Русский | English

Local rules

Introduction

The First Open Slavonian Cup is run according to the General Section and Section 7b of the FAI Sporting Code. References to Section 7b refer to the latest edition of this Code that can be found at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/documents/sc7. These additions supersede section 7b and are in place to promote pilot safety and improve the sporting nature of the events.

Safe flying: All pilots fly under their own responsibility. It is each pilot's responsibility to take all necessary actions to maintain their own safety during the competition, and to ensure that they do not act in any way that might endanger any other pilots during the competition. It is a condition of entry to The First Open Slavonian Cup for all pilots to accept without restriction to hold the Organisers blameless, and waive all claims to compensation.

Sportsmanship: The purpose of The First Open Slavonian Cup is to provide a sporting, fair, competitive and safe contest, in order to determine event winners and to reinforce friendship among competitors and pilots from visiting nations.

 

  1. Sporting Behaviour

    1. Behaviour

      Competitors not behaving in a safe, proper, friendly and sporting manner will be penalised and may be disqualified.

    2. Abuse

      Any Verbal or Physical abuse of any of the competition officials will be dealt with according to the FAI General section chapter 5.2 of the sporting code rule concerning stewards and jury members and Section 7b Chapter 12 of the FAI Sporting Code.

  2. Number of participants

    3. The First Open Slavonian Cup allows 125 participants.

  3. Insurance

    1. Medical Cover

      All participants must have a valid medical health care insurance (covering all hospital expenses, rescue and repatriation) with an insured limit of at least EUR 75000 (or foreign currency equivalent).

      A statement from your insurance company, in English language, must be shown at registration, proving that you have met the insurance requirements and including 7 day, 24hour contact number in case of accident.

      If insurance details are not available the pilot will lose his/her place to a pilot on the waiting list.

  4. The First Open Slavonian Cup Championship

    The Champion is the highest ranked pilot after the last task. The Champion becomes the owner of the First Slavonian Cup. There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked pilot among men and 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked pilot among women but only under condition there will be more then 10 female participants.

  5. Registration

    1. Registration validation

      The registration is only valid once the organisation has received the registration fee.

    2. Cancellation of registration

      The registration may be cancelled by the pilot, and the registration fee minus bank transfer fees returned, up until two weeks prior to the event. After this deadline the registration fee will only be returned provided another pilot from the waiting list is found to fill the vacant space.

    3. Pilot documentation required on site registration

      • Pilot Registration Form
      • Signed Release of Liability Document
      • Pilot's valid FAI Sporting Licence
      • Evidence of pilot qualification (NAC Licence or IPPI card)
      • Satisfactory evidence of glider airworthiness according to Section 7B

  6. Organisers and Committees

    1. Competition Director (CD)

      The Competition Director is responsible for the successful management of the all event, assisted by deputy director, technical director and other officials.

    2. Meet Director (MD)

      The Meet Director is responsible for the successful management of the flying part of the event, assisted by other officials

    3. Task & Safety Committee (TC)

      The Task & Safety Committee consists of:

      • The Meet Director
      • Two pilots with good local knowledge chosen by the MD
      • Two pilots representative voted by competing pilots at the first General Briefing

      This task committee must unanimously agree each day’s task, considering all issues affecting task safety. They should also remain in contact during the task in order to continuously evaluate conditions and make decisions regarding safety.

    4. Protest Committee

      Protest Commitee consist of the same persons as Task and Safety committee and all protests will be dealt by the majoruty. Protest Committee will decide for punishments, if needed.

  7. Transport to takeoff, retrieve and second start

    1. Transport to takeoff

      The transport to takeoff will be done with few trucks equipped with seats (number of trucks depends from the number of pilots). All pilots will be almost at same time on the takeoff. The trucks will pick up pilots from the competition HQ (Hotel Montana).

    2. Retrieve to town and second start

      Retrieve to town or takeoff is done with same trucks.

      Part of the trucks will be sent to official landing place before the take off is open. Pilots bombing out in announced time at official landing area will have second chance and opportunity to make second take off. The time for retrieve to take off from official landing will be announced before each task.

  8. Time schedule

    1. General Briefing

      We will have a general briefing at the competition HQ each morning at 09:30. The task briefing time on launch will be announced at this briefing also trucks leaving time. The times will also be published on the task board at Montana hotel.

    2. Task Briefing

      The task briefing will be held on launch at the time specified at the General Briefing. The window may open earliest 15 minutes after the end of the task briefing.

    3. Scoring

      Scoring begins as soon as the pilot brings GPS to download tracks at the competition HQ.

    4. Provisional results and complaints

      Provisional results are published physically at the competition HQ, at the Hotel Montana task board and on launch the following day. The results will be published as soon as we have them ready. The results will be ready at 7 am next day but we will strive to get this done before normal bedtime but remember that we need your cooperation for the whole thing to run smoothly. Complaints may be made up to two hours after the formal publishing of provisional results.

