RULES
Season 2023

OVERVIEW

The SRS is a brand new concept with big ambitions for the future. However, we are not seeking to make the series overly complicated, particularly in the beginning. Please therefore assume FAI Section 7a in the main part, with the exceptions as listed below. In cases of ambiguity, we shall refer to the PWCA rules for clarity. The decision of the SRS Technical Director is final in all matter.

  1. SRS Membership:
    • The SRS series is a Members Only organisation. A pilot must have paid his annual membership prior to arrival at his first seasons edition.
    • The cost of membership for 2023 will be €25 euro
    • Simple Log In to this website, using your Airtribune details, and Subscribe for the season.
    • A Membership symbol will be shown on all Airtribune SRS events.
  2. Harnesses:
    • Electrical fans used to inflate fairings are allowed up to a power rating of 10W as long as the fairing has no rear-facing exhaust. This rule does not apply to harnesses already certified prior to 18/03/2023.
    • For 2023, only one reserve/rescue is required.
    • The harness must otherwise be certified etc, as per section 7 requirements.
    • In the future we may restrict harnesses further.
  3. Wings:
    • Certification is limited to EN-C, except for wings with a maximum certified weight of 75kg, where they may be certified EN-D, providing all larger sizes of the same model are certified EN-C.
    • For 2024, any 2-liner must have a Speed Limiter tape between A & B risers. Be sure to check your wing is compliant before purchasing for the 2024 season!
    • A Partner Manufacturer or Sponsor may enter one RFC (Ready For Certification) wing per season, according to the rules used by the PWCA RFC wing definition, and compliant with an EN-C standard.
  4. Weight & Ballast limits: 
    • Pilots must fly within the certified weight-range of their glider.
    • Pilots must be fit to fly with their chosen quantity of ballast. Any pilot experiencing difficulties launching will be required to stand aside and may not be allowed to fly.
  5. Communication Equipment:
    • Radios (2 metre band) are mandatory for all pilots and must be used for safety purposes only.
    • All pilots’ radios must be switched on and tuned to the safety frequency announced at the task briefing.
    • The use of voice-activated microphones (“VOX”) is prohibited.
    • All pilots must carry a, switched on,  mobile telephone with them during the task time.
    • Pilots not fulfilling these requirements can be grounded or penalized.
  6. Safety:
    • Any pilot deemed to be flying in an unsafe manner or with unsafe equipment will be penalised. This is in Section 7, but it is worth quoting again!
    • Briefings will be issued in PDF format just prior to the event. It is mandatory that a pilot reads the PDF so that the onsite safety briefing may be more concise.
    • Training Day takes place before registration is complete. Therefore, live tracking and full safety backup/retrieval will not be available. It must be borne in mind that this is a free-flying day, and the organisers participation will probably be limited to transport up the hill and possibly a limited retrieve service.
    • It is ALWAYS the pilots responsibility to fly within their limits according to the conditions and all other aspects. A task being suitable for the competition does not mean the task is suitable for you. Consider when it is time for you to land, or not take off.
  7. Trackers:
    • The SRS provides a Flymaster Tracker for each competitor as a safety measure, to know at all times where they are whilst flying. tracker provides one-second resolution live tracking, and in-flight communication between the organisers and the pilots (Level calls, SOS, Report back)
    • Each competitor must take the Live Tracker at take-off, and he must carry it on his person whilst flying and whilst being retrieved. Penalty for non compliance is zero points for the day.
    • It is Mandatory to Report Back on the tracker as soon as possible after landing. Penalty for non compliance from a Warning (first offence) up to disqualification for further offences.
    • A pilot who does not return his Live Tracker may not be displayed on score sheets until it is returned.
  8. PENALTIES:
    • Failure to fly with a tracker. Zero points for the day.
    • Modified glider: zero points for the task, disqualification from the event on a second offence.
    • All-up weight outside certified weight range: zero points for the task,disqualification from the event on a second offence.
    • Cloud flying: points according to the Soft Airspace Infringement formula (see PWCA Appendix C.8: Airspace Penalties); disqualification from the event for persistent offenders.
    • Aggressive or dangerous flying: progressive penalty up to disqualification from the event.
    • Airspace infringement, horizontal or vertical: points according to the Hard or Soft Airspace Infringement formula, depending on the legal status of the airspace.
    • Track log missing or non-continuous track log when continuous track log is required: zero points for the task.
    • Failure to report back, or late report-back after a task: 10 points first offence. Up to disqualification from the event and possible recovery of S&R (Search and Rescue) costs.
    • Change of equipment during competition, if the TD is not notified of the change, then zero points for the day.
    • This list is not exhaustive. Other penalties may apply, according to the rules or Meet Directors decision.
  9. Scoring:
    • The 2023 season will use the latest PWCA formula available. (Future years will consider a modified version of TBS)
    • Lead Out Points are used
    • FTV is not used within the event. There will be no form of task dropping at the events.
    • The Tracker is the Primary Scoring device.
    • A pilot may present one backup device for scoring if he disagrees with the tracklog from the GPS tracker. This should be his primary flying device and it should be on the approved list from FAI. See here: Accepted Devices
    • All scoring will be by GPS data, including ALtitude & height.
    • Scoring tolerances will be 0.05% for all cylinders, airspace & cloudflying measurements.
  10. Task Results:
    • When a pilot lands, his distance/time is considered PROVISIONAL, as calculated by the Tracker data. A pilot should confirm he agrees with the calculated data before handing his tracklog in to HQ.
    • When a pilot returns his tracker to the Scorer in HQ, his distance/time will be considered FINAL and no further changes may be requested to the distance/time. Therefore a pilot should confirm he agrees with the scorer at the time he returns the tracker.
    • If a tracker is returned by a pilot on your behalf, your distance/time is considered final when the scorer receives the tracker. Be sure you are happy with the provisional before giving your racker to another person.
    • In the instance of problematic Flymaster data for the tracking the Official Scorer or Meet Director may announce a continuation of results being Provisional until such time the issue is resolved. In this instance a pilot may ask for changes to his tracklog until the results are announced FINAL.
  11. Sponsors, gliders and other data:
    • It is the responsibility of every pilot to check the data displayed on the score sheets at the end of the first task and ask for them to be corrected.
    • Any changes requested from task 2 onwards may be refused.
    • No changes will be accepted on the final task day of the event, unless it is also the first task of the event.
  12. Communications:
    • All results, timings, briefings and other official announcements will be made in the official INFO Whatsapp group for the event only.
  13. Teams:
    • If flying in a Manufacturer Team, you must fly with the product the manufacturer sells. ie, You cannot fly a Gin wing if in the Ozone team etc.
    • A team will consist of a maximum 4 persons per event. At least one of those pilots must be the opposite sex.
    • The top two pilots per task will score for the team.
    • A team is established for the season, but the pilots in the team may change from event to event.
  14. Individual Series Champion:
    • The Sports Racing Series champion is derived by combining the scores from all SRS events in the season.
    • The final result shall have FTV applied, at a ration of 50% for the 2023 season. See below for the effect:

