Key decisions and highlights from the IGC 2005 Plenary meeting

Lausanne 4-5 March 2005

31 delegates from national gliding federations and in total around 75 persons took part in the meeting of the International Gliding Commission held in the Olympic Museum in Lausanne 4-5 March 2005.

These are the highlights. A full report of the meeting will be circulated later. The agenda and all documents can be downloaded from the FAI web site. http://www.fai.org/gliding/meetings.

IGC Strategy

Broad support was given to the IGC Bureau’s view that IGC must deal with all gliding related matters, not just sporting matters. This was also addressed by former FAI president Mr Wolfgang Weinreich in his key-note speech: "How to protect the future of our sport".

Championships

The following bids for World and continental championships were accepted:

• FAI Junior’s World Gliding Championships 2007, Aero Club d’Italia, Rieti.
• FAI Women’s World Gliding Championships 2007, FFVV, Bailleau.
• FAI European Gliding Championships 2007 Standard/Club/World Class, Lithuanian Aeroclub, Pociunai.
• FAI European Gliding Championships 2007, Open/18M/15M, FFVV, Issoudun.
• FAI World Gliding Championships 2008 Open/18M/15M, DAeC, Luesse.
• FAI World Gliding Championships 2008 Standard/Club/World Class, Aero Club d’Italia, Rieti.

The exact dates for the championships will now be coordinated with the organisers and published.

FAI Centenary

For the FAI Centenary the IGC is sponsoring the IGC Gliding Weeks, asking all pilots around the globe to submit their flights via a link on the IGC website. All flights will then be tracked by the On Line Contest.

The Southern Hemisphere period was 29 January to 13 February 2005. The Northern Hemisphere period will take place 9-24 July 2005. The Southern Hemisphere period produce some 60,000km of cross-country flights.

FAI Sporting Code

The following Year Two proposals were finalised:

• The 750 Km badge.
• A requirement that NACs maintain a register of completed Diamond legs.

The following Year One proposals were adopted by the meeting. (A Year One proposal means that the principles of the proposal were adopted. The IGC Bureau or the appropriate Committee will continue working with the detailed proposal to be presented at the next meeting.)

FAI Sporting Code Chapter 3D, General Section:

• The 2-seater Class be re-instated as an FAI Class with a wing span limitation of 20 meter.
• For World Record flights where there is a requirement for a flight declaration, only electronic declarations shall be accepted.
• For Declaration Content change "Pilot" to "Pilot, or for two-seaters, pilot-in-command and other pilot, crew or passenger".
• Use of Waypoint Lists in Pre-flight Declarations to allow for pre-existing Waypoint lists.
• A requirement for all personnel involved in verification an homologation (except the pilot and the Official Observer) to clearly independent of the claimant and the flight.
• Before acting in their capacity as an Official Observer for the verification or recording of any aspect of a World Record claim, the Official Observer shall be specifically approved for this role by his NAC.
• For World Record attempts any Flight Recorder used to record the flight of a glider with a Means of Propulsion must have an approved system that records the use of the Means of Propulsion automatically without any action of the pilot.
• When a Flight Recorder File from a World Record attempt is transferred in the presence of an Official Observer, he shall be required to keep an additional copy of the file as a back-up, and to send it to the FAI.
• The following actions will be applied to any pilot or Official Observer proven to have falsified information or cheated in any manner to obtain the award of a World Record:
  • Loss of Sporting License,
  • Expulsion from any NAC,
  • Withdrawal of any achievement of records/badges/competition result.

