Status and Future of the

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Status and Future of the Sailplane Grand Prix
Concept
Roland Stuck IGC Vice President
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Membership decline
We need to do something !
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Why a new type of competitions ?

• Our competitions are difficult to understand for
  the public and for the medias
• Why ?
• The pilot chooses his starting time
• There is nothing to see on the site
• The scoring system is complicated
• Result
• Our pilots have fun but our competitors but do
  not help to promote our sport !
• Conclusion We must change our mind !

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What can we do ?

• - Simultaneous starts (regatta starts)
• Use new technologies to track the gliders
• Create a spectacle on the airfield during the
  time the gliders are on task
• Simplify the scoring system
• Hence the concept of the Grand Prix

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First attempts

• 1986 et 1988 Grand Prix de Luchon (France)
• 2001 Grand Prix in Gawler ( Australia)
• 2003 Experimental Grand Prix in St Auban
  (France)
• 2005 1st World Sailplane GP in Saint Auban

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Outline of the rules
15m Class 20 entries Regatta Start (20 min,1
min,1000 mAGL,170 km/h) Short Tasks( 2H
) Tracking Day valid only if there is at least
one finisher Place scoring If more than 9
finishers (10 pts, 8, 7 etc) Only finishers get
points !
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The IGC project 2006-2007
In 2006 8 Qualifying GP for the 2nd World
Sailplane Grand Prix 2007 New Zealand GP
(Omarama 21-29 January Std) Slovakian GP (Nitra
15-22 April Std) Russian GP (Drakino 1-10
August Club) German GP (Hahnweide 19 - 26
August 15m ) French GP (Saint Auban 2-11
September 15m) British GP (Cambridge) 4-9
September 15m) South African GP (Bloemfontein 3-9
December 15m ) Australian GP (Gawler 30 December
- 6 January 2007) The best pilots will be
invited to the 2nd WSGP in New Zealand (Omarama /
Wanaka 19-28 December 2007)
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Qualified Pilots
Ben Flewett ( NZ) Giorgio Galetto ( It) Herbert
Weiss (Ger) Peter Krejcirik ( Cz) Victor
Panafutin ( Ru) Tim Macallister ( USA) Uli
Schwenck ( Ger) Tassilo Bode (Ger) Mario
Kiessling ( Ger) Didier Hauss ( Fr) Peter Harvey
(UK) Phil Jones (UK)
Sebastien Kawa (Pol) Christophe Ruch (Fr) Steve
Jones ( UK) Erwin Sommer (Ger) Tamara Sviridova (
Ru)
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The Future
Good Start ! Most pilots like this kind of
competitions We need to tune the rules (start,
finishes) NécessitéWe need to improve the
tracking systems Naming Issue Coexistence with
conventional competitions We have a product
we can sell to the medias! Four Additional QGPs
in 2007 ?
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What about a Nordic Grand Prix in Elverum ?
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Videos
Video Grand Prix Saint Auban http//shop.fai.org/
e/produits_igc_dvd_sailplane.html Video Grand
PrixNew Zealand http//shop.fai.org/e/produits_igc
_dvd_gladiators.html