News from the CIVA 2016 Plenary Conference

At CIVA's annual plenary conference in Bucharest over the November 5-6 weekend, attended by 22 delegates with 5 further proxy votes from other countries, I am pleased to confirm that approval was secured for a full house of international aerobatic championships in 2017 together with agreement on a wide range of airborne and ground based matters which continue to reinforce CIVA's position as the world's premier sport aerobatic authority.

 

The international aerobatic championship position for 2017 is now:

• The 5th FAI World Yak-52 Aerobatic Championships
  Tula Region, Russia - 9th to 16th July 2017
• The 20th FAI World Glider Aerobatic Championships
  The 8th FAI World Advanced Glider Aerobatic Championships
  Torun, Poland - 27th July to 5th August 2017
• The 10th FAI European Advanced Aerobatic Championships
  Chotebor, Czech Republic - 3rd to 13th August (but will probably move 1 week to 10th to 19th August)
• The 29th FAI World Aerobatic Championships
  Malelane, South Africa - 9th to 17th September 2017

In addition there will be:

• The 1st FAI Formation Aerobatic Challenge (FAC)
  Zhengzhou, China - 29th April to 1st May 2017
• The World Games (WG), including Unlimited Glider Aerobatic programmes
  Wroclaw, Poland - 20th to 30th July 2017

This year the CIVA Bureau met in Bucharest on Thursday November 3rd in order to clear the whole of Friday 4th for a comprehensive Strategy meeting, during which a broad review was conducted to clarify how CIVA should plan and work forward over the next few years. During the ensuing plenary meeting a wide range of administrative and organisational matters were resolved, the 2017 championship officials, committee and working group members were nominated and selected, and Hungarian delegate Tamás Ábrányi joined the CIVA Bureau for a two-year term.

CIVA secretaries Hanna Räihä and Zuzana Danihelová are right now working to get the plenary minutes drafted for review, and these will be released for publication along with a Summary of Conclusions on the Documents page here as soon as possible. Both this and CIVA's own News website will shortly carry the key items required to underpin next year's events, together with an increasing range of general / aerobatic information and updates that are so important to keep everyone up-to-speed.

On behalf of the Bureau of CIVA we all look forward to meeting you at an event somewhere next year.

Nick Buckenham
CIVA President

CIVA has a new President

 
The CIVA plenary conference in Budapest over the October 24/25 weekend was well supported and took a full two days to complete. A report of the key actions and agreements by CIVA secretary Hanna Raiha is now available here on this website, and a full set of minutes for the meeting will follow in due course. The meeting was chaired by John Gaillard as president Lars Arvidsson was unable to be present, and concluded with the election of two new CIVA bureau officers and a new president Nick Buckenham from the UK.

 
Among the many changes to our operating regulations agreed during the two days were -
  

• The new "Free Known" concept for programme-1 in all categories was approved, and thus the long established Known or "Q" programme-1 and the Free programme-2 are consigned to the history books. From now forward aerobatic pilots will design their own Free Known sequence from 5 Master figures plus 5 figuresothers that they must select and add themselves so that the whole 10-figure sequence conforms to the current Free regulations for their category in terms of versatility, non-repetition of catalogue numbers etc. The maximum K per sequence is a little higher than before however as all these new sequences have 10 figures in place of the previous 9. Also of course the 5 figure Master sets for each category were selected, and these will be published in Section-6 parts 1 and 2 in due course.
    
• CIVA Rules Committee chairman Matthieu Roulet will create a new 'Requirements' document that will contain mandatory instructions for organisers that will be drawn from Section-6 and also the Guide to Contest Organisation. This will remove from them all those items that are primarily directed at championship organisers rather than competitors and contest officials, putting them conveniently in one place and making their application simpler to manage.
    
• A good range of championship bids was discussed and approved, as far forward even as 2018 for the WGAC in the Czech republic. The so-far missing 2016 EAC will now be at Moravska Trebova (LKMK) in the Czech Republic from 20th to 28th August.
    
• Forward notice of at least one 2016 FAI Special Aerobatic Event (FSAE) in South Africa was given, with a good prospect for one or even two more. If successful these will certainly help to improve the CIVA financial reserves and thus the commission's ability to fund other aspects of seasonal commitment to its official duties.
    
• The revised new Bureau of CIVA comprises John Gaillard (South Africa), Pik Kuechler (Switzerland), Matthieu Roulet (France) and Castor Fantoba (Spain), with Treasurer Jurgen Leukefeld (Germany) and secretaries Hanna Raiha (Finland) and Zuzana Danihelova (Czech Republic).

 
On behalf of the new CIVA Bureau and all other serving officers of the commission, I wish everyone associated with aerobatic competition flying the very best for the next 12 months.
  

Nick Buckenham
CIVA President