Dear All

In case you didn't know, I am your delegate to FAI.

Following the disaster in Portugal I have been appointed to a small panel of enquiry to discover what went wrong at EMC 2004 in the 3 classes which ended up invalid. The purpose of this is not to apportion blame - what's done is done - its job is to establish the facts about what went wrong and make proposals to CIMA for how we can prevent similar situations arising in future, and more broadly, how we can promote the healthy development of international competitions. I will keep you all up to date with developments.

Whatever happens, I think you will find things will change a bit from now on. There will certainly be a split between 'classic' and 'para' classes but precicely what form this will take has yet to be decided. Probably the favourite choice will be a division in CIMA along the same lines as has existed for some time in CIVL, the FAI HG & PG commission. They have 2 sub-committees one for HG and one for PG who independently decide on the rules, championships Etc. for each discipline. Although it could have happened before, this really opens the way to separate championships, in different countries at different times to the
'classics'. All in all, it is certain the destiny of PPG's will be much
more in the hands of those that fly them than it is now.

Any change like this will inevitably take a bit of time, so in the transitionary period we are all fortunate indeed that WMC 2005 is in the hands of the French as whatever happens, I think they will do a good job for everyone. I believe their latest thinking is that WMC 2005 will be at Levroux for all classes, but in separate weeks. This is the same place as we went for EMC 2000, vast open areas in the dead centre of France, an excellent venue. Although it is likely to be in August, I
think you will have to wait until after the CIMA meeting in November before the precise details are confirmed.

On a rather more urgent note, the deadline for Agenda inclusions for the CIMA meeting is 14 September, that's next Tuesday, one week from now. I've looked through the list archive and didn't see anything raised but I don't suppose this means you are all blissfully happy with the state of things. If you do have anything to say about Section 10 or other issues which I should raise on your behalf at the CIMA meeting, please say so ASAP.

Some of you may have seen this already. If you haven't, then this is
how the FAI works.

FAI is an international body with 80-odd members, it is based iLausanne, Switzerland; http://www.fai.org . There can be only one FAI member per Nation, the UK member is the Royal Aero Club (RAeC). RAeC used to be a grand institution with premises in Pall Mall but it went bankrupt in the mid 1960's. It now exists more or less in name only and although I believe you can still be an individual member the important thing is that all the various National Associations; BMAA, BHPA, BGA Etc. are all members. This is actually not a bad thing because withouta central administration all matters relating to a particular sport are automatically delegated - without inteference - to the National member responsible, thus all FAI correspondance which comes to RAeC regarding microlighting is automatically forwarded to BMAA. BMAA handles all FAI
microlighting business on behalf of RAeC and, for example, chooses the RAeC representative for microlighting to FAI.

FAI has been going since 1905 and assumes World authority over international aviation and aerospace championships and records. It is important to understand that it generally doesn't have much interest or influence in regulatory matters, these are handled by other organizations such as Europe Airsports.

FAI has various commissions responsible for the various different air sports, hang gliding, parachuting, gliding, model flying Etc. The 'Commission Internationale du Micro Aviation' (CIMA) is the commission responsible for aircraft perhaps best described as 'Powered aeroplanes with a gross weight of less than 450 Kg.' which includes Microlights and PPG's. BMAA, on behalf of the RAeC has for the last few years appointed me as UK delegate to CIMA. I am thus your representative to CIMA; KeithNegal is the 'Alternative delegate'. Each delegate has one vote.

So what of the BHPA? BHPA is also a RAeC member and as such appoints
the UK delegate to CIVL, the FAI hang gliding & paragliding commission,
but it has no representation in CIMA just as BMAA has no representation
in CIVL. This is why the Nationals, for example, have all been done
under the BMAA flag; they are the PPG representative to FAI and although
it might not seem so, BMAA has been actively supportive of PPG sporting
activities since it all began. I suppose the most tangible examples are
that they have always covered the public liability insurance at our
Nationals (which is worth a lot) and they cover most, if not all of the
entry fees of the British team into international championships, which
at the current 400 euros a head is also worth a lot. If you are not a
BMAA member then I recommend you join - the more PPG people they see are
members the more likely they are to be a bit more active in other areas
than they have been of late, training is a good example, many of you
will know there are several outstanding issues like a syllabus for
Instructors but without the membership there is not much incentive to do
this work. http://www.bmaa.org

Anyway, CIMA has a single 2 day 'plenary' meeting each year, usually in
Lausanne, usually in November. Both Keith and I always attend along with
delegates from 18 - 25 other nations. At these meetings CIMA considers
various FAI business of the day, and always:

- Considers amendments and improvements to the part of the 'FAI Sporting Code for microlights' under it's control (ie FAI Section 10) which are the rules for records & Championships. Items in this category often arise as a result of experience at the most recent championships.

- Considers bids for future Continental and World Championships, and once one is selected, appoints various officials eg International Jury & Stewards. France is currently the bidder for WMC 2005 (there are no others) which will be confirmed this November. Currently there are no provisional bids for championships beyond 2005.

- Re-elects it's President & other 'Bureau' officials. CIMA, in line with most FAI procedure, has a fairly turgid method of dealing with things. It is difficult to raise matters at a meeting if they are not on the agenda. All delegates can propose agenda items, the deadline for agenda inclusions this year is 14 September 2004 and the meeting itself is 12-13 Nov 2004.

Whilst you can be sure the EMC 2003 business will be discussed at length at this year's meeting and thst I will be taking a rather hard line against those that let the 'para classes' down - I am of course your representative so I need to know the position I should take on all current issues. Additionally, there are often separate items which the UK would like discussed and to this end I usually set up a small website with our latest agenda proposals, you can see past ones at http://www.flymicro.com/cima03 (...02, ...01, ...00, ....99). I will
be setting the 2004 one up shortly, but in the meantime ALL proposals are invited now. Please send them to me (or this list), I will collate them and publish them on the website which will be http://www.flymicro.com/cima04

Regards

Richard Meredith-Hardy
rmh@flymicro.com

Tel: + 44 (0)1462 834776
FAX: + 44 (0)1462 732668