The paragliding accuracy competition season is just about to start with full speed. Some category 2 events have already taken place in winter conditions and at the moment there are already 26 category 2 competitions in the PGA competition calendar for 2018.

Major events

The first big event of the year is the 1st FAI Asian-Oceanic Paragliding Accuracy Championship starting on April 5th in Thailand. Many new countries will attend which is very positive news. Next major competition is the test-event for the World Championships taking place in Vrsac, Serbia May 18th-20th. This competition is at the same time Open Romanian Championships and part of the Serbian PGA League. The second cat 1 event for 2018 is the 6th FAI European Accuracy Championship in Slovenia in September.

Records

Discussions about requirements for World records have been going on during winter. According to current rules, it is possible to make a record attempt at both Cat 1 and Cat 2 competitions. However, the rules for which automatic measuring devices (AMDs) can be used for record attempts are not satisfactory and for the moment no record attempts are accepted. A working group within the PGA Committee is working on a specification on AMDs to solve this urgent question. The purpose of the group is to draw up guidelines for how AMDs are approved for Cat 1 events and for record attempts.

Judging

There is now more information on PGA judging on the CIVL page under Accuracy – Judges Corner. The list of current Cat 1 PGA judges is also on the page. More material on judging training is underway for the NACs to use when training the national PGA judges.

Some new rules for Cat 2 from May 1st

May 1st is the date when the new Section 7C – Paragliding Accuracy is effective. The document will shortly be available on the website under Documents. It is good to pay attention to which rules are mandatory for Cat 2 events from 1st May. In order to guarantee that Cat 2 events are comparable because they all count to the WRPS ranking, the events need to follow the same basic rules. The rules from 1st May cover scoring, judging, video evidence, principles for re-flights and flying the rounds. The NACs can naturally continue to organise other competitions but for Cat 2 the rules in S7C need to be fulfilled. The new application form for Cat 2 PGA events will reflect the rule changes.