Rules

Australian PPG XC - Atkinson Trophy 2013 Rules

1. General Information

1.1. Summary

The Australian PPG XContest is a yearly event starting on the 2^nd of march & finishing on the 1^st of March each year. The objective is to determine 2 trophy winners.

The Chris Atkinson Memorial Trophy – This is a 2 part process.

Firstly: Points are awarded to all competing pilots. The pilot in first place is awarded the highest point value with diminishing points awarded to following places.

Secondly: At the Australian Championships there will be one of more XC tasks. Similarly, points will be a awarded to the various placing’s achieved in each of these

tasks. The pilot with the highest total point score will win the Chris Atkinson Memorial Trophy.

The 2^nd Trophy is the Australian Inter-club Trophy (Yet to be named). The club with the highest Australian PPG XContest point score will win this trophy.

1.2. Organizer

Organizer is the Australian PPG Sub-committee with the assistance of the HGFA and the HGFA Competitions Committee.

1.3. Competitors

Pilot wishing to compete in the Australian PPG XContest must hold current HGFA pilots certificate with the appropriate endorsements.

1.4. Condititons of participation

1.4.1. Competitors who have satisfied the entry requirements for the national Australian PPG XContest will be automatically entered in the PARAMOTORS World XContest.

1.5. Entry fee

No entry fee is required.

2. General Regulations and Rules

2.1. Flying rules

Flights must be conducted in accordance with all applicable national and/or international laws. The pilot is solely responsible for ensuring this compliance. Should a pilot be warned or penalised by air traffic control, the organiser or national administrators reserve the right to cancel and remove such flights from the scoring. It´s a pilots responsibility to comply with all airspace requirements.

2.2. Competition duration

Competition begin 2nd March

Competition end 1st March

2.3. Flight area

Australia

2.4. Launch methods

From place or airport suitable for paramotor take-off.

2.5. Classification

Recognized distance rounded to 0.01km will be scored by coefficient of relevant discipline.

3. Documenting Flights

The XContest allows pilots to fly cross country without having to declare a task before take off. Documenting a flight may only be done through the use of an appropriate instrument:

• Standalone GPS
• GPS with variometer and barograph
• GPS integrated flying instruments
• Logger

For flights exceeding a nominal distance of 75km, an altitude record (either GPS or barometric) must be supplied.

Further information on compulsory features necessary for instruments and software are to be found in the section “8. Technical details” of these Rules.

3.1. Deadline for flight claiming

The deadline for uploading a flight is 14 days after day of the flight. Flights which are claimed after the deadline will be rejected.

3.2. IGC tracklog files

Every pilot must keep a personal backup of all his/her tracklog files uploaded to the XContest server until 1 calendar month after the flight. Once a pilot has uploaded an IGC tracklog file to the XContest server it becomes public property.

4. Classification

4.1. Evaluation of tracks

After landing, the recorded track-log should be examined to determine the scoring distance flown. Here the start point, up to 3 turn points and the finish point are to be positioned on the track-log to provide the greatest possible distance. A flight may be scored as a triangle, when the distance between start point and finish point is less than 800m of the entire distance as given by the 3 turn points. The scoring distance will then be given by the turn point distance, minus the gap (finish to start) distance.

4.2. Tracks value

• Free flight = Free distance which not conform the triangle track specification. 1km = 1.00 point

• Flat triangle = Triangle which not conform FAI triangle specification. 1km = 2.00 points

• FAI triangle = Triangle conform to the FAI definition (the shortest leg of the triangle must be at least 28% of the total triangle). 1km = 4.00 points

The scoring rule which gives the most points will always be used. All scoring results will be rounded to 2 decimal places.

4.3. Evaluating the flight tracklog

After landing, the recorded tracklog should be transferred to a computer to the valid IGC file format.

Once this has occurred, the IGC file should be uploaded to the XContest server to be entered in the scoring.

4.4 Evaluating with consideration of the fuel level

For valuation there is no limit for the fuel level requirement. Every pilot is responsible for his machine and technical specification of maximum fuel limit. Pilot is responsible to keep rules for safety and technical qualification of his/her paramotor (recommendation of manufacturer or inspector).

5. Championship Classes, Provisional and Final Results

5.1. Number of flights which count for the final score

A pilot may register as many flights as he/she may wish: (The 6 best flights will be taken for the final score).

5.2. Classes

Scoring:

• Open score – best 6 flights of pilot on any paraglider with any paramotor
• Club score – best 5 open scores of pilots from each club

From the overall scoring will be published following scoring classes:

• Paramotors Open
• Paramotors Club team

5.3. Final results

Final results are valid once the protest deadline has been reached.

6. Liability and Disqualification

6.1. Liability

The organisers accept no liability for damages to competitors or third parties.

6.2. Disqualification

Competitors who wilfully make false flight claims or fail to comply with these regulations in order to benefit themselves in the scoring, or who give good cause for belief that this is so, can be disqualified from the competition.

7. Protests

7.1. Protests against other competitors

Should the organisational committee not accept a complaint regarding flight scoring or the scoring advantage of another competitor, the pilot in question may protest this decision.

The protest must be sent to the organizer and must arrive no later than one month after the flight took place, or one week after the end of season. The organizer should then decide if the protest is valid. The final decision on the protest may be taken by a protest jury (see below).

Protests due to infringement of controlled airspace will not be handled by the organisers. National air traffic control authorities are solely responsible for airspace observation and enforcement.

7.2. Protests due to non-acceptance of a flight

Should a flight not be accepted by the organizer, then every pilot has the right to firstly register a complaint, and thereafter to enter a written protest against the decision.

A protest must arrive no later than one week after the end of season. The jury is responsible for deciding if a protest is valid or not.

7.3. Jury

The jury will be comprised of the organizer and the HGFA Competitions Committee, and makes the final decisions with regard to protests. No further appeals or legal actions are permitted.

8. Technical Specifications

Every pilot is responsible for choosing his or her own recording instrument, logger or GPS. The pilot is responsible for recording a continual tracklog, correct transferral, evaluation uploading as an IGC File. Recorded tracklogs may only originate from a single instrument; tracks compiled from recordings from more than one instrument will not be accepted.

Should a logger split a continual flight into more than one track-log, then the pilot should contact the manufacturer to rectify this problem. Manufacturers which certify their instruments as GNSS approved loggers (FR, flight recorder) comply with the FAI regulations.

8.1. GPS hardware recommendations

The organizer makes no special recommendations regarding GPS hardware. Flight documentation performed via GPS is fully equivalent to that performed with a GNSS-logger. The compatibility of a particular piece of GPS hardware is largely dependant on the supporting software available for it.

8.2. Recording interval

A continuously recorded tracklog must have at least one position recording per minute – i.e. the maximum recording inter v al is 60 seconds. It is recommended that the tracklog recording interval be set between 5 and 15 seconds to reduce the chance of a 60 second interval with no position recordings occurring. Should a pilot intentionally switch off the GPS during a flight, this invalidates the tracklog.

8.3. GPS failure

GPS failures may result in one or more breaks in the track-log longer than 60 seconds. One or two separate GPS failures less than 15 minutes long within a track-log will be accepted.

Flights with GPS failures of longer than 15 minutes or more then two separate GPS failures will not be allowed for the registering and scoring.

8.4. Altitude record