Minutes of Meeting Date(s): 18 Oct 2014 Start Time: 1030 End Time: 1530 Distribution date: 22 Oct 2014 Title of Meeting: First Competition Committee (CC) Meeting 2014/15 Location: Present: Apols: Bicester Mark Holden (MH) Russell Cheetham(RC) Paul Candler (PCa) Liz Sparrow (ES) Pete Masson (PM) Alan Langlands (AL) Paul Crabb (PCr) By Skype for part: Brian Spreckley (BS) Graham Garnett Chair: Distribution: Mark Holden Meeting Attendees + BGA Exec (once approved) Legend Type EVE OBS DEC AI Event Observation Decision Action Item No Type Due By DESCRIPTION Date Meeting and Comps Committee Admin 1 OBS MH opened meeting and thanked Bicester for hosting. 2 AI 29 Nov Date of Next Meeting Dates: 29 November at Dunstable; 10 Jan, 31 Jan, 21 Feb venue tbc. ES will reissue meeting timetable 3 OBS Approval of Minutes Minutes of last season’s meetings have all gone to the Exec for circulation. We have informed the Exec of our intention to publish on Comps Page on new website when it’s available. 4 OBS John Wilton has stood down after 11 years on the CC and Mark recorded the CC’s thanks for this sterling service. 5 OBS Key areas – members having roles in a specific area: Juniors’ liaison - Pete Masson Scoring - Pauls C & C Rules - Alan Langlands IGC matters – Brian British Team - Graham Other specific areas needing cover include ratings, Euros 2017, ICL, 5-year plan/exec liaison 6 AI 29 Nov New Members Two committee positions are available and nominations will be solicited by open advert with a role description. Resp. ES MH Minutes of Meeting No Type 7 AI Due By Date 29 Nov AI 1 Mar DEC 8 AI 29 Nov Competition Rulebook 9 AI 29 Nov DESCRIPTION Communication to Competition Pilots The Comps surveys have been very well used with nearly 400 responses to date – we need to buy an upgrade to analyse the results and CC agreed Liz should do so and present to next meeting. CC agreed in future to solicit feedback from pilots after each competition via a specific email – Directors should have everyone’s email address but Action: is it possible to harvest comp licence numbers and use the BGA database to send a brief survey? The CC agreed in future to communicate possible rule changes to pilots to solicit feedback prior to adoption – probably using SurveyMonkey or similar via the new Comps Committee web page when available. Matt Davis and Charlie Jordan will update the CC web page. Outstanding actions 5 year plan needs development. Liz to review last year’s minutes for any other actions outstanding. FLARM There are two issues re FLARM – safety and competition. A poll of British team members and feedback from Comp Forums highlights big concerns that FLARM and particularly the new ‘power flarms’ are detracting from individuals’ skill in competition. Three particular areas of concern:  being able to see good competitors in the start sector  getting a precise picture air-to-air of relative climbs en route  ground tracking information being passed to pilots. CC recognise that the problem will not go away and want a solution that retains the safety advantage but enhances competition. Stealth mode enables the pilot to see other gliders which are in conflict only, in practice this did not quite achieve what was intended and was much misunderstood hence removal of the requirement for comps. See http://www.flarm.com/support/Flarm_Competitions.pdf CC feel strongly that the advantages of FLARM tracking in terms of increasing enjoyment/accessibility of comps for those on the ground mean that this should certainly be retained as part of the solution. We identified two options to address the problem:  A revised Stealth mode showing all gliders within say 1km plus declaration that no other device/ground-based info is being used  Rules to change the nature of the start to make visibility less of an advantage – perhaps a start bonus Brian advised that IGC are talking to FLARM on this and the Germans have tabled a proposal re amending launch procedures. CC suggested we should ask Mel Jenkins to be involved post meeting note ES has spoken to Mel who is already involved in these discussions and happy to continue with this. Action: to develop a proposal on this for the IGC Action: to reflect on possible start procedure change Resp. ES PCr/ES ES BS/RC All Minutes of Meeting No Type 10 AI 11 AI 12 AI 13 AI Due By Date 29 Nov 29 Nov 29 Nov ? DESCRIPTION Resp. DHTs DHTs were used exclusively at Bidford Regionals (4 days), at Shenington (4DHT, 2 racing) and have been tried elsewhere in small numbers. Feedback has mostly been positive although Pete highlighted the fact that at Lasham airspace considerations made it impossible to set. CC’s general feeling was that DHTs are a good alternative task type added to the comp structure but not the ultimate resolution of all comp issues . Feedback from Shenington was that on showery days it’s potentially a significant disadvantage for highhandicappers and Alan/Paul/Paul to develop a DHT showery TP with the intent to trial this year and review DHTs at the end of the next comp season. The land-out anomaly still exists but CC agreed this should be explained to competitors via a presentation at any comp using DHTs and after review we will liaise as appropriate with eg Naviter. Handicap Matters Club Class Liz reprised the discussion from the Club Class Comp Forum which had ended with a straw poll strongly in favour of adoption of the whole IGC package – but also identified that pilots weren’t actually sure what the whole package was. Ian MacArthur had volunteered to rescore CC to IGC rules, Action: Liz to chase Action: Russell to summarise IGC club class rules differences Russell advised that he was talking to the IGC about handicaps being set for water but Club Class being water free – will advise outcome. Action: Russell to share previous handicap calculation data Silent2 - and