FAI Sporting Code Chapter 3D, Annex A:

• The Max Take-Off Mass for the Open Class shall be limited to 850 kg for all gliders. This weight limit shall remain unchanged for at least 10 years.
• Changes in the configuration and the wing-span of Open-Class Gliders shall be allowed during the competition.
• National Aero Clubs will pay sanction fees to IGC on a per entry basis for all Category 1 and 2 events sanctioned by IGC.
• The travel and living expenses for the International Officials at a Category 1 and 2 IGC sanctioned event are the responsibility of the IGC and paid by the sanction fee.
• A new 4 year moratorium Tabela for changes to Annex A shall be set after 2006.
• Speed Tasks - Pilot Selected and Distance Tasks - Pilot Selected shall be deleted from the Sporting Code.
• The areas in Area Tasks shall be defined so that they do not overlap.
• The Optional penalty which may be given to non-finishers of Speed Tasks shall be deleted.
• The Minimum finish altitude for Distance Tasks shall be deleted.
• For Speed Tasks all pilots having flown a distance equal to the minimum distance shall receive the same distance points.
• The kilometre scoring system shall be deleted
• The total duration of Category 1 events has to be limited and this change will only apply to Championships after 2008.
• FAI Category 1 events have to be separated by a minimum period.
• Changes to the list of Standard Penalties for airspace infringements shall be considered.

The following Year Two proposals were adopted (these are now final and will have effect from 31 October 2005):

FAI Sporting Code Chapter 3D, Annex B:

• The pilot in a two-seater glider shall be referred to as "Pilot in Command".

FAI Sporting Code Chapter 3D, Annex A:

• The Simplified Scoring System (the so called Swiss Scoring System).

Sailplane Grand Prix

The winner of the grand prix will be Sailplane Grand Prix World Champion, and the event is a class 1 event. Qualification Grand Prix are international Class 2 events arranged by a NAC. They shall be endorsed by the NAC and sanctioned by IGC.

No bid for the 2nd World Sailplane Grand Prix has been received so far. It was agreed to extend the bidding time until October 2005 and to empower the Bureau to receive the bids and to make the decision.

Airspace, licensing and medical

The proposed IGC Licensing policy was adopted with a minor change to the first principle to state: “IGC is in favour of defining standards for an ICAO Glider License” and the second principle to state: "IGC does not object to there being National professional glider licenses".

Change of approval of Flights Recorders

A late proposal was tabled and it was agreed that IGC-approved Flight Recorders that do not have public/private key systems have their approval changed from all flights to all flights except World Records.

The manufacturers now have 12 months to respond to this decision to introduce the required changes in their flight recorders. It was noted that this only applies to world records, not other activities such as national records, competitions and badges.

This decision applies to the Cambridge 10, 20, 25, Print Technic, and Zander 940.

Presentations

The Canadian delegate, Mr Joerg Stieber gave a presentation on behalf of GARMIN about Commercial-Off-The-Shelf products, and the possibility to use these as flight recorders for badge flights.

Mr. Klaus Ohlmann gave a presentation “Soaring on the Edge” where he told about his 2100 km straight flight in Argentina, and the preparations for the flight.

Mr. Olivier Rennert gave a presentation about the German On-line Competition, which is also used to manage the FAI/IGC Centenary Gliding Weeks.

IGC Awards

The Lilienthal Medal was awarded to Janusz Centka, Poland

The Pirat Gerigher Diploma was awarded to Gillian Bryce-Smith, United Kingdom

Elections of Officers

The following were elected to the IGC Bureau.

President: Mr. Bob Henderson, New Zealand
1st Vice-president: Mr. Eric Mozer, USA
Vice-presidents: Mr. Vladimir Foltin, Slovak Republic, Mr. Axel Reich, Germany, Mr. Arild Solbakken, Norway, Mr. Brian Spreckley, UK, Mr. Roland Stuck, France
Secretary: Mr. Peter Eriksen, Denmark.

Mr. Dick Bradley, South Africa, was confirmed as Treasurer

Next meeting

The next IGC meeting will take place 3rd and 4th March 2006 in Lausanne.

Proposals and reports from Committees requiring voting shall be with the secretary Thursday 15 December 2005, reports not requiring voting Sunday 5 January 2006.

All material will be made available to delegates Monday 16 January 2006, 45 days Tabela before the meeting in accordance with the FAI by-laws.

Peter Eriksen
IGC secretary