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Proposal from
Barney TOWNSEND (GBR)
Proposal title
08 - REVISED VERSION OF S.10 A8 - MODEL LOCAL REGULATIONS AND TASK CATALOGUE FOR ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Existing text
Existing text of Annex 8 to S.10 is as it was originally proposed in 2017 by Estonia.
View the document through this link
New text
I propose an amended version of the document, updated to reflect recent developments in the UK and to match the official S.10 annex format.
The new document can be viewed through this link
Reason
In 2017 the plenary approved the proposed new annex to S.10 for a local regulations and task catalogue for Endurance Championships to be classified as a Cat1 World Championship status.
Since then, no World Paramotor Endurance Championship has taken place, in part because there are still discrepancies in the wording of the rules, and areas in which the may be possible unfair advantage to competitors which would make it problematic at international Cat1 level.
In the UK, we see great potential in this format for the future, and we have adopted it as the primary format for our British National Paramotor Championships in 2018 and 2019. This has allowed us to refine the format, test the tasks involved, and smooth out any poorly defined aspects in relation to both pilot safety and fairness of the competition.
In essence, our new proposed format is the same as the original in that pilots have many available flying hours during any particular day, a very large area map to fly, and may choose their own route between turnpoint hunt or precision navigation routes, according to their judgement of the weather conditions.
To summarise the most essential differences between the 2017 version and my proposed versions:
Use of GPS for Navigation
We propose that at international level, pilots should still be navigating using map only, and that GPS should be banned
Pilot safety
We propose a new maximum limit of 4 hours airtime per pilot per day, to avoid the danger of bad decision making and accidents as a result of fatigue. Pilots may make as many flights as they choose during the much longer available flight window, with rest breaks in between flights
We continue to support the concept of additional points for landing out at other fields, but the available number of these land out points is limited to a few so that all points at which pilots may land can be monitored by marshals for safety.
Balance of navigation to speed
We propose to significantly increase the relative balance of points available for the 'precision' navigation tasks (which do not require a fast wing), relative to those available for the turnpoint hunt aspect of the competition (which does require a fast wing).