Preparations for the 25th Worlds continues and the Organization has changed into top gear.

We have received about 100 entries from 27 countries and the 25th World Gliding Championship promises to be a very exciting contest indeed.

The majority of formal entries were completed by the deadline of 28 February. As we expected we have some no-shows and the total number of entries is now 95. There are respectively 43, 34 and 18 pilots in the standard, 15m and open class. The final entry lists in each class are attached. We are still lacking some data. In particular, on several entry forms the signature of an authorized person of the NAC was missing. These forms will be returned to be completed as soon as possible. As announced in our last Bulletin all reserve pilots have been accepted.

For reasons which would be too complicated to explain here, Jacky Clairbaux recently resigned his appointment as WGC 97 Director of the Competition and the Organizers were faced with the task of finding a substitute.

The new Director of the Championships is Michel FACHE. Michel is a well known competitor, one of the best French specialists of the Alps and he has won several competitions including the "Coupe du Monde de Vol à voile en Montagne" in Vinon and the "Open de Fayence". He was also a member of the French Team in Rieti.

He has great experience as a competition director having organized the International Contest in Bailleau several times and the French Championships.

He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the FFVV and Chairman of the Sports Commission. Furthermore he has previously been the French Alternate at the IGC.

Professionally he is responsible for a department employing 160 persons at Dassault Electronics.

The Organizers are fully confident that he will be the right man to manage this event.

A dedicated web site has been opened to provide the latest information on the championships and it will be regularly updated prior to and during the Championships. Have a look and tell us what you would like to see there. The address is :

Our Webmaster, Denis Flament, plans to display the task information and results on every competition day with the performance results hopefully being presented almost in real time.

The daily bulletin will also be available on the net and the results will be broadcast on the SSA site in the USA, thanks to Dr. Guenther Eichhorn.

Some space will be reserved for each national team for communicating worldwide in their own language and/or in English with their fans and to give the latest news from the team itself, its morale and fighting form. To use this service just advise our webmaster (as soon as possible) and each day during the Championships bring him your text and /or pictures on a floppy disk. He will convert it into HTML format and publish it on the Web.

In the press center (inside the competition building) some telephone lines suitable for data transfer will also be available (if you bring your laptop and modem). Also one free, self-service PC connected to the Web will be available.

You will also be able to subscribe to a connection through a local provider during the Championships period (to send or receive your e-mails or to monitor the arrivals from your hotel's swimming pool via the web). Details will be published later. Please let us know if you are interested.

Finally, a mailing list will be established to ensure regular e-mail information to all subscribers without the need to connect to the website : you can register now by mailing Denis at :

Attached is a copy of the Draft of the Official Rules and Local Regulations which have been submitted to the IGC Rules Sub-Committee and which should be approved at the IGC meeting in Brussels.

Please read them carefully because there are some rules which differ markedly from previous championships :

- As previously announced the flight will be primarily controlled with a GNSS flight recorder. One time recording camera or a second flight recorder may be used as backup if the record of the primary unit is incomplete.

- The start zone has been extended to 6 km for safety reasons.

- The observation zone for turn points will be the FAI sector + the "beer can" as used during the European Championships in Finland.

- At the request of Tor Johannessen, Chairman of the Rules Sub Committee, rules for distance tasks have been included. They are similar to the rules used in Finland but have been adapted to the mountain environment for safety reasons.

- Also, for safety reasons : GNSS outlandings will be allowed using any point from the official turn point list ; and, landing more than 30 minutes after sunset will lead to day disqualification.

- Any attempt to obtain external help finding lift from non competing aircraft shall be penalised. Reports on meteorological observations performed on each airfield in the contest area shall be continuously displayed during the task to give each team access to the same information.

The Organizers have decided to include competition for the magnificent World Soaring Cup, won by the French Team in New Zealand. The winner of the World Soaring Cup will be the team having the highest total score obtained according to the rules detailed in the Official Rules, which are the same as applied in Omarama.

In a previous Bulletin we announced that all GNSS units, provided they have been approved by the IGC before the deadline for final entry, will be accepted. To satisfy the request of a Flight Recorder Manufacturer we have agreed to delay approvals until March 31 to give him a chance to have his device approved.

We remind you that no GNSS recorders will be available from the Organizers for rent on the site. Some manufacturers plan to be present during the championship, so you may make your own arrangements with them.

Please note that the competitor is responsible for the GNSS Flight Recorder installation and functioning. Take care that you have enough electric power to last even on the long flights in the Alps. Experience at Lavender Glide indicates that the lack of power supply is the main reason for GNSS failures.

