There has been a general reset of PGA activities with a view to further improve the PGA Committee work supporting an orderly development of the discipline worldwide.

The PGA open meeting a day before the Plenary was attended by 20+ participants. The open meeting discussed first the development of the sport during 2017 and what can be learned from the 7th FAI World PGA Championship in Albania and the two pre-events: Asian-Oceanic in Thailand, and Europeans in Slovenia.

The Section 7C was revised and the Plenary approved the suggested changes. The major changes in the new S7C are: smaller target size (5 m) at Cat 1 competitions, a new judging code and training system, smaller team size to Cat 1s, wind speed maximum 6 m/s unless otherwise specified in Local Regulations, and that PGA Cat 2 competitions must follow the S7C in more detail in order to be ranked in the WPRS. The new Section 7C lists the minimum requirements for Cat 2 competitions.

The CIVL is also investing in a target/scoring system that will be used for all Cat 1 events.

Judging training will in the future focus on ensuring the standard of PGA Cat 1 Judges and a list of qualified Cat 1 judges will soon be on the CIVL PGA webpage alongside with more information. Training of national Cat 2 judges will be the responsibility of the NACs/clubs and the PGA committee is working on the material to support the future judging training organisers. The material includes the judge’s logbook and judging seminar material and will be available on the website during spring 2018.

Future questions (and a work plan) were also discussed at the open meeting. We will continue discussions on competitor allocations to Cat 1 events, wind direction changes, tandem accuracy competitions, removal of rule to dropping scores and over limit wind speed and reflights.

There were two bids for the 2020 European PGA Championships, one from Romania and one from Macedonia. Both bids were good and on Sunday the Plenary voted in favour of Sibiu, Romania. The proposed dates are in September 2020 but may be subject to change due to the World Air Games project. More information will follow.

The development continues strong and there are now over 2,000 pilots including 250+ females, representing over 50 countries in the WPRS. The open meeting was attended by several new countries such as Brazil, Iran and Algeria, which is very positive news for the future development of PGA.