 

Season Winner & FTV

      • The 2023 season has a potential 21 tasks, assuming perfect weather for the year
      • Realistically, with typical seasonal weather, you can expect 14-16 tasks from 21, but this is entirely down to the weather in the season.
      • This means a pilot should typically attend 2 Editions (events) during the season in order to gain a good score for the year.
      • In 2024 we plan to hold 5 events, giving a potential 28 tasks. For that we will apply FTV at 40%
      • See below for an overview of 2023 scoring.

 

Valid 1,000 point Tasks in 2023 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
How many of your tasks we score 10.5 10.0 9.5 9.0 8.5 8.0 7.5 7.0 6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0
Minimum No Editions you should consider attending 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1

This is an incredibly simplistic way to understand FTV and the season scoring. Apart from anything, it assumes you will know the weather at each event in advance. The intention of a 50% FTV on the season, based on four Editions, is you only need to attend two Editions. But if you choose two with bad weather, and the other two events have good weather, you may not achieve your full potential score. But also, if you attend all the editions, for example, then half of your scores, the worst half as dictated by the FTV calculator, will be set aside, giving you a better chance of becoming the years champion.

 

For 2024, the following topics remain under consideration

    1. Harnesses: We have a working group looking at restrictions on harnesses. At the moment, there is no formal rule in place. We want to make this a fair competition for all, but we also want to ensure the spirit of Sports wing flying is maintained. This may mean we will bring in some restrictions. For example; a maximum length of the tail fairing; or restrictions on inflatable aspects. However, any pod harness manufactured and released up to summer 2022 will be accepted in whatever rule we publish, providing it is certified.
    2. Weight limits: Again, back to the working group. We are considering an overall restriction on the weight of your equipment. For example, 25kg total. This would include glider, harness, instruments, ballast etc. The limit and restrictions are not final, and there may be some exclusions for the lighter pilots.
    3. Scoring: This is a major aspect of the SRS project. We want to simplify the scoring! But we want to keep the pilots racing. It is our opinion that things like FTV & LeadOutPoints (LOP) have overly complicated the sport. No other sport has a winner that didn’t cross the line first. Lets put that right. But like everything, life is not that simple. LOP are important to the race, otherwise everyone will just follow, and then race at the end. This will lead to manufacturers making faster and faster wings in a bid to win. We will be developing our own scoring system but it will not be so radical. The old stuff isn’t broken, it just needs some updating to address the issues.
    4. Certification: Clearly there is a restriction on certification. A wing must be certified EN-C or below. But life isn’t that simple. Xxs wings for example may struggle to get EN-C, whilst all other sizes are EN-C. So we will publish a rule that will allow our smallest pilots to access the series on wings that may have obtained EN-D on a wing that would traditionally be considered an EN-C.
    5. Wings: From 2023, the 2-liner EN-C is going to be a big feature in the sport. Indeed, it is the basis of the series existing. But will there be any restrictions? Well, for 2023, probably not. But we have a working group that will consider future restrictions such as maybe an Aspect ratio limit of 6.7, or tapes on the risers to restrict Speed Bars being too aggressive. What we do not want is manufacturers making crazy wings trying to win, at the expense of safety for the pilots. Maybe in the future there will be a new Sports Certification developed, one step above EN-C. We will see. For this year, all 2-liners C’s we have heard about are below the aspect ration of 6.7, so you can purchase in confidence this year.
    6. Results: The way results are processed in a competition is based on 1990 technologies. We had cameras, it took many hours to be retrieved, the results were not available until the morning, and they were printed on paper. Lets move to 2023! When you land, your score is already available online, on your smart phone. When you hand in your tracker, your score is FINAL. So best you check it is correct when you come to HQ. No more delays, and live scoring will be published!
    7. Safety: We are investing in technology. We will have available the latest 4g trackers at all our events. In late 2023 will will have a new generation of 4g, where we can send you messages through the trackers, stop tasks with the tracker etc. 
    8. Safety Briefings: These are a mandatory part of every event, and they are important. However, there are often mundane, with many aspects being aimed at the newer pilots. We will be publishing a standardised PDF with the key aspects, to make life faster at the event, and to highlight the aspects more relevant to the local venue more.
    9. Selection: This will not be by WPRS nor by how fast you register. See our separate article on the SRS Score and how it works. You will still have to pay quite quickly when offered a placed in the series though, to avoid missing out.