2013 Plenary Agenda Published

The 2013 CIVL Plenary will take part in Lausanne, Switzerland, from February 13th to 17th 2013. Invitation, timetable, agenda and annexes are here! and also below on this page.

The President and Treasurer reports will be published later in January.

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Ron Nickel passes away

Ron NIckel was one of the pionneers of hang gliding. In 1964, he bought the first hang glider that John Dickenson ever sold. Ron taught himself how to fly and had a proper sail made to replace the banana plastic one. Ron is here with his wife Di and Graeme Henderson, who unearthed his story. The glider Graeme is holding is the original 1964 one. The older "Modern Hang Glider" alive to our knowledge! Thanks Ron for keeping good care of it. And rest in peace.

What’s up in November 2012?

What’s up? A lot of work during and after our Bureau meeting in very windy Iceland. We published the minutes on our website, so please check them out if you want to know what’s up.

An important decision: making a second reserve mandatory in paragliding XC Category 1 championships. A specific News was published.

The month summerized…

• Autumn Bureau meeting: four days in Reykjavik, Iceland.
• Wrote, reviewed and published on the web a short report then the minutes of the meeting.
• Appointed Raymond Caux and Igor Erzen to review SafePro and ParaPro documents.
• Reviewed and published through FAI the 2013 Plenary invitation and timetable.
• Agreed to change the Meet Director for the 2013 FAI World Hang Gliding championship in Forbes, Australia: Davis Straub iso Vicki Cain.
• Denied this championship organisers to reopen registration a month after the deadline (on ground of fairness for far away countries).
• Reviewed and published statement on making mandatory a second reserve parachute in PG Cat 1 competition from May 1^st, 2014.
• Worked on new Internal Regulations and Terms of Reference.
• Worked on the Plenary Agenda.

Second Reserve Mandatory from May 1st 2014

During its recent Autumn meeting, CIVL Bureau reviewed reports from accidents, some fatal, in Category 1 and 2 events.

From these reports, a recurrent problem was identified. In degraded conditions (stall, spin…) some pilots were unable to reach and use their reserve parachute and fell to the ground. CIVL Bureau believes that these accidents might have been avoided if these pilots had been equipped with a second reserve deployable with the opposite hand compared to the main reserve or with both hands. This analysis is in line with the analysis of the Paragliding Competition Safety Task Force report (published in December 2011) concerning Piedrahita 2011 World championship accidents.

Therefore, the CIVL Bureau has decided to make a second reserve mandatory for FAI Category 1 paragliding XC events from May 1st, 2014. All pilots should carry the current mandatory reserve parachute plus one more. The latter must be deployable with the opposite hand compared to the main reserve or, even better, with both hand.

The Bureau encourages all pilots not to wait for this deadline to get equipped with a second reserve. Many manufacturers already sell harness that can fit two reserves. Some other manufacturers will be able to supply owners of existing competition harnesses with pods with integrated reserve parachute container. Pilots would not necessarily need to buy a complete new harness.

The Bureau also encourages pilots to check and repack their reserves regularly and to get used to throw them while in flight simulators.

Carrying a mandatory second reserve has the support of the Paraglider Manufacturers Association (PMA). It will also be considered by the PWCA.

This Bureau decision will have to be ratified by the Plenary in February 2013. (item left out by mistake and added on Nov. 29)

CIVL Autumn Bureau minutes published

The CIVL Bureau held its Autumn meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. The minutes are published here. They include proposals and recommendations from the Bureau, Subcommittees, Working Groups and Officers. These proposals are not formal yet, still they should give all Delegates an idea of the Plenary Agenda. We encourage them to read carefully these minutes before pushing their own proposals for the next Plenary (deadline: December 14, 2012).

CIVL Bureau on the move

The CIVL held its traditional Autumn meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, from November 1st to 4th. Minutes of this meeting will be published soon. Some highlights…

- Subcommittees, working groups, stewards and jury reports were reviewed, with special attention to their recommendations for change.

- Reports on various FAI meetings were made by CIVL President.

- Current CIVL budget was analysed and provisional budget worked on.

