View Source

{info}

This is the original paper put to the 2009 CIMA plenary.
\\
As it was an item not originally in the [Agenda|https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/documents/cima_2009_agenda.pdf] it was subject to a 2/3 majority.
\\
The proposal was accepted.
\\
The plenary established a small working group to action the proposal.
{info}

h1. UK Delegate's item for AOB at the 2009 CIMA Plenary

h2. Ranking systems

There has been some discussion about this on the CIMA delegates mailing list. This is a summary of that discussion and a proposal to CIMA.

Paramotor Championships are still growing, at WPC 2009 we had 116 pilots in 97 aircraft from 18 nations which made it the largest World Paramotor Championships yet. These large numbers of competitors can make things slow. It is often desirable to conduct a precision task in the evening, but there is always a significant risk it will not be completed before it gets dark.

Because we usually conduct precision tasks in reverse championship order, it is usually easy to see that the first (least scoring) 20% of pilots take 50% of the time it takes to conduct the whole task. This is primarily because these pilots are often quite low skills. Indeed it could be argued that these pilots possibly shouldn't be competing at such a level in the first place.

If it is accepted that precision tasks could speeded up significantly if we had an overall better quality of pilots, then how can this be achieved?

One option is a 'cut' part way through the competition and this has been raised as a proposal this year and I will not discuss it here any further than to say that CIVL had a similar problem but abandoned a 'cut' ten years ago for the same reasons as have been expressed in various correspondence on the mailing list why it would not be a good idea in Paramotors.

We were also informed that CIVL have since been running a ranking system, and pilots may only enter Category 1 championships on the basis they are relatively well ranked, for example are "in the top 1000 ranking". This is therefore a means of ensuring pilots are reasonably experienced before they can enter a big international championship, and if translated to Paramotors, could mean the general skills levels of pilots competing at WPC would be better, which in turn could make it easier to run big championships.

CIVL have also discovered there are other advantages to a ranking system.
* It encourages pilots to participate in recognized competitions.
* Pilots want to progress, and it motivates them to compete in international competitions.
* Increases the number of recognized competitions which helps to increase the quality and experience both of pilots and organizers.
* Has become a significant source of income to CIVL, which if translated to CIMA could enable it to purchase useful competition equipment eg timing systems and inflatable pylons. 

The CIVL ranking method is at [http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=343&doc_ref=7|http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=343&doc_ref=7] and you simply have to look at the list of future events at [http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=303&|http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=303&] to see how successful it is. The method of registering a ranking event is described at [http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/competitions/how_to_organize_cat2|http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/competitions/how_to_organize_cat2]


h2. Proposal

* {color:#ff0000}A working party or subcommittee is set up to create a ranking system for paramotors based on the CIVL system.{color}
* {color:#ff0000}NACs should be asked to provide results data from the 2009 season for any open competitions which had at least 50% of tasks which were of a style recognizably from the S10 task catalogue.{color}
* {color:#ff0000}NACs to be asked to provide 2010 results data on the same basis. (including WAG qualifying competitions){color}
* {color:#ff0000}An 'unofficial' 2009/2010 ranking and an assessment of whole scheme to be provided to the 2010 CIMA plenary meeting with a view of formally adopting it from then onwards.{color}