others need the handicap setting – Russell to review summer discussion – but note Silent is not ICG Club Class as it has an engine & is not 15m Winglets Action: RC to circulate paper re reducing the winglet handicap to 0.5% Team Selection - a number of items raised re rulebook: Europeans selection - CC feel there is an issue with ensuring appropriate skills for mountain comps – particularly around Europeans where the entry is decided by UK comp position not a vote of those hopefully taking experience into consideration - and that we should find a means to resolve this asap. Action: ?no action recorded here? Voting – as classes become smaller, the current rule of top 50% risk tactical voting making a difference. We considered ‘50% or Top 20 if that’s bigger’ or ‘Top 50% from past 3 years’. Action: all to think about possibilities and agree at next meeting. Qualification for Women’s Team - Should include flying in mixed Europeans/Worlds, action ES to propose qualification level 20m Europeans - CC had agreed to support the Worlds but had not made any comment on Euros. However as 20m is now a UK class, this needs review; action: all to consider and will be tabled at next mtg Cloud Flying – was raised - what are next steps? No action recorded -Agenda for next meeting? AL/PCr/P Ca ES RC RC RC RC ? All ES PM All ? Minutes of Meeting No Type Due By DESCRIPTION Date 14 AI 29 Nov Restructured Rulebook CC liked Alan’s proposed restructured rulebook, only disadvantage was increased length but it was agreed that the better structure far outweighed this. Action: Liz to attempt to shorten but keep nuances. Mark noted that it might be sense to restructure and then work on sections over the next couple of years. Liz noted that involving a wider group of pilots would be helpful. Intention is for the 2015 rule book to be in this format Other UK Competition Matters 15 AI asap Nationals Entries CC were concerned as to how this will run this year with the changeover of website/functionality being in progress. Action: get assurance from Exec that entries will be able to run from 1 December 16 OBS to 31 January. Directors’ Reports Disappointingly some are outstanding. However of those received, there are no particular themes arising. Airspace infringements were discussed – perhaps more this year but definitely much more flying this year and higher cloudbases both of which increase the risks, and CC were generally content that the current penalty structure is fit for purpose. 17 OBS Electronic Cockpit ‘Busy’ cockpits remain a concern - CC were concerned by reports of pilots in the start sector inputting FLARM IDs of star competitors. Mark reported that the Safety Committee are looking into the risks arising and CC will consider their report once issued re any implications for comps/rules. Those who run comp prep sessions – Women, Juniors – noted that setting up SeeYou is one of the recurring themes and perhaps we need wider comp prep /training? 18 AI ? Ratings List John Wilton has stood down from the committee but is working on this year’s ratings list. Action: Mark to see if he is prepared to continue to do this in future years and if not, ALL to seek someone to take over. AI 1 Mar Automation of results/ratings list – compilation can be simplified if Directors put comp licence numbers into SeeYou. Action: Paul Ca to write instructions; Alan to add to Directors’ Handbook 19 AI 29 Nov Awards Russell will compile a proposal International Team and Competitions 20 AI Asap British Team Success - It’s been a good year for the team and CC offer congratulations to the medallists. CC were pleased to hear that there needed to be a debate on where to display all the medals! Funding – CC need to work with Exec on developing this as part of our 5-year plan – who is our new Exec liaison person? Action: MH to raise with Exec Resp. ES MH MH / All PCa/AL RC MH Minutes of Meeting No Type 21 AI 22 AI 23 ? 24 OBS Due By Date 29 Nov 29 Nov ? DESCRIPTION Team Selection - forthcoming year comps: Europeans priority list - Graham had circulated this which CC noted. CC reminded ourselves of the Pilot Contract which Graham drafted last year and which we will implement for this team selection. Women’s Team – noted that most women are flying in club class and only qualification this year is Liz/Ayala – although see comment above on flying in mixed internationals which ought to be possible! Juniors – team not yet selected, awaiting Coaches to do this which is becoming urgent. Action: Pete will send list to coaches WGC Brian introduced this item which is a request for proposals for any changes to WGC procedures, classes, events etc. Small changes may be implemented immediately, structural changes from 2018, review to last to 2028ish. Possible proposals around removing a class, amalgamating comps, number of entries per NAC in the light of universal demographics of declining entries. Action: bring proposals to next CC meeting Coaches New coaches have been voted and this was reported to have been implemented; results are supposedly on SAMEPAGE but post meeting note where? Liz can’t find them and they’re definitely not under British Team/Coaches which is empty. Europeans 2017 at Lasham Mark is attending the next Lasham Comp meeting and will report back. Lasham would like to run a 2016 Pre-Europeans in 15/18/Opens alongside the UK Nationals. CC felt that it was not realistic to run all three Nationals classes there and suggested various other possibilities: 15/Open Nationals alongside all 3 as preEuropeans ie 18m would be a ‘regionals’; or a handicapped single Pre-Europeans class. It was noted that the outline intention was to use the South Side which some CC members were uncomfortable with due to infrastructure and field quality. It was suggested that Werner get in touch with Brian. Resp. PM Akk ?? Attachments: None.