2009- Jan 735-738

Minutes of a Hang Gliding Competitions Panel Teleconference Held on 26th January 2009 735. LOGGED IN & APOLOGIES The meeting commenced at 20:00 with the following logged in: Mike Stephens (Chair), Dave Bluett, Graham Phipps, Trevor Birkbeck, Nigel Bray, John Aldridge, Carl Wallbank and Bruce Kavanagh. Apologies: Steve Penfold. 736. 2009 PRE- EUROS TEAM SELECTION The panel discussed selection of the UK team for this important Category 2 competition; five pilots per nation are guaranteed a place and other pilots registered for the comp will be allocated any remaining places based upon their WPRS ranking, for UK pilots registered rankings and positions relative to pilots from other nations are: Pilot WPRS rank Pilots Ahead Pilots Behind Applied for team Bruce Kavanagh 16 7 150 Yes Dave Matthews 25 12 145 Yes Richard Lovelace 26 14 144 No Dave Shields 27 15 143 Yes Malcolm Brown 52 28 129 No Stephen Penfold 126 61 96 Yes Anthony Stephens 147 67 90 Yes Craig Dolwin 161 72 85 Yes Nigel Bray 169 75 82 No Kathleen Rigg 216 81 76 Yes Will Greenwood 303 99 58 Yes Jennifer Buck 559 118 39 Yes Marek Pisarek None No The maximum number of entries is 150 and there were 158 registered at the time of this discussion so only 8 pilots might fail to get a place, although this may change and the above data may be affected if there are late registrations of either high ranking pilots or those from nations with less than 5 pilots already registered. It was agreed that there are 3 options, firstly to put in a team with high personal rankings which we could expect to do very well, second to select a team of pilots who we expect to be serious contenders for our 2010 Europeans team or thirdly, to try to maximise the number of UK pilots in the comp by entering some lower ranked pilots in the expectation that the higher ranked ones will get entry based upon their individual WPRS rank. For any of these options only pilots who had applied to be on the team would be considered. After some discussion a vote was taken between the first and third options and a decision made to enter a UK team of Tony Stephens, Craig Dolwin, Kathleen Rigg, Will Greenwood Jenny Buck. Steve Penfold, our lowest ranked team applicant not selected, confirmed that he was content to take his chance on getting a place on his personal ranking. JA is to notify team pilots to the organisers and MS undertook to write to all pilots who get a confirmed entry with advice on the type of performance and results that the selectors will consider when picking our Europeans team next season. Action: JA & MS 737. FUNDING FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS Concern was raised that the current rules may be too restrictive and unlikely to achieve the desired results in terms of participation in foreign competitions. The panel concluded that the subject should be on the agenda for the next full panel meeting. Action: JA 738. BRITISH OPEN SERIES a. Venues. Concern was expressed that we have not yet been able to finalise venues for the 2009 season. It is still possible that a gliding club competition on the Long Mynd over the late May bank holiday may mean that the LMSC does not approve our meet and we will have to switch this with the August bank holiday Dales meet. MS had been in contact with Mark Stewart about this and both would be following this up without delay. b. Trophies. BK will mail a graphic of the proposed logo to the panel for comment. c. Category 2 Sanctioning. JA pointed out that if major international comps continue to use WPRS ranking in allocating places it would help our pilots if we had BOS meets sanctioned by the FAI. Several of our lower ranked pilots registered for the Ager Pre-Euros would have a higher ranking if we had sanctioned all 3 meets last season. He proposed applying for FAI Category 2 sanctioning for all meets in 2009 and this was agreed by all. Action: MS, BK & JA The meeting closed at 21:19.