President's Letter to Delegates and Committee Chairmen 2005-4

April 29th, 2005

SAILPLANE GRAND PRIX

SUMMARY OF RULES

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 href="http://www.cnvv.net/wsgp/">www.cnvv.net/wsgp/ and will be updated after the Saint Auban GP in order to take into account the experience that we will gain there.

Bob Henderson

President, IGC

April 29th, 2005