC, Szeged, 2009
A request to move the date forward to make room for pre-worlds had been received from the organisers. The Bureau analysed the competition calendar for 2009, and decided to refuse the request. Many national events have already been planned around the international calendar, and it is to late to change the dates.

The complete list of Stewards and jurors is being established.

2.2.3 15th EGC Nitra (flapped classes), 2009
The complete list of Stewards and jurors is being established.

2.2.4 15th EGC Pugachevka, Orel (non-flapped classes and 2-seater), 2009
At the meeting there had been no contact with the organisers for some time, and the Bureau decide to urgently re-establish contact.

Right at the end of the meeting, information was received from Orel that they not would be able to organise the competition.

It has been decided to hand over the organisation to Lithuania, who was the other bidder for this event.

Lithuania has confirmed that they can hold the event during the same period, and with the same entry fee as proposed by Orel. The Bureau is now seeking additional information from Lithuania.

Action 08/32: EM to confirm the details of the Lithuanian bid.

2.2.5 31st WGC Prievidza (non-flapped classes), 2010
Chief Steward and Jury president are nominated.

The Chief Steward visited the site in June 2008, and was satisfied with the progress. The Bureau is fully confident that the organisation is progressing as planned.

2.2.6 31st WGC Szeged (flapped classes), 2010
The Chief Steward has been nominated.

We have an issue with overlap of the two 2010 WGCs. The Bureau will resolve this with the two organisers before the Plenum 2009.

Action 08/33: EM to resolve scheduling problem in 2010 in cooperation with organisers.

2.2.7 6th Women's WGC, Arboga 2011
Goran Ax (GA) reported that preparations are progressing as planned. The bureau will propose a Chief Steward to the Plenum 2009.

2.2.8 7th Juniors WGC, Mushbach 2011
The bureau will propose a Chief Steward to the Plenum 2009.

2.3 2009 World Air Games
2.3.1 Feed-back from test event
BS reported from the test event that the facilities in Turin are excellent for the WAG, but there will be a number of constraints to assure that all the different events can run smoothly together.

2.3.2 Status of preparations
The gliding event will be a sort of Gliding Grand Prix with modifications.

There will be a fixed launch time. Seven tow planes can each conduct 2 tows, meaning that we are limited to 14 participants. The start line will be remote in the mountains most days, but can in some meteorological conditions be overhead the field. The director of the gliding event may be best situated in the air, e.g. in a two-seater glider.

The finish has to fit into a one-hour slot, of which the finish line will be open for a fixed time e.g. 20 minutes. Gliders not returning within the 20 minutes may have to land on a remote field not far from the main field.

The first competition days will only have internet coverage of the gliding event. On the final day full TV coverage is assured.

There will be 6 possible qualification days and a final race on the Saturday. Only the 6 best placed pilots qualify for the final, where they all start with 0 points. Place scoring will be used.

The competition will be for 15-metre gliders, but wing loading will be limited to allow Standard Class gliders to participate as well.

World champions are invited first, then continental champions. Italy has one wild card for a local pilot. The remaining pilots will be selected from countries or regions that are not represented through world or continental champions. IGC will contact the gliding federations in these countries to select pilots, starting with non-European countries.

There is no provision for practice events. For gliding we expect to be able to fly from the airfield a week before the competition. Another possibility will be to fly in the spring, where a competition is planned over two week-ends.

A tracking system is under development and has been partly demonstrated.

IGC has been asked to recommend commentators for the internet, there will also be a need for commentators on the site that speak Italian.

IGC has nominated RS as director for the gliding event, and BH as referee.

2.3.3 WAG 2011
Only one expression of interest was received from Russia, which was accepted by FAI. Russia will now develop a more detailed proposal, and FAI will continue to negotiate with the Russian organisers.

2.4 Bids received for future Championships
Two non-European bids have been received for the 2012 WGC flapped classes, no bids in the non-flapped classes.

The invitation to provide bids for the non-flapped classes will be re-launched with 30th November as the deadline.

Action 08/34: EM to invite for bids for the 2012 WGC in non-flapped classes.

2.5 Review Steward and Jury List
The list of Juror and Stewards was updated, we need to include a sort of track record.

Action 08/23: Peter Eriksen (PE) to add history data to the Juror/Steward list.

