CIVA Meets in Madrid

CIVA met in Madrid, Spain on 25-26 September 2005 and discussed a wide range of proposals and reports which were presented for its consideration. The Minutes of the meeting will be available soon. CIVA President Mike Heuer presented the FAI Air Sports Medal to Liz Cook (Australia); Michel Dupont (France); Algimantas Zentelis (Lithuania); and LG Arvidsson (Sweden) for their outstanding contributions to aerobatics. President Heuer announced that since CIVA was formed in 1960, 62 FAI World and Aerobatic Championships have been held. In 2004, 160 pilot competed in FAI Championships -- an increase from 147 in 2003. Three successful and safe Championships were organized in 2004: the AWAC in Sweden, the EAC in Lithuania, and the EGAC in the Czech Republic. CIVA spent considerable time, both in informal discussions and in plenary, discussing proposed rules changes for 2005. Some of the highlights for next year include: ** Rules for "hard and soft zeroes" will be changed. ** Rules on weather breaks have been altered. ** Restrictions on flick rolls in Family 8 figures in Advanced Unknowns were added. ** New "Eights" have been added to Advanced Unknowns. ** Protests on legal Unknown figures will not be allowed, only sequences proposed. Reports were also reviewed by CIVA on a new PDA-based system to instantly post scores at Championships that has been developed in the Czech Republic and was first used at the EGAC this year. Further development will take place to make scoring "instant" for the benefit of spectators. The Judges Performance Index system (JPI) that was implemented in 2004 was reviewed and found to be very successful. JPI data will be used to exclude judges for poor performance and to select future judges for Championships. Known compulsory programmes (Q flight for powered aerobatics) were selected. The United States proposal for Advanced was adopted and the Russian proposal for Unlimited was chosen. The Glider Aerobatics Sub-Committee's recommendation was approved. These sequences are featured elsewhere on this website. Plans for future events were reviewed and approved and bids for Championships were also accepted. WAC 2005 will take place in Burgos, Spain on 22 June through 2 July 2005 under the leadership of Antonio Quintana. WGAC 2005 will be held in Serpukhov, Russia on 21-30 July 2005. The AEAC will be organized by the Czech Republic. Details to be announced. Switzerland was approved to organize the EAC in 2006 and South Africa will put together the very first YAK 52 World Aerobatic Championships in Hluhwe, South Africa in June 2006. YAK 52 aircraft will be made available to competitors by the organizers. Mike Heuer was unanimously re-elected as President of CIVA having served in this position since 1986. All incumbent Officers were re-elected, LG Arvidsson was added as Vice President of Finance and a second Secretary was appointed, Carole Holyk of Canada. CIVA will meet again on 5-6 November 2006 at the Kloster Banz in Germany. Warsaw, Poland was approved as the location for the 2006 plenary meeting.