07 - No pure economy for PL2 class (POL)

Proposal from

Wojtek DOMAŃSKI (POL)

07 - No pure economy for PL2 class (POL)

Existing text

FAI Sporting Code - Section 10 – 2018 Annex 4 - PART 3, PARAMOTRORS

3.B1. PURE ECONOMY
Objective
Take-off with a measured quantity of fuel and stay airborne for as long as possible and return to the deck.

Special rules

• Free take-off within the time window.
• Departure from view of the marshals or egress from the permitted flight area will incur penalties.
• Land outside the airfield boundary: Score zero.
• Land inside the airfield boundary but outside the deck: 20% penalty.
• (for PL2 only): returning with less fuel than the specified residual amount: score zero

Scoring

1000 × Tp Pilot score = Tmax
Where:

Tp = The pilot's time,
Tmax = The longest time taken to complete the task

New text

Reason

Double trike with two pilots combines a heavy aircraft. Recovery collapse in PL2 class is more difficult to recover than in any other paramotor class, because the pilot and passenger, both tightened to the structure of trike, can not use their weight shift to counteract rotations, direction changes, etc. When wind gust catches the double trike close to the ground during launch or takeoff, pilot and navigator usually helplessly observe what happens with their aircraft.

Due to the nature of line suspension, a connection between canopy and trike is soft (flexible). If the wind gust rotates the trike so the wheels are not in line with landing direction, or the canopy is blown aside, the pilot has no chance to avoid an accident, his trike either rolls or hits the ground in a swing. We have observed upside-down falls of the trikes during launch in WPC'2018 in Thailand, as well as severe accidents during landing from pure economy tasks in Polish Championships.

For this reason, PL2 class shall be excluded from the Pure Economy task. Flying in the middle of the day in thermal conditions is not the natural environment for the PL2 double trikes.