  9. Complaints, Protests and Appeals

    1. Complaint Procedure

      Any pilot enrolled in the competition can make a written (in English) complaint to the Meet Director. It has to be made within two hours of the announcement of the provisional results. The Meet Director will deal with the complaint.

      If the person complaining is not satisfied with the outcome, he has the right to protest. Such protests must be made in writing (in English) and be handed to the MD with a protest fee of EUR30 within 2 hours of the announcement of the decision regarding the complaint. The protest committee decision will be displayed on the official information board. The fee will be refunded if the appeal is upheld.

  10. Flying and safety regulations

    1. Compliance with Law

      Each competitor is required to conform to the law and rules of the air of the country in which the event is taking place.

    2. Airspace

      Task setting will avoid flying through restricted airspace where possible. Pilots must be fully conversant with air law and must be in possession of an altimeter. 

    3. Damage to a Competing Glider

      The Meet Director can give permission to replace the glider, for reasons of damage, loss or theft beyond the control of the competitor. It may be replaced by an identical make and model, or by one with similar or lower performance, eligible to fly in the same class. The Meet Director may allow resumption of the original glider when it is retrieved or repaired. 

    4. Protective Equipment

      Every competitor shall wear a protective helmet and carry an emergency parachute on all flights. 

    5. Fitness

      A pilot may not fly unless he/she is fit. Any injury, drugs or medication taken which might affect the competitor's performance in the air, must be reported to the Meet Director before flying. 

    6. Collision Avoidance

      Circuit, turning and landing patterns given at the briefing must be complied with. International collision avoidance regulations and good observation must be kept at all times. Any glider joining a thermal established by another glider shall circle in the same direction, regardless of height separation.  

    7. Turn Direction

      The MD will confirm each day the direction of all 360° turns in front of take-off, within a given area and time. Failure to comply with turn direction will incur a penalty. 

    8. Cloud Flying

      Cloud flying is defined as any part of the glider or the pilot disappearing into cloud. Cloud flying is prohibited and will be controlled by flying marshals, GPS track log and evidence supplied by more than one pilot. For safety reasons, including collective cloud flying, the MD may cancel the task before the last landing time. Should a pilot enter cloud he/she must be seen by pilots to return to a point of no advantage. This means leaving the cloud in a timely and safe manner and losing height to return to a position lower and further (in relation to next turn point/goal objective) than when the pilot entered cloud. 

    9. External Aid to Competitors

      External aid to competitors is not permitted

    10. Communication Equipment

      Radios should be carried in flight by all participating competition pilots and radios may only be used in the air for safety reasons. The Organiser of the event will announce an official safety frequency. For retrieval the Organiser may announce one or more frequencies. The Organiser is not responsible for pilots flying without a radio. Voice activated microphones (VOX operated) are not allowed and must be deactivated. Frequency on 2m radios will be within 144 -146 MHz range.

      We recommend that you leave your mobile phone switched on and readily reachable during flights. This MAY aid in locating you if you are injured, and it will surely make it easier for yourself to call for help.

    11. GPS

      GPS will be used for flight validation. Each pilot must be equipped with at least one GPS. If the primary GPS fails a second GPS may be acceptable to validate a competitor's flight provided there is no dispute over the flight. 

    12. Pre-fliers

      The competition’s Pre-fliers will be notified to all pilots at the competition briefings. They will be experienced pilots familiar with the local sites, who understand the importance of their role. They will not be competitors. 

    13. Punishments

      Protest Committee will deal with protests and decide punishments, if needed. 

  11. Safety Report Back system

    1. Assumed participation

      If you have registered for the event and are present on the registration evening we will assume that you are also flying all tasks unless you specifically tell us the opposite. This means that if you do not report back before the report deadline a search-and-rescue operation will be initiated. If it then turns out that you have been lying in bed laughing all day we will charge you for the cost of the search-and-rescue, and you will be disqualified from the event.

    2. Reporting back

      It is very important that you let us know as soon as practically possible that you have landed and are safe and sound. "As soon as practically possible" means right after landing, or as soon as you have GSM coverage thereafter. The preferred method of reporting back is by SMS to the HQ phone. You may also tick the lists available in all retrieve trucks or at the competition HQ, but make sure you get it done EARLY!

    3. Explanation

      The reason for this rule is that we are using virtual goals and we cannot guarantee that there will be goal marshals ready when pilots arrive in goal, so there may well be no one to take down your names/numbers. Failure to report back MAY give you zero score for the task, if we have spent resources looking for you and find you drinking beer in a bar…

  12. Start cylinders, turnpoints and goals

    1. Start systems used

      The start system for both Elapsed Time races and Race to Goal tasks is a start cylinder that must be either entered or exited after a time given on the briefing. We may decide to have a Turnpoint 0 that must be taken BEFORE the start cylinder. This is done to reduce congestion in the air around the start. Due to GPS inaccuracies there will be a 4 second tolerance on start sector entries/exits.

