Some see EASA as the bête noire for gliding but many don’t shine a
light
on
the IGC and costs of collaborating with that organisation.

The outcome of yesterday’s plenary meeting just underlines how far from
reality this organisation has become.

An objective of the FAI Gliding Commission is to further the development
of

gliding sport and to encourage its spread to more countries.

It should be congratulated in its attempts to do this through its
promotion
of
World Championships in main stream and social media but so far the decline

of gliding membership across the globe continues.

The only bright spot is the Gliding Grand Prix which is moving into an
entirely
different spectrum of professionalism, sponsorship and marketing which
isn’t
costing or impacting on member Associations.

The impact of complying with complex rules, technology requirements and
attendance of myriad world championships is not sustainable if we want to
attract more into the grassroots of British Gliding.

The decision yesterday to continue with a 10 Class 2 year cycle of
competitions is another nail in the coffin in the financial support of our
British
Teams. It’s ignoring the harsh reality of maintaining an Associations
membership to financially support teams going to these Championships (and
I haven’t even mentioned Europeans).

If more people took an interest in how the IGC functioned then we might
actually have a chance of supporting our teams through coaching and
mentoring in a more structured and self funded way.

The IGC need to realise that supporting the top of the sport is impacting
new
entrants at the bottom.