Attached is the official list of turn points in WGS 84 coordinates. The Organizers will provide a floppy containing an ASCII file of the coordinates of the turn points and departure points (and also of the marked outlanding fields). This will be sent out with the next Bulletin. We are investigating the possibility of providing, on the same floppy, a conversion of this file into files readable by the most common Flight Recorders. The official list is available on the website in several formats and may be downloaded from there.

As per Lavender Glide, every pilot, on arrival at Saint Auban, will receive a special map of the contest area showing the departure points, turn points and outlanding strips. These maps will be edited and sponsored by the SIA (Service de l'Information Aéronautique).

You are reminded that for safety reasons Emergency Location Transmitters will be mandatory. Contrary to the announcement in our last Bulletin, there will now be two rental options for these transmitters:

- We received a special offer from SERPE - IESM. They are offering their KANNAD 406 ATP beacon, which is a very high performance unit (working with triple frequency) for 950 FF for one month. You may contact them at the following address :

- You will also be able to rent a SOCATA ELT on the site. The cost will be 1,000 FF for one monthÕs rental. These devices are for sale after the competition, the additional cost of buying the unit you have rented will only be 500 FF. Please let us know if you are interested in this offer.

According to French Regulations, the use of an oxygen system is mandatory for flights above FL 125. Since even thermals may reach such altitudes every day during the competition period and in the contest area, the Organizers have decided that a serviceable oxygen system will be mandatory on each sailplane. Details about oxygen bottle filling will be given in the next bulletin.

We hope that you have made the necessary arrangements for the shipping of your gliders. We confirm that teams and competitors will not need to obtain carnets for gliders, trailers, parachutes or for spares, provided they are shipped via MARSEILLE or FOS sur MER by DELTA SHIPPING OVERSEAS.

The details have been given in Bulletin number 2. If you need any additional information or advice, please contact Mr. KOECHLIN or Mrs. DUGOUJON at:

We remind you that a third party insurance up to 5,000,000 FF for a single seater and up to 10,000,000 FF for a two seater is required for each sailplane. Attached is a certificate of insurance to be filled in by the insurance company. Please send them back as soon as possible.

You will also be able to purchase this insurance at the registration desk. The cost will be 350FF.

We remind you also that personal medical insurance is necessary for all team members.

As you probably know, in Saint Auban, it is often impossible to predict the wind direction for takeoff at the time gridding commences. For safety reasons the preferred take off direction is towards the south. To reduce the risks of groundloops when starting with a tail wind we will use powerful towplanes, almost exclusively. Between 14 and 16 towplanes with 235hp engines will be available.

Also to avoid retrieval difficulties, all the tow ropes will be supplied by the Organizers.

Janet Hider Smith of Austria / Australia has agreed to join the organizing team as the editor of the Daily Bulletin. In addition to being an international level competition pilot, Janet is currently also the editor of the European Gliding News and she also edited the Daily Bulletin Groundloop at the European Championships in Finland.

The bulletin will be bilingual English / French. Ophélie Poncet, who is the press relations officer for the FFVV, will take over the edition of the French part.

Each Team Captain will have a GSM mobile phone at his disposal for facilitating retrieval operations. These phones are only for loan and the costs of the calls will have to be paid by the teams.

Additional GSM mobile phones will be available.The rental cost will be about 700 FF/month, the call costs are 6 FF/min (calls in France) or 20 FF/min (international calls).

Let us know if you are interested to rent such mobile phones.

The rental of cars with tow bars will be possible. We received an offer from a car rental company (EUROPCAR) for Category B cars. The rental costs for one car are as follows :

The cars will be available at Marseille airport. Please note that the electrical connections will be to the European standard. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are interested.

All payments in Saint Auban must be made in French Francs. Credit cards will be accepted.

We are pleased to inform you that we have made an arrangement with our Bank (CREDIT DU NORD) to have facilities on the airfield of St Auban. The codes of this agency will be given in our next Bulletin.

Glider pilot licences from your own country will be recognized in France. There are no formalities for pilots from countries which are members of the European Union (except the United Kingdom), or from Norway or Switzerland since they all have an OACI Licence. Pilots from other countries must validate their licence by returning us the attached form and the required documents at least one month before arrival.

Of course a valid Sporting Licence is also required.

As usual an Airworthiness Certificate or a Permit to Fly will be required for your glider and they will automatically be recognized by the French Administration.

The OSTIV Congress will be held as usual during the WGC. The schedule is as follows :

Visit Philippe de Péchy's "Vol à Voile" (Soaring) server : infos, ad's, glider pictures, GPS turnpoints coordinates, competitions results and an unofficial ranking of all glider pilots in the world.

Web page by Denis Flament (from Nogaro aeroclub) consulted times since 11-mar-97 updated : 11-mar-97