    2. Turnpoints

      The First Open Slavonian Cup uses GPS for task verification. This means, among other things, that all turnpoints are "virtual", i.e. if there is discrepancy between the physical object on the ground and the GPS coordinates then the latter overrules the former. All turnpoint sectors are FAI 400m radius cylinders, and there is no tolerance on turnpoints. It is up to the pilot to make sure that there are track log points stored in his GPS from inside the turnpoint cylinder.

    3. Goal

      The goal is also a "virtual" cylinder with a 400m radius. We may set a larger goal cylinder where the time is stopped but to be awarded the time points you must still make it into the smaller goal cylinder. This is one way to make sure that pilots do not race too hard close to the ground. There are no goal marshals to time goal arrival – arrival times are taken from the pilot's GPS.

  13. Validation of tasks

    1. Task Validity

      The task will be validated when:The Launch window has been open for the minimum required time. The formula for the minimum required time is as follows:(X) Number of competitors flying the task multiplied by 2 minute divided by gate numbers.  

    2. Stopping of a Task

      The Meet Director can stop a task in case of hazardous weather or other conditions that in his view could endanger the safety of pilots before the landing deadline is expired. Stopping of a task is announced on the safety frequency. Pilots who has heard cancellation has to make “big ears” for signalling the others who might not understand or heard the cancellation. A stopped task will be scored only if it is a Race to Goal and a minimum of one pilot is in goal.

    3. Cancellation after Landing Time

      After the last landing time a task can only be cancelled by a safety committee decision. The MD can ask for a decision on the validation of a task. 

    4. Assistance to a Pilot in Danger

      All pilots must gather up their gliders immediately after landing. A glider lying open on the ground means "I need help!"  

    5. Compensation to an Assisting Pilot

      A pilot rescuing an injured pilot will be compensated task points equal to his own average in the competition so far. For example a pilot who has scored 920, 771 and 894 in the three previous tasks will be awarded 861.66 (=862) points after task 4 where he landed to assist an injured pilot. Landing to assist an injured pilot during task 1 will give the average score of all pilots on this day. If the task in question is not a 1000points task, the score given to the helpful pilot will be calculated as follows:

      • Winner of the day =500 points (example)
      • Helpful pilot average of previous tasks =862 points or 86.2% of full day score
      • Score of helpful pilot on 500 point day=500x0.862=431points

  14. Retrieve rules

    1. Explanation

      The retrieve system is based on the same big trucks as the transport to launch in the morning. These trucks have (in general) a Macedonian-speaking driver but in the trucks are English-speaking retrieve officers who are in contact with the competition HQ. The system can only function if you are disciplined about your communications with the retrieve officers!

    2. Limitations

      The organised retrieve is limited to main roads along the task course. If you land in the sticks it is your responsibility to make it to a main road – these will be specified at the Task Briefings!

    3. Retrieve communications

      Once you have reached a main road you have a decision to make:
      1) You may decide to organise your own retrieve (by hitch hiking f.ex.), or
      2) You may contact the retrieve officer for a retrieve.

      These two options should not be mixed! Once you have sent an SMS to the retrieve officer to ask for a retrieve from a position along a main road you should not hitch hike to another location! Doing so will confuse the system and cause delays for all the other pilots being retrieved, and you may be penalised in your day score if you muck it up sufficiently. You may cancel a retrieve via SMS if a very good lift turns up, but once you have cancelled your retrieve we do not want to have new SMS from you with retrieve wishes.

    4. The retrieve SMS

      The retrieve SMS should look as follows:

      Pilot no. XX wishes to be retrieved from (Village, junction, km N-E-S-W of village/junction along road no. YY). 

      We will not confirm the receipt of your SMS's at the competition HQ. You need to trust the system to work… One pilot may send a retrieve SMS for a group of pilots waiting in the same spot, but remember to ask all if they intend to remain there until the truck arrives, and also remember to include all the pilot numbers in the SMS.

  15. Imperfect days

    1. Weather trouble and Online communications

      Even perfect comps may have weather trouble, and it is likely that not all days can be run as stringently as outlined here. If the weather in the morning is looking bad but there is hope of a late task, we may opt to use the competition website as communication/briefing means. The morning briefing will then specify when you should check the website to see if the buses are going up or not. A final cancellation of a day will also be announced there.

  16. Prizes and titles

    1. Prizes supplied by the First Open Slavonian Cup organisation

      The actual organisation will award prizes in the following categories:

      • 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked Overall in the competition
      • 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked woman Overall in the competition (in case of total quantity of more then 10 woman)

    2. Other prizes

      Any other prizes in case of sponsorship will be supplied under sponsor’s decision.