Report on the Meeting of the FAI General Aviation Commission (GAC)
held in Paris, France from Thursday 9th to Saturday 11th November 2017.
By Frank Eckard
The meeting was attended by delegate Hans Schwebel and alternative delegate Frank Eckard.
South Africa will host the 2020 World Rally Flying Championships and World Air Navigation Race Championships. Our organisation will be celebrating its centenary in 2020. As part of the 100 year celebrations the SAPFA committee decided to bid for these two prestigious competitions. France gracefully postponed their bid and our bid was unanimously approved.
We would like to encourage all South African pilots who have aspirations to obtain their Green and Gold to start their campaign and training in order to qualify to represent their country in these two prestigious World Championship events. Please speak to any SAPFA committee members for more information.
The Rally Flying Sub Committee. The chairman had through the year obtained the majority opinion and drafted a new set of rules for our future competitions. The new rules will allow the crews to plot their maps before the start point, however still challenging them with accurate navigation, timing and observation.
The next World Rally Flying Championships will be held in Dubnica, Slovakia from the 5 – 11 Aug 2018.
The Precision Subcommittee With the advances in GPS equipment installed in the modern cockpit, the precision committee decided to lift the ban on using GPS devices for these competitions, this will mean that pilots will no longer miss the turn points, but map reading skill will still ne required to win the competition.
The next World Precision Flying Championships will take place Castellon, Spain – June 2019
The Air Navigation Race Subcommittee Following the experience at the 1st World Air Navigation Race Championships in Spain, they decided to amend the rules and the clock will now continue to run when you are out of the parcour, and not stop at 300 points.
The second World ANR Championships will be held in Santa Cruz, Portugal – September 2019.
The calendar therefore was accepted as follows.
2018 – World Rally Championships – Dubnica nad Váhom, SLOVAKIA 5 – 11 Aug 2018
2019 – World Precision Flying Championships – Castellon, Spain – June 2019
2019 – World Air Navigation Race Championships – Santa Cruz, Portugal – September 2019
2020 – World Rally Flying Championships – Venue TBA, South Africa – Date TBA
2020 – World Air Navigation Race Championships – Venue TBA, South Africa – Date TBA
2021 – World Precision Flying Championships – France
2022 – World Rally Championships – France.
Election of officials.
Hans Schewbel will continue to serve as Vice President and Frank Eckard as the Chairman of the Rally Flying Subcommittee.