- Safety issues in all disciplines were reviewed. Proposals and statements will be made concerning, among others, sprog measurement (HG), additional rescue parachute (PG), qualification criteria and possibilities of mandatory live-tracking devices.

- The future of PG competition gliders was again analysed in the light of the recent PMA letter and proposals to CIVL. PMA proposals were considered in line with what was voted unanimously by delegates at the last Plenary and will now be discussed by the PG Subcommittee. Proposals will be made at the next Plenary.

- The procedure for bids for category 1 championships was reviewed. Proposals will be made so the Bureau and Subcommittees can have a more active role in their selection.

- The FAI anti-doping scheme was discussed. The Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) was again underlined as a document crucial for the competition pilots.

- A reflection on the way CIVL works globally was undertaken and is still ongoing. It should evolve in proposals for new Internal Regulations, including the way the Plenary works, the way the Bureau is elected, its length of term and the jury / stewards scheme.

- Finally, following the resignation for personal reasons of the Chairmen of both the Paragliding Subcommittee and Records & Badges Subcommittee, the Bureau has appointed two Bureau members to hold these offices temporarily until the next Plenary (Stéphane Malbos for PG, Igor Erzen for R&B).

Tomorrow's competition paragliders: a letter from PMA

CIVL wrote to and met PMA recently about the future of competition gliders. CIVL received PMA answer and proposals. They will be reviewed by the Paragliding subcommittee.

What's up in October 2012?

The CIVL Bureau and others Officers are getting ready for the Bureau Autumn meeting in a few days. A look on its agenda shows that it should not be too boring...

• Decide how precise we want the minutes of this meeting to be.

• Decide if we want to turn SC and WG proposals into Bureau proposals.

Jury and Steward

Review of Jury and Steward reports for 2012 championships

• HG Euro – Kayseri, Turkey. 
Jury:Flip Koetsier.
 Steward:Claudia Meija.

• PG Euro – St-André, France.
 Jury:Dennis Pagen.
 Steward:Ali Gali.

• PG Asia –Linzhou, China.
 Jury:Agust Gudmundsson.
 Steward:Dennis Pagen.
• 
PG Accuracy Euro – Ohrid, Former Yugoslavia, Republic of Macedonia. 
Jury:Andy Cowley.
 Steward:Nikki Bodill.

• PG Accuracy Asia – Wai-ao, Chinese Taipei.
 Jury:Roman Pogacar.
 Steward:Violeta Masteikiene.

Review of Steward reports for 2012 pre-championships.

• PG pre-World – Sopot, Bulgaria.
 Steward:Leonard Grigorescu.
• 
PG Accuracy pre-World – Bjelasnica, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegivina.
• PG Accuracy pre-World Games – Cali, Colombia.
Steward: Louie Joselyn.

Selection of Jury and Stewards for the 2013 championships.

• PG World – Sopot, Bulgaria.
• 
PG Accuracy World Games – Cali, Colombia.

• PG Accuracy World – Bjelasnica, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Selection of Stewards for the 2013 pre-championships.

• PG European – Kapaonik-Raska, Serbia.

• PG Pan-American – Loma Bola, Tucuman, Argentina.
• 
PG Accuracy European – Vrsac, Serbia.
• 
PG Accuracy Malaysia – Ranau, Sabah, Malaysia.

Also…

• Extension of the Remote Jury to all Cat 1 competitions.

• Review of the process for recruiting, selecting, paying the right officials.

• Review of the Jury and Steward role.

• Necessity to rewrite the J&S Handbook.

Subcommittees and working groups

Review of reports.

• Paragliding – Calvo Burns.

• Hang-gliding – Oyvind Ellefsen.

• Aerobatics – Dennis Pagen.
• 
Paragliding Accuracy – Nikki Bodill.
• 
Safety – Raymond Caux.

• Software – Jörg Ewald.

• Record and Badges – Scott Torkelsen.

• Jury and Steward – Flip Koetsier.
• 
Sporting Code – John Aldridge.

• Competition Structure – Stéphane Malbos.

• Pilot screening – Brian Harris.

