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From the Oz Report
Posted: Fri, Apr 27 2007, 1:00:58 pm Post subject: Not so long in South Africa?
So what happened to the homologation?
(de Aar, South Africa)
The FAI writes:
FAI has canceled the following paraglider joint record claims :
Paragliders
Straight distance
Vosburg (South Africa) - End tba (South Africa)
423.5 km
07.12.2006
423.4 km (21.06.2002 - William GADD, Canada)
Reason for cancellation: Does not outperform with minimum margin set by the CIVL Sporting Code (1 km)
Aljaz VALIC (Slovenia) Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 6
Urban VALIC (Slovenia) Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 2S From the OZ Report:
So Will Gadd's record from Zapata, Texas still stands. Interesting
The original claim was for 426.8 kilometers. The question is what happened to the 3.3 km? The original distance could have been easily taken right from the GPS, with it doing all the calculations (correctly) for you. Why was this value not validated by the FAI?
POSSIBLE ANSWER FROM LAURA NELSON in South Africa
According to the reason given by FAI, rule 3.5.3 in the Sporting Code, the following:
· On completion of a flight to goal, it is permitted to continue on for straight Distance, the distance being measured from the Departure Point to Landing.
If I understand it correctly, the pilots turned around and flew back along their route to land, hence the distance to landing is shorter than where they turned around. The rule is clear though, and whether one has known about it or not, the FAI will not change it until the rule book is changed. The rule is a bit outdated as it does not take our current safety and competition task approaches into consideration. Hopefully it will be changed by next year.
Best regards
Laura Nelson
www.funwings.com (The 2007 edition of Section 7 of the FAI Sporting Code has now been published on the website at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/documents/sc7) FAI has ratified the following Class O (Hang Gliders) joint records :
================================================================
Sub-class :O-3 (Paragliders)
GeneralCategory
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Vosburg (South Africa) - Jamestown (South Africa)
Performance : 368.9 km
Date :07.12.2006
Previous record : 353.4 km (26.09.2005 - André Luis GROSSO FLEURY, Brazil)
===============================================================
Claim number : 14362
Pilot : Urban VALIC (Slovenia)
Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 2S Proto
================================================================
and
================================================================
Claim number : 14363
Pilot : Aljaz VALIC (Slovenia)
Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 6
===============================================================
FAI congratulates the pilots on their splendid achievement.
===============================================================
and
FAI has canceled the following Class O (Hang Gliders) joint record claims :
================================================================
Sub-class :O-3 (Paragliders)
GeneralCategory
Type of record : Straight distance
Course/location : Vosburg (South Africa) - End tba (South Africa)
Performance : 423.5 km
Date :07.12.2006
Current record : 423.4 km (21.06.2002 - William GADD, Canada)
Reason for cancellation: Does not outperform with minimum margin
SC 7-D Para 3.5.3. second alinea: Finish point equal Landing point!
===============================================================
Claim number : 14364
Pilot : Aljaz VALIC (Slovenia)
Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 6
===============================================================
and
===============================================================
Claim number : 14406
Pilot : Urban VALIC (Slovenia)
Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 2S
=============================================================== Will Gadd responds: Post subject: Valic Flights
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=68594#68594
I've looked at the Valic tracks and been in touch with Aljaz. It's clear from their track logs that they flew 426+K, then flew back on course line to their landing points.
It's also clear that the FAI rejected the flights based on CIVL's rules. These are very clear that for paragliders it's the landing point that counts. The Valics either didn't know this or choose to land back on course for safety or retrieve reasons (can be the same in rough country).
I am encouraging Canda and other countries to work with CIVL to change this rule--I'd like that change to be retroactive to recognize the Valic flights, but that's unlikely even if in my mind it's the sporting thing to do. CIVL and the FAI just applied the rules we as pilots have come up with, it's pretty simple, and they are not "bad guys" here. As I understand the rules they already been changed for hang gliders.
When I did my record flight I made the choice not to glide downwind at 60 kmh into "tiger" country for the last 10 minutes of my flight as there would be no hope of finding an observer to validate my flight (rules back then), and no roads for retrieve. If track logs were accepted for verification back then I would have kept flying downwind, but I had to play by the rules of the time... I also landed because of aviation sunset, it would have been possible to fly another 30+ minutes...
Pilots need to know these rules for world records, and follow them for an official world record. For several years the longest flight in the world and the official world record were not the same due to airspace problems with the long flight. On my flight I spent almost an hour going around military airspace--would I have flown 500K if I had just blown it off and gone through the airspace? Would an official world record have been more or less important than simply flying the farthest I could on that day? I choose to follow the rules because I wanted an offical world record, but I still think about those decisions some times, it's not an easy answer for me. I'll bet the Valics wrestled with this also at 426+km if they knew the rules, especially if faced with an unsafe landing option. That they made the decision for safety rather than pushing to the limit for a few more K says a lot about their integrity as pilots.
The only real solution is to change the rules to reflect modern technology, then fly a "clean" 500K for a new offical world record, it's about time to make the leap. Our gliders are far better than they were five years ago, we're better pilots, game on.
WG
PS--no offense taken Mark, I'm frustrated by this also. The rules need to be changed, I'm sad that it take this sort of situation to bring that to light. The Valics did an amazing flight, far longer than anything else done in the past five years, full respect to them.
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