2.6 Stewards and Jury members for 2009 and 2010 competitions
Possible Jurors and Stewards were identified. EM will contact the candidates before the 2009 Plenum.

2.7 Updated roles for Stewards and Jurors
RS and BS are working on the updated processes and procedures. These will be presented at the seminar in Lausanne in March 2009.

2.8 Update Draft of Organiser Handbook and Competition Handbook
The guide with timelines is published on the IGC-web
http://www.fai.org/gliding/system/files/guide.pdf

The more comprehensive handbook is not progressing due to lack of time. It was considered to ask for support to PE to complete the Handbook. The Handbook is based on a Norwegian document which is being translated and adapted to an international event.

2.9 Management process for IGC trophies
It was agreed to ask Marina Vigorito Galetto to administer the FAI trophies.

The task will include the maintenance of the inventory, a tracking of each trophy, and information to organisers of event about the trophies available and who to contact to recover them before the event.

It was also agreed that we need to establish procedures for accepting new trophies.

Action 08/24: BH to identify where trophies are required and draft procedures for acceptance by the Bureau.

2.10 Report from Scoring Committee
Visa-Matti Leinikki (V-ML) reported that the proposal from the Scoring Committee was to create an internet site with flight recorder data available for download together with the approved results, to allow for competition organisers to do a test scoring before the event.

The test scenarios will gradually be expanded as different cases are reported from competitions. An official FAI report for stewards and organisers will be developed for this purpose.

The Committee is studying requested changes to Annex A, where the Annex is not precise, e.g. how to calculate start or finish times, and then inform the software developers about the changes.

It is also intended to inform software developers about errors and problems that have been identified.

V-ML mentioned that a parallel scoring was done with Lüsse, using a different scoring software than used in the competition. Some differences e.g. start times were found. One particular pilot had a problem with single plots far away of the real position. This was not identified by the Flight Recorder or the scoring system, and is an example of the shortcomings of existing scoring software.

The plan is to have the web site with the test cases ready before summer 2009, and to demonstrate the system during the Plenum 2009.

Action 08/35: V-ML to organise demonstration of the scoring test site at the 2009 Plenum.

3 Sailplane Grand Prix
3.1 Report from 2008-2009 Qualifying Grand Prix
(Torino, Italy - St. Auban, France - Lasham, UK - Nitra, Slovak Republic)
Reports were received from all events apart from Nitra, where the Grand Prix took place shortly before the Bureau meeting. The reports did not lead to recommendations or changes.

3.2 Remaining 2008-2009 Qualifying Grand Prix
(Narromine, Australia - Santiago, Chile - Zar, Polan - Feldkirchen, Austria
The preparation of the remaining Qualifying Grand Prix is ongoing as planned.

3.3 Business Plan for Grand Prix Support including Grand Prix internet rights
BS demonstrated a new device, which is just one of many possible solutions on the market to solve our tracking problems.

Action 08/28: BS to investigate further, and to approach a possible provider of TV production.

3.4 Proposals for 2009 World Grand Prix Final
Some proposals have been received. The Bureau will continue to work with the candidate to further develop the proposals before taking a decision. Following the last event in New Zealand, the aim is to have the competition in the Northern hemisphere. It may be too late to organise this for 2009, in which case we will delay to spring 2010.

Action 08/27: RS and BS to work with potential candidates

3.5 Grand Prix logo
A logo has been proposed. A professional designer is working on it with the aim to have it ready for the 2009 Plenum.

Action 06/08: BS to ensure completion of proposed logo for the 2009 Plenum

4. Sporting Code
4.1 General rewrite of Sporting Code Section 3, General Part
Ross Macintyre has provided an updated version which has been distributed for internal review. It will be finalised 15 December.

4.2 Annex A
One of the things that needs reconsideration is the method used to select pilots in case of over-subscribed competitions so that we can reduce the number of entries to the stated maximum.

The Handicap List could probably be simplified, a proposal will be developed for the 2009 Plenum.

Action 08/23: GA to draft Year-1 proposals for the two items above

5. Ranking List
5.1 Report from the Annex D group
BS reported that work was ongoing on a Simulated Flight Ranking List. This could maybe be demonstrated at the 2009 Plenum.

