March 1, 2003

Serial class in paragliding
Manufacturers reply

Ozone:
In answer to your questions, Ozone is a strong supporter of serial class. Rob Whittall was one of the main instigators of such an idea and we have been slightly disillusioned by the lack of commitment at the official levels to something that we believe can only be of benefit to the sport. There only a handful, or so, of pilots who we think are truly capable of flying open class competition gliders, whether certified or not. There are a lot more very good competition pilots out there who have the skills and judgement to fly and compete in a paraglider competition. However not all these pilots have the experience to be test pilots, which in effect is what an open class glider needs. Even then the glider is not "safe", but there is more chance of the pilot coping with the potentially extreme behaviour of the glider.

Allowing open class wings into a competition immediately encourages those without the ability of a test pilot to fly wings that really require those skills. In our minds (and those of a lot of other disillusioned competition pilots) removing this temptation will remove this risk that is not needed if the aim of the competition is to find the best pilot flying an interestingand challenging course.

At the moment the competitions are aimed at finding the best test pilot and the best glider. Obviously other factors come into it, but these factors are paramount. Therefore Ozone thinks the competitions would be safer (but never safe, due to the nature of our sport) if open class were excluded. They would be fairer as the good flyers who make the right decisions about their route, timing etc. have a better chance of being rewarded. At the moment it could be said the guy who makes the best choice about his wing has the best chance of winning! Or perhaps the guy with the biggest balls!

Commercially, Ozone do not really get involved in competitions. We have a few prototypes that we enter, but we limit these to very experienced pilots and we try to keep these as close to DHV 2-3 as possible. We do gain by having these gliders from a development point of view, but this does not have to be in such competitions. We will always push to improve the safety and performance of our gliders because that is in our nature, not because of the competitions.

One of the benefits that came through with the idea of serial class was that general pilots became aware that DHV2-3 were in fact competition gliders. They are! A lot of pilots took a step back and realised they did not need to fly such wings. There was a ripple effect. Pilots realised they did not need to step up a category. More people had fun, more people stayed in the sport!
To Ozone this makes much more commercial sense and is best for the well being of our sport, than pandering to the needs of a small number of competition pilots however vocal they are.

Competition paragliding in the usual format is not appealing to the media. I think that you know that APCO has been a long time supporter of safe flying and of Sports Class PG competition category and that we have made a lot of effort to promote safe flying in competition and in general. It is our belief that allowing participation of protos and even competition class gliders to compete serves the wrong purpose and damages the image of the sport in general, applying constant pressure on manufacturers to create a glider purely for competition where performance is everything, while sacrificing every other aspect of our sport - taking us in the wrong direction.

Our sport desperately needs an image boost - radiating a soft, safe and friendly image, which is much more appealing to the general public of potential participants in our sport. Continuing promotion of our sport as a high risk, high adrenaline activity is scaring away the majority of
potential pilots who would like to take up our sport and leaves our industry ailing.

Unfortunately it only generates attention when there is an accident. Open class increases this risk. Is this really the image that we want to portray of our fantastic sport? It would be nice if someone could push this at an official level. From experience we know that there a lot of pilots flying competitions on wings that in the back of the mind, they would prefer not to have to. Making the playing field level would help remove this risk and make it a lot more enjoyable for the majority concerned.

Cheers,
Mike Cavanagh and the rest of the Ozone team

Apco:
APCO has long had a policy of not creating a glider with a safety rating over DHV 2/ACPUL Performance Class, as anything above this is damaging to the health of pilots and the potential customers.
Together with this, we have tried to prove (successfully I hope) that despite our gliders being rated a maximum of DHV 2/Performance Class we can successfully compete with hot, uncertified products in all competitions, proving it is possible to create a high performance glider without sacrificing on safety.

If it would be up to us, we would ban use of prototypes and even gliders certified in Competition Class for any official competition (as was customary in Italy, the UK and some other countries), limiting participation to DHV 2/Performance Class gliders. In this way we believe we would make a great service for the sport.
P.S. We make no secret of our opinion and there is no need for confidentiality, you are welcome to print this letter in any publication. May we have your permission to use your inquiry and this reply to perhaps send to some paragliding publications.

Best regards,
Anatoly Cohn
APCO Aviation Ltd.

Firebird:
Firebird is a supporter for the serial class competitions for the reasons of bettering our sport but doing it in the safest way possible. If you go back a number of years and have a look at the rallying world, there was so many accidents with the Group B cars that they decided to bring the power down to 300bhp, on doing this less accidents happened and automatically opened the feild up to many new drivers. This was possible because when Group B was
inforced, there was only a few drivers capable of driving them but after the new system a lot more where able to compete competitevly and successfully.

This is what we face also in the paragliding world. The comp gliders can only be flown properly by maybe 10 pilots in the world, the rest are flying somewhat over their comfort zone, leaving themselves susseptable for accidents. The serial class allows the skill of the pilot to win and not the hottest dagerous canopy that can be produced. New commers to competition would learn the scene a lot faster when they realise what is happening in the air while flying, instead time is spent worrying about the canopy above them hoping that it stays above, as a result, there are lots of learning moments lost through wrong concentration skills.

We as manufacturers should stick together to ensure the safe direction of paragliding as a whole, this means ALL areas whether it is free flight, XC, Comp or Acro. A general set of controling rules that is submitted and upheld by All manufacturers.

The Flying Scotsman

Kev Payne
FIREBIRD SKY SPORTS AG
Schaefflerstr. 15
D-87629 FUESSEN
Germany