2006 Mins 652-669

MINUTES OF THE HANG GLIDING COMPETITIONS PANEL MEETING HELD AT TIDESWELL ON 18th NOVEMBER 2006 652. PRESENT & APOLOGIES The meeting opened at 10:30 with the following present: John Aldridge (Sec), Mike Armstrong, Dave Bluett, Nigel Bray, Johnny Carr, Graham Phipps, Gordon Rigg, Kathleen Rigg. Apologies: Will Greenwood, Trevor Birkbeck and Mike Stephens. KR took the chair. 653. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING & MATTERS ARISING The minutes of the last meeting were approved and there were no matters arising that were not already listed as agenda items. 654. TREASURER’S REPORT & FINANCES a. Current Position. Finances remain healthy and we were around the break-even mark for the year - although it is thought that some pilots have yet to claim subsidies for competing at foreign Cat 2 meets. b Financial Year. It was decided that we would formally adopt a financial year starting 1st October but that the treasurer would continue to accept outstanding claims for the current year until the end of 2006. For 2007 claims for pilot subsidies would have to be submitted by the end of September. c Future Funding. JA confirmed that BHPA funding by UK Sport had now ended but that the BHPA competitions grant for 2007 (and the allocation to hang gliding) will remain at 2006 levels. As BHPA statistics show a slight decline in membership it would be prudent to assume that our grant may be reduced in subsequent years. d. Presentation of Accounts. Hillary was congratulated on the standard of presentation and the amount of clear information in the statements presented; they were approved. 655. UK NATIONALS a. Class 1 venue & dates St Andre les Alpes will be the venue with preferred dates of 26 August to 1 September - subject to local and FFVL approval. It will again run in tandem with an Open FAI Category 2 meet i.e. all pilots will require FAI licences. WG will be asked to be the co-ordinator again. Action: JA & WG b. Entry Fees. These will remain £90 (approx €130) but a subsidy of £10 will be given to UK pilots with entry paid by 8th May 2007. Qualified pilots (i.e. those with AP) entering the nationals for the first time will again be subsidised to the full amount. UK pilots with a rating of Pilot will be accepted in the Cat 2 Open comp. Guest pilots from the host nation will receive a 50% discount on entry fees but this will not include a T-shirt. c. Class 5. A Class 5 national championship will be programmed to run alongside the flexwing championship and this will also have FAI Cat 2 status if a minimum of 6 pilots (including any guests) compete. Entry fees as for Class 1. d. Rules. Normal Nationals rules will be used but permitting re-lights will be decided separately for each task. Action: JA 656. BRITISH OPEN SERIES a. Costs and income. The series continues to be self-funding and entry fees and discounts will remain the same as in 2006 - see 656e. Action: JA b. Scoring. There will be no change to the scoring. The agreed scaling up of low scoring tasks did not happen in the 2006 season and will be abandoned. We will continue to use the GAP 2002 formula with Race, six tasks (scaled back to a max of 500 points) will count toward annual series positions again. The manipulation of minimum distance flight data will continue. KR will try to edit the macro for end of year scores so that the final scores are displayed in task order. Action: KR c. 2007 Dates & Venues. The dates and format for the Series worked well in 2006 despite the disappointing weather in the Dales and the same programme will be used for 2007. The first Open Series meet (4 – 8 May) will be based at Crickhowell with Graham Phipps as local organiser, although John will book the Market Hall for scoring; this will also be the British Open. The second meet will be 26 – 28 May) and be based in the Yorkshire Dales. TB will be the local organiser and investigate an alternative comp HQ if necessary. The third series meet will not be over a bank holiday period and will therefore run from 21 – 25 Jul to keep it all in the same week. It will be flown in the Long Mynd/Mid Wales area with a base to be decided upon; MA to be local coordinator and he will seek assistance from Mark Stewart. All dates and venues are subject to agreement with the local clubs. Action: TB, GP, MA and JA d. Additional meet. A reserve comp will be planned for the weekend 30 Jun/1 Jul if the forecast is good, with an alternative of 7/8 Jul; GP and MA will approach the local clubs. The criteria for running an additional meet is unchanged i.e. if the total of task winners scores in the first two meets is less than 1500 points. Action: GP and MA e. Entry Fees. These will remain as £50 for the 5 day meets and £40 for the 3 day one. Pilots who pay up for all 3 meets by 1 Mar 07 will get a discount of £45, paying just £95 for the full series; after that date and up to end of the Open the full Series entry will cost £115. If an additional meet is run pilots who have already paid for the full series will pay no more but any others will pay £15 for the additional weekend comp. f. Classes. These will be Class 1 and Class 5. 657. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS a. Pre-Europeans, Griefenberg (7-21 June). A pilot subsidy of £400 per pilot is available up to a maximum of £2,400. If more than 6 pilots eligible for funding apply before the end of the first Open Series meet a team will be selected at that point; if they do not then the subsidy will be available on a first come-first served basis up to the same maximum. Pilots outside the team will receive the normal foreign comp subsidy of £200. b. Big Spring Worlds 2007. Team selection (less one) will be made by the panel over the weekend 10/11 Feb i.e. when the Australian comps are over; KR to arrange venue. The last pilot will be selected after the Easter Florida comps. A provisional budget of £12,000 is allocated on the basis of £1,800 per pilot plus £1,200 for team manager expenses. GP & GR will commence admin work for this event until a team manager is appointed. Action: GP & GR c Bleriot Cup. This will be held in France in 2007 and David Shields will be asked be our organiser again. A budget of £1,200 is allocated. Action: JA d. Pilot funding For 2007 foreign competitions, except where specified separately this will be £200 for European Cat 2 meets and £400 for Cat 2 meets on other continents. Eligibility for funding at all 2007 foreign meets is that pilots must have either paid and attended all 2006 Open Series meets or have flown the 2006 UK nationals. The Competitions Panel may vary these criteria in exceptional circumstances. 