A report on the Naviter website says that CIVL has decided to use pressure altitude for scoring FAI Cat 1 paragliding competitions from May 2015.
CIVL, the body responsible for sanctioning high level paragliding and hang gliding competitions, had its annual general meeting last week. Delegates from 41 countries attended the two-day meeting in Belgrade, Serbia.
CIVL have yet to release the official minutes or news of decisions made, but Naviter report that the decision to switch away from GPS altitude to using barometric altitude was made after a “very long decision making process”.
The ‘GPS versus Barometric’ altitude debate has been a long one. Paragliding is the only air sport that uses GPS altitude in competition, and this has led to numerous controversies over altitude and airspace restrictions.
It is hoped that the move to barometric altitude will mean fewer controversies and better scoring.
The change will only affect CIVL Cat 1 competitions. It will not affect events like the Red Bull X-Alps, which has seen its own GPS altitude controversies – including one where Chrigel Maurer was famously penalised for breaking altitude airspace by 1m.
The full article is on the Naviter website.
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