• Competition coordination – Brian Harris.

• Website content – Stéphane Malbos.

• Environmental Affairs – Thomas Sénac.

Also…

• How can SC and WG be restructured for efficiency?

• Prospective for SC and WG Chairs for next year.
• 
3-5-1 of FAI By-Laws allow us to elect the SC and WG Chairs for 2 years. Should we do that?

Budget

• Intermediary report.

• Who should pay for CIVL Bureau members’ expenses like this Bureau meeting? CIVL or the members’ federations?

Sporting Code

• Some modifications have not been implemented in the May 2012 edition of Section 7. 
(“… as far as appropriate”, French proposal for PG Cat 2").
• Should it be extended to other disciplines?

Bids for cat1 competitions

2015 is a FAI World Championships year : HG, PG, PG Accuracy, HG and PG Aerobatic.

• How can we improve the quality and screening of the bids within today rules?
 (Delegation from the Plenary to the Bureau to look for bidders)

• Should be change the rules altogether? Define proposals to the Plenary.
• 
Should we require signed Organisers Agreement with the bid?

Review of Bids’ documents:

• Guidelines for presentation of bids.

• Bids check-list.

• Budget sample.

Practical guidelines for organisers of competition

• Review report on the project of rewriting it – Louise Joselyn

• This includes a new template for Local Regulations.

PMA, EHPU and the future of PG Competition glider

• Review meetings and projects.
• 
Define strategy.

Internal Regulations

• They should be simplified, adapted to the reality of the way we work, modified so Bureau, Subcommittees and Plenary work better.
• Review the new document.

Other documents

• CIVL Handbook - Review this document published on the Web (see Front page).
• Bureau Handbook - Review this new document.
• CIVL Long Term Plan - Do we need one? 
What is really long term and what is aims and purposes? 
Include it in the Internal Regulations?
• Safe pro, Para pro - Needs reviewing. Who could be in charge?

Plenary meeting


• - How can it be restructured for efficiency? What can be omitted or done in simpler way?
• 
- Can the SC and WG meetings be reorganized for efficiency?
• 
- What do we want in the SC / WG / Plenary minutes? Who will write them?
• 
- Should we change the Plenary dates? January, December, November…? Make simulations…
• - Bureau elections - See new Internal Regulations project (to come).
- Can we adapt the way Bureau is elected within today rules?
(Formalising what happened in the last Plenary: the Prez presents the people he whish to work with. All candidates introduce themselves.) 
- Should we make proposal to the Plenary to change these rules? 
(According to FAI Law-bys 3-2-1, we can vote for as many secretaries as we want; we don’t need to vote for a treasurer; this could give us flexibility and the possibility to choose more Bureau members that are not delegates. According to FAI Statutes 5-1-2-8, we can elect the Bureau for 2 years.)
 - Should we make proposal to FAI General Conference to change these rules? 
(For instance, possibility to elect the Bureau for up to 4 years.) 
- Prospective for Bureau members and SC Chairs for next year.

CIVL Competition Coordinator, Secretary and PR

What is needed?

Section 7, CIVL Internal Regulation, Term of Reference

• We will need to prepare new wording to include eventual Bureau proposals to the Plenary.

• - Bid procedures?

• - Bureau members and elections?
• 
- SC and WG members and elections?
• 
- …?

Other pending matters…

Go through the Bureau To Do list.

Forbes Local Regulations amended

The 19th FAI World Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship Local Regulations have been amended. They can be found here. Team size, extended from 5+2 to 6+2, is the main point.

Interview with John Dickenson, recipient of the FAI Gold Air Medal

At the 2012 FAI Awards Ceremony held yesterday in Antalya, Turkey, John Dickenson was presented with the FAI Gold Air Medal by FAI President John Grubbström for his great contribution to the development of aeronautics by inventing the modern hang glider.

The FAI Gold Air Medal is the one of the two most prestigious FAI Awards together with the Gold Space Medal. It is reserved for those who have contributed greatly to the development of aeronautics by their activities, work, achievements, initiative or devotion to the cause of Aviation.

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