3rd Asians Paragliding Championship - Day 3

Day 3 started with a team leaded meeting as always. The weather forcast was not good, strong wind expected. Pilots went to takeoff and got ready. The window open was delayed two times because of wind at takeoff. Then the day was cancelled.

The picture shows some pilots do never fly alone.

The FAI officials used the opprotunity to have a pilots meeting. Dennis Pagen the Steward and Agust Gudmundsson the Jury President discussed many issues related to Safety, flying and tracklogs, where to get information on rules and events (and more) at the FAI web pages, including information on Continental records. This was very well received by the pilots.

3rd Asians Paragliding Championship - Task 2

Task 2 in the 3rd Asian Paragliding was 65 km in very good conditions. All the pilots took off in 24 minutes. There were 36 pilots in goal, which is more than half of the 64 pilots competing. The winner of the task was Mishanin Yury from Russia (non Asian) and second was Kuremoto Youshiki from Japan.

There was a midair collision close to takeoff, where two pilots wings were entagled. Both pilots threw their reserve parachutes and landed together (entangled) in trees safely without any injury.

3rd Asians Paragliding Championship - Task1

Task 1 was set to be 53km. The day was very fine and 19 pilots made goal and one was 240m short of goal.
The winner of the day was Lim Moonseob (Korea) flying the task in 2:06. First female was Kiraki Keiko (Japan) flying the task in 2:17.

3rd Asians Paragliding Championship - training task/opening

The training task was defined short for 23.6 km to finish in time for opening ceremony. Many pilots took off and some had problems and cravats because of wind and turbulence close to takeoff. Finally the task was cancelled as wind picked up and many pilots could not takeoff.

An opening ceremony was at a school close to the HQ and all the children had prepared our arrival and stood in lines in the ceremony.
A very fine reception / banquet for all the pilots and organizers followed.

3rd Asians Paragliding Championship - registration

The 3rd Asians Paragliding Championship is starting in Linzhou China.

There are about 70 pilots attending the competition, as this is Asian championship  the majority of pilots are Asian but there are also some individuals from other countries

Pilots are lining up for registration today and tonight the Safety Briefing will be at the HQ hotel in Linzhou.

2012 FAI European paragliding accuracy local regulations published

The local regulations for the FAI European paragliding accuracy championship are here. The event informations are here.

Register!

Entry registration for the following two FAI Category 1 Championships is now open. Please make sure that your national selectors/teamleaders are aware of the registration procedures, and go to the organiser websites and register their intention to compete in these events. They are:

- 18th FAI European Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship.

The registration website is here.

- 19th FAI World Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship.

The registration website is here.

FAI 2012 European hang gliding local regulations published

The local regulations of the European hang gliding championship in Kayseri  (Turkey) have been published here. The event in the FAI calendar is here.

FAI 2012 European Paragliding Local Regulation Published

The local regulations for the 12th FAI European Paragliding Championship in Saint-André-les-Alpes (France) have been published at 

http://www.fai.org/civl-documents. 

Read more...

What will tomorrow’s CIVL competition scene look like?

In the wake of Piedrahita, the Task Force report and a general concern for competition safety, several proposals regarding competition formats and structures were presented to the 2012 Jiao-Xi Plenary. The Paragliding Competition Subcommittee underlined the complexity of the topic. The PG Subcommittee recommended setting up a Competition Structure Working Group (CSWG) in order to analyse the pros and cons of the various proposals that were on the Plenary agenda, and to define a longer term strategy. The aim is to make recommendations for proposals to the 2013 Plenary.

Having in mind that a Category 1 championship must be a “safe, fair and satisfying contest”, the CSWG will explore the following avenues:

• To split Individual and Nation World paragliding championships with both safety and fairness issues in mind.
• To establish separate championships for different classes of paragliders (for example, one championship for Serial and one for Competition). Options include events with multiple classes of glider in the same championship, or separate events, both with multiple titles (for example, Serial and Competition), or to keep championships open to any class of glider and award only one title.
• To establish a separate new World championship (and ranking system) for PG XC Open Distance.
• To work with PWCA to improve the organization of Category 1 championships.
• To analyse the impact of the new Cat 1 hang gliding "Sport" class championship initiated by the Plenary as part of hang gliding’s existing multiclass events.
• To consider the opportunities for CIVL regarding FAI’s emerging Sports Strategy on competition structures.

The CSWG will take into account:

• The value of a World championship title (symbolic and financial).
• The benefits and concerns for different parties (FAI, NACs, pilots, organisers, sponsors…).
• The financial consequences for these parties.
• The need to find additional competent organisers.
• How Continental and World championships alternate.
• How it fits in FAI General Section rules and emerging Sports Strategy.
• For each of the viable options, the group will define realistic basic rules, cycles and deadlines.
• In other words, the CSWG has the exciting task to define what will be tomorrow competition philosophy, no less.

The CSWG includes:

• Stephane Malbos (FRA), Chairman.
• Thomas Brandlehner, high level competition pilot.
• Calvo Burns (GBR), championship organiser.
• Goran Dimiskovski (MKD), PWCA representative.
• Brian Harris (GBR), CIVL Competition Coordinator.
• Andy Jaxa-Rozen (POL), XC-Open supporter.
• Eduardo Sanchez Granel (ARG), “small team” NAC representative.
• Martin Scheel (SWI), “big team” NAC representative.
• Jamie Shelden (USA), Hang Gliding Sport Class supporter.