It was decided to continue the development with the aim to organise competitions for simulated gliding.

The Bureau needs to get in contact with experts on this field to understand the culture and values of simulated gliding.

Action 08/36: BS to ensure the continued development of a demonstration of a Ranking List for simulated gliding.

5.2 Updates to Annex D
No updates foreseen for 2009 plenum.

5.3 Protocols for pilot-based sanction fee for the Ranking List
No work has been dome on this project pending the availability of resources.

5.4 Status on web master support for joint IGC and Ranking List.
Nothing to report.

6. IGC strategy
6.1 Update of improvement actions
The updated list of progress was distributed to the Bureau.

6.2 Finance
The treasurer had provided the balance by ultimo September, which indicates that 2008 will be according to the budget.

6.3 IGCs strategy for the future
The IGC Strategic Action Items were reviewed. Updates of items will be completed and the SAI circulated.

6.4 Report from Light-End Working Group
A report had been received from the Working Group. The Working Group suggested changing the name to The Light-End Working Group, which was endorsed by the Bureau.

The main issue will be to combine the PW-5 gliders with the other light gliders with limited span.

The Bureau agreed on a proposed class definition that will be communicated to the Working Group for consideration.

6.5 Initial report from Country Development Group
V-ML reported from the Development Group that the following activities had been considered:

1. Compile a study on the state of soaring in countries across the world.
   • Get information on emerging movements directly from country contacts.
   • Compile available information from the internet (OLC, national online championships, etc).
   • Conduct an on-line worldwide pilot survey.
2. Create a network of contacts between the Country Development Group and soaring movements in each country.
3. Develop ideas for future plans.
4. Create a communication strategy for the gliding movement at large.

It was now a matter of prioritising these ideas and getting the work started.

6.6 Develop proposal for annual events like the Centenary Gliding Weeks.
No action.

6.7 Worldwide survey on gliding accidents data
This activity had not started, and it was discussed if it was useful or not. There are two main problems with this activity. Firstly the ways of registering and classifying accidents differ from country to country and can often be difficult to get hold of. Secondly, the number of accidents is relatively small, and not statistically significant enough to give us a clear risk picture.

It was agreed to take another approach, and to establish a revised risk picture by holding a workshop, preferably together with OSTIV, in order to gather experts and brainstorm risks. This would then lead to an update of the risk picture of gliding and help us to identify safety-related actions.

6.8 Continental Records Working Group
Dr Hanno Obermeyer, the German IGC delegate, was invited to brief the Bureau on this issue. The Working Group recommended that the development of the concept of continental records should be continued. A number of transition issues where discussed, and the Bureau gave some advice concerning the continued work of the Group.

The Working Group will report to the 2009 Plenum and will present a proposal.

6. OSTIV
6.1 Status of cooperation between OSTIV and IGC
The first 850 kg gliders are now under development by the manufacturers.

6.2 Maintenance of the IGC Handicap List
The Annex A group will continue the maintenance of the handicap list. It was agreed that the list should be simplified and only include single seat gliders that actually participate in club class competitions.

A complete proposal will be prepared for the plenum 2009.

6.3 Crash protection of cockpits
It was considered to have a rating system for glider safety.

It was decided to invite Werner Scholtz to the 2009 Plenum to speak about glider safety.

Action 08/26: BH to discus with OSTIV about a rating system.

7. Plenum 2009 organisation
7.1 Proposals from the Bureau
See action list.

7.2 Bureau meeting, venue, issues, guest speakers

The Bureau meeting will start on Wednesday, 4th March, at 09:00.

The Stewards/Jurors meeting will take place on Thursday, 5th March, from 16:00 to 19:00
Ian Oldaker, Steve Jarvis, and Werner Scholtz will be invited as guest speakers.

7.3 Awards
Action 08/37: PE to remind delegates to nominate candidates for awards.

7.4 Elections
We need to confirm with the FAI office if we can stagger the elections.

Action 08/38: BH to ask FAI office.

7.5 Deadlines
The deadlines were published during the last Plenum. Proposals requiring voting need to be with the IGC secretary by 31st January.

7.6 Accommodation, Bureau members
To be decided.

Peter Eriksen
IGC Secretary