12 Feb 2019

What's up in PGA in February 2019

The CIVL Plenary in Lausanne was a positive meeting. Paragliding accuracy committee could report on several very good competitions and developments during 2018.  More than ten PGA committee members were present and some more attended the open meeting just before the Plenary itself.

Development continues in PGA and 2019 will be another busy year.  It is obvious that we need to continue working in the committee all year, just as we have been doing.  Also, the open meetings at our cat 1 events and discussions at pre-events have been successful. They give important feedback and an opportunity to create a common work plan for the future.

The Plenary decided upon some changes in Section 7C and they will be effective from 1st May, 2019. The Section 7C proposal from the PGA committee was accepted with just a few minor changes. 

To summarize the important changes for 2019:

  • Allocation can be used to cat 1 events and the minimum level of pilot experience will be defined in the Local regulations of the event. For World championships in Serbia the pilots must have ranked in the top 500 WPRS. The reference ranking is June 2019 ranking published on 1st June 2019.
  • Equipment checks will be part of the entry process to category 1 events. 
  • There is a new definition for what type of footwear can be used in category 1 and 2 events.  This will be checked so be prepared.
  • Certified harnesses, helmets and gliders are mandatory also in category 2 events.
  • Wind speed must be shown at the target area.
  • There are more requirements for wind speed indicators at the target.
  • Complaints will be handled by Chief judge, not by competition director.
  • Competitions with landing on rafts have been removed from Section7C, a smaller working group will look closer into “competitions on water” during the coming summer.
  • There will be a separate scoring for juniors (23 years of age the same year as the competition is held) in category 1 events. But there will not be a separate championship for juniors.
  • WPRS formula will be changed from May 1st 2019 to better reflect our reality. More rounds will give a higher value and pilot quality parameter is slightly modified so that the sum of ranking points of the top ½ ranked participants will have a maximum limit of 30 pilots.