658. NXCL In November 2005 it was agreed to provide £225 toward the cost of hosting the website for this facility yet the accounts showed that two payments of that amount had been made plus a payment of £130.37 for trophies; no income had been received. It appears that Malcolm Brown (MB) initially submitted an invoice for 05/06, subsequently for 06/07 and that TB may have accidentally passed the trophies invoice to HSS rather than to MB. It was agreed that TB and HSS should ensure the trophies invoice be passed to MB for reimbursement but that no action would be taken over the double payment for web hosting. However it was agreed that in return for these payments we should expect to have Open Series flights entered directly in the NXCL providing the IGC files are supplied to the webmaster. NB will liaise with MB and the webmaster to try and get this put in place; he will report back to the panel on this. Action: NB, TB & HSS 659. CLASS 5 MATTERS Very few Class 5 pilots show any interest in competing and the nationals had to be cancelled yet again because of insufficient interest. Johnny recommended that we continue to run Class 5 meets concurrently with all BOS meets but provide a trophy irrespective of minimum numbers competing; this was agreed. We should also run a Class 5 nationals alongside the Class 1 nationals. He would try to publicise this and encourage more entries. Action: JC 660. CIVL MATTERS John had circulated the draft minutes of the recent CIVL Bureau meeting and there was discussion of the Croatia airspace problem and resulting UK protest and of the DHV proposal for pitch stability monitoring of certified gliders at Cat 1 meets. 661. RULE BOOK There is an outstanding action on Gordon to review our current nationals rulebook. Action: GR 662. PILOT DEVELOPMENT Little work had yet been done on the various elements of the new pilot briefing pack but Gordon's GPS notes are ready. It was agreed that Nigel would speak to Shaun and Gary about preparing the met briefing info, Johnny would write a brief on safety and Kathleen would cover competition routine, including retrieves. Action: NB, JC & KR 663. T-SHIRTS Hillary offered to organise the production of these again providing the panel selected the type and colour from the catalogue - which Mike A later did; no increase in budget is required. KR will ask for designs (required by the end of Jan 07) from pilots via email but if nothing is provided Hillary will also handle the design again. Action: MA, KR & HSS 664. TROPHIES & PRIZES a. Trophies. Mike will continue to identify quantities and size variations. Gordon is happy to look at any design ideas which are provided and it was generally felt that the unique ones produced previously are better than the available off the shelf trophies. Budget confirmed at £1,200. Action: MA, GR & TB b. Day Prizes. Apparently Caroline has offered to shop for these and it was felt this would be worthwhile and vary the prizes offered, NB offered to contact her. WG to remain the main co-ordinator on this. Action: NB & WG 665. SPONSORSHIP Graham announced that Wills Wing would not be sponsoring the retrieve bus in 2007 but would be providing other forms of sponsorship for both the competitions and for Wills Wing pilots. They had not been entirely happy with the lack of acknowledgement of their sponsorship in 2006. John suggested that if they wanted a high-visibility logo on the T-shirts this would cost us extra. Kathleen suggested that WW state what they are offering and what they would like in terms of exposure in return. Action: GP & KR 666. AWARDS PRESENTATION - NEC Mike S was dealing with this but could not make this meeting. JA said that Exec had asked that numbers in each discipline be restricted to 5. These were identified as National Champion (GR) who will be present, Open Series Champion (Carl) and XC League Champion (Dave M) who should both be encouraged to attend, possibly Defined XC League (also DM), W/end and Winter Leagues. The President's trophy is currently with Simon Ferrier and will go to Henry Blackshaw this year. MA to chase up trophies. Action: MS & MA 667. EQUIPMENT a. Outstanding from last year: The old marker panels are too heavy to carry out to sites and Trevor will obtain replacements in bright, lightweight rip-stop nylon. Action: TB b. Other equipment No other equipment will be replaced this year. 668. COMPOSITION & ROTATION OF PANEL MEMBERS a. Chairman. Kathleen was elected to chair the panel. She said she would start by chasing up individuals on action points this year and mail the comps list with a summary of the main decision of this meeting. All other panel members were willing to serve for another year. Action: KR b. Rotation. Graham felt that it would help bring new ideas to our competition scene if members of the panel retired in rotation and were replaced with pilots who have not been around the scene so long. Kathleen volunteered to send an email asking for volunteers who felt they had something to offer. Action: KR 669. AOB a. Retrieve Van. It was agreed the vehicle was a useful service to pilots and should be continued if possible. Trevor is unable to continue coordinating this as he now works away from home. KR to highlight the need for a volunteer coordinator in her mail to the comps list. Action: KR b. Website. Action: NB The meeting closed at 18:05 with thanks to Kathleen and Gordon for hosting us yet again.