What’s up in late summer 2013?

The Paragliding XC, the Paragliding Accuracy World Championships and World Games crowned the best pilots and countries. Congratz!

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The Paragliding Accuracy World very best !

The 7th FAI World Paragliding Accuracy Championship took part in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, from August 17th to 25th. The winners… !

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The 50th anniversary of the modern hang-glider

On September 7th 2013, took part on the Clarence River, in Grafton, NSW, Australia, an enactment of the first fight of the modern day hang glider the 'Dickenson Wing'. The glider was designed by John Dickenson and flown by Rod Fuller 50 years earlier while the boat was piloted by Pat Crowe.

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FAI Secretary General Badan to step down from his position - Search for his replacement underway

The FAI has announced that Jean-Marc Badan is to step down as FAI Secretary General, effective 30 November 2013. The FAI Executive Board has created a high priority working group to search for his replacement. Candidates are invited to submit their written application and CV by Wednesday 25 September 2013 (12.00 CET) at the latest by e-mail to sec.gen@fai.org.

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FS 2013 R2 released

FS 2013 R2 has just been released and is available for download. This release fixes a number of bugs that were reported since the release of FS 2013. For details, see the release page.

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Revised Organiser Guidelines published

Published today is the latest completely revised edition of ‘Practical Guidelines for Organising CIVL/FAI Category 1 Championships’.  It can be found at: http://www.fai.org/civl-documents under Event Organisers/Practical Guidelines...

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Flying in Austria: the follow-up

Following problems with pilots having been fined by the police at landing after free-flying, FAI and CIVL have been in contact with  the Austrian Aero-club.

The Austrian Aero-club is working for solutions to what seems to be a local problem for some free-flyers.

For official competitions there is no problem as  the current law allows pilots with foreign licence to fly.

(Flying in the Tannheimer Valley. Photo found on the web here)

Hang gliding safety directive from Aeros, 12/08/2013

Possible weaknesses to check on carbon spars. Thanks Aeros.

Flying in Austria illegal?

Until this summer, the IPPI Card was tolerated. Not any more. CIVL received reports of pilots being arrested by the police and charged a 300-400 euros fine for not having a proper licence. The Austrian federation is aware of the problem. At the time being, it is collecting data from several countries, to find out which licences are acceptable for the Ministry of Transport. The new rules should be published in October 2013, showing the accepted licences.

Up to now, are collected samples licences/rating cards from following countries:

BEL, CZE, DEN, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, ITA, NED, NOR, POR, ROM, SLO, SUI, SWE, AUS, CAN, NZL, USA.

The only one that might be accepted by the Ministry of Transport seems to be: CZE, GER, ROM, SLO, SUI.

The 2013 Paragliding World very best!

The 13^th FAI World Paragliding Championship came to an end in Sopot, Bulgaria, on July 26^th.

The French are the big winners with the Overall and Team titles. Poland takes the Women title.

Thanks to the organisers for their very good work and website. The following excerpts are taken from it.

"During this main paragliding event of the year 2013 we had 5 unique tasks. Each task had its special weather conditions. From first task with absolutely covered sky and slow thermals till final fifths race with strong sunny conditions which are really common for Sopot actually at this time. Each day weather became stronger requiring more and more speedy flying manner and skills from pilots. But exactly those who were able to show best self control and ability to make independent decisions and “read” weather could set the advantage from the first competition day and keep it till the end of this great championship."

Overall

• 1 - Jeremie Lager  (FRA)
• 2 - Charles Cazaux  (FRA)
• 3 - Davide Cassetta  (ITA)

"These pilots demonstrated an outstanding ability not to follow the mass instincts and judge rationally. This helped them to get advantage in the first most difficult task. And later all they had to do just to keep their achievements."

Women

• 1 - Klaudia Bulgakow  (POL)
• 2 - Seiko Fukuoka  (FRA)
• 3 - Nicole Fedele  (ITA)

"During all the races we witnessed the acute competition of Klaudia Bulgakow and Seiko Fukuoka. Klaudia had a win! The third place belongs to a famous Italian pilot Nicole Fedele. Congratulations and applause for these brave ladies!"

Nations

• 1 - France
• 2 - Italy
• 3 - Venezuela

"The stable fine positions of French pilots during the race have brought them a deserved victory. The Italian team has won the second place due to excellent flights of its members who twice were first in the Task results. Venezuela team have deserved the third winning place by its incomparably vivacious team spirit!"

See more at:http://airtribune.com/13-fai-world-paragliding-championship