Meeting 11th Nov 97

Meeting Minutes 11th Nov 97

8/11/97, Newcastle. Opened 8:15 AM

Present.

Ian Jarman Mark Newland Heike Hamann David Mills Gary Fimeri, Paul Molloson, Michael Zupanc, Neva bull and Ian Ladyman
Philosophical discussion on the night previous regarding the direction of the competition scene and the role of the competition comm.

Aims of Competitions

Structured pathway from entry level comp to elite level
To achieve and maintain Australian performance at international comps
Determine champions
Determine Nat ladder
Encourage fun, skill improvement, more participation.
Promotion of sport.

Aims of comp manual.

As per 4.1.1.a in existing version 2 of rules by which comps are conducted.
Provide framework by which the HGFA's competition "aims" are achieved.

Broad changes to Competitions Manual (2nd Edition).

Sect 1 - Introduction

Expand to include aims of comps, competition manual and comps committee

Sect 2 - History of Hang Gliding Competitions in Australia

Convert to annex, needs updating

Sect 3 - Guidelines for Intending Competition Pilots

Annex needs updating

Sect 4 - Competitions Committee

Shifted from comps manual to ops manual (as the same as all other sub committees)

Sect 5 - National Ladder

Stays but needs revision

Sect 6 - National Teams Selection

Stays but need revision

Sect 7 - Nationals Entry Qualifications

Incorporate as part of comp rules (8)

Sect 8 - Competition Rules

Stays but needs revision. Scoring removed and annex used (GAP)

Sect 9 - Requirements for the Sanction of Competitions

Sanction requirements. Stays but needs revising/merge with (5)

Additions to Competitions Manual.

List of annexes and other references
Entry level comps (annex)
Special focus comps (annex)
Notes added to sanction requirements about responsibilities with sponsors and possible conflicts

Ammendments to the Competitions Manual.

Considerable changes have been made throughout the manual and will be available soon. The changes made to this manual are very extensive and are therefore not documented in these minutes. Rather, changes in the philosophical direction have been recorded.

Sect 5 - National Ladder.

The ladder will be recalculated on the 15th of April.
The ladder would be an annual event calculated from three comps in the previous two years.
The results from previous years competition will be devalued by one sanction level.
The ladder will select the "selection pool" for national teams.
The aims were to introduce more volatility in the national ladder to encourage racing and in effect to produce a national champion from one seasons competition.
It was decided to introduce A, B and C Grade pilot ratings for paragliders - C Grade: never been higher than 50th on the National Ladder; B Grade: never been higher than 25th on the National Ladder; A Grade: all others (including all overseas pilots)

Sect 6 - National Teams Selection.

Annual HGFA membership renewal form to have a section included to ask if the pilot would be available for national team selection.
Team contracts will be sent with team invitations and the contract must be completed and returned with confirmation of availability, normally within 14 days from the date of the letter
Unsuccessful challengers and pilots displaced from the team will become reserves according to their rated preference for the team
The competition committee will ask the HGFA board to select an appropriate person for team selection for each competition that may need selection.

Ideas for future discussions about Team Selection:

Team selection must be objective
Selection Pool comes from national ladder
Existing selection criteria will then be used to determine team from the Selection Pool
Use of performance index with a scale yet to be decided, to encourage racing It was decided that GAP encourages racing (more than the existing scoring system). This and the changes to how the National Ladder is calculated introduces greater volatility. Rather than making any more changes (eg using a performance index) it was decided to see how this goes. The performance index will be used when breaking deadlocks in challenges (as a last resort). This performance index will be placing points modelled on those used by the PWC.

Sect 9 - Requirements for the Sanction of Competitions.

There will be a 80% residual value of the previous season. Sanction values will be changed to accommodate the 80% value.
AAA= 450
AA = 360
A = 288
B = 230
C = 0-184 (movable to suit needs, represented as C1,C2,C3 etc)
This makes a competition from one year equal the points from a comp of one sanction level less in the next year.
This system will be implemented in the 98-99 season. When this happens, the sanction values from the 97-98 season will be adjusted to use the same scaling, to give a consistency when calculating the 98-99 National Ladder.

Discussion on the specific problems with the small competitor numbers at para comps. There are problems with sanction values and the relative values of these competitions.
The Para Aust. Open in Bright will have its Photographic requirements relaxed from AA standard to A standard so to allow the limited resources of this event to be given the higher sanction. This is not to be seen as a precedent for future competitions.

Implementation of the 3rd Edition of the Competition Manual.

The Competition Manual (3rd edition) will be implemented from the 15th of December 1997. Not all parts of the manual will be valid at that time - implementation dates for different parts of the manual will be included with the manual.

Competition sanction applications.

Ian J tabled two sanction applications:

Chris Charters wishes to hold the SA HG State comp as B sanction.
Wes Hill wishes to hold the Vic. HG Open as a B sanction.
Both were seen as bonafide state titles and therefore gain their B sanction.
Concern was raised about Bogong having an advertised AAA rating whereas it should be AA. The Bogong organizers will be notified (again), by Mike.

Canungra Validity .

The problems with the daily validity at Canungra were disscussed and it was felt that the GAP scores and their resulting daily validity should be left unchanged. The concept of using the competition validity system as per the competition manual, with the GAP daily validity, is what was intended. The fact that the organisers at Canungra may not have used ideal paramaters should not change the outcome. In future, it is thought that the paramaters be nominated in the sanction requirements.

Photo Verification.

The ruling that all photographic evidence be on one uncut lenght of film was discussed and it was felt that although there are some circumstances where this rule may seem harsh, it will be retained as long as it is part of FAI rules.

Early bonus in GAP.

It was discussed that the early bonus system that is used in GAP scoring is only appropriate in situations where the pilot can choose his/her start time.The departure time and arrival time factors will be switched on when there is an aerial start gate only (single start tarps included)

Class rules.

Class rules (with regards to topless gliders, open cross bar gliders etc) were discussed at length and it was put in the too hard basket.

Para start-tarp techniques.

The process which is used in PWC comps, whereby pilots have single start tarp start systems and there is a "racing" component to the task which is less than the task length was discussed and it was felt that there was considerable differences with the philosophies of the Australian system.
The use of databack cameras produces a different result for hang gliders.

Elections.

Nominations have been received from
Heike Hamann pg
David Mills pg
Mark Newland hg
Neva Bull hg
Michael Zupanc CIVL delegate
Ian Jarman Ex-officio NED
Heike was nominated as the convenor of the committee.
There are no positions in contention so no elections are currently required.

Meeting Closed 9/11/97 12:30 am.

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