Report on the Meeting of the FAI General Aviation Commission (GAC) held in Limassol, Cyprus From Thursday 3rd to Sunday 5th of November 2016
By Frank Eckard
The meeting was attended by delegate Hans Schwebel and alternative delegate Frank Eckard.
While much transpired, here are the key highlights.
The Precision Subcommittee adopted an updated set of rules which are written in a better quality of English. There are also some minor changes. The next World Precision Flying Championships will take place in Spitzerberg, Austria 28 Jul to 03 Aug 2017.
The Air Navigation Race Subcommittee has also made some small adjustments to the rules. The scoring software has now been released in a PC based package rather than the previous internet base software. One of the ANR committee members, Armin Zueger, is now managing the software and also looking at new technology for loggers. Spain entered a bid to host the first World ANR Championships in Castellón, Spain at the end of September 2017.
The Long Distance Air Race committee gave us a presentation to the race to Georgia and also the Crete to Cape race which started departs Crete on the 12th November.
World Records is managed by Art Greenfield and Chris Booysen. They have around 100 records per year. New classes are being introduced with Solar Powered, Electric Powered and Drones.
Technical Equipment Committee This committee is managed by Ralph Grunwald. They have approved the Slovakian landing system and also continue to approve alternative loggers systems, as they have been proven to be reliable.
The Rally Flying Sub Committee had a tough job with a major change to the rules. After a few years of having two classes in the World Championships, and a lengthy debate, it was decided by a vote of 17 for, to 1 abstention to revert to a single class in the World Championships and to adopt the “Advanced” rules for the new world championships. The next World Rally Flying Championships will be held in Dubnica, Slovakia in 2018.
Election of officials.
It was wonderful to see the master tactician Hans Schewbel at work during the meeting. While Hans has served for some 23 years, he volunteered to serve for another year. The only change to the committee was Paul Szameitat who stood down as chairman of the Rally Flying Subcommittee. Frank Eckard was nominated and elected unopposed.