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Hallo all,
I was asked by leading members of the German Aero Club (
national soaring committee ) to provide following information to the members of
the soaring list as well to the whole F3J community :
The German national body DAeC ( German Aero Club ) decided on
a meeting last week-end not to adopt the new towing rule (safety notice
from march 26th 2001 ) and to use a local rule according to the
Sporting Code from Jan 1st 2001 ( 2-man -towing with "stake" )
instead.
Reason are that the German Aero Club realizes that the simply
banning of the "stake" provides a lot of danger for helpers and towmen in F3J
competition . On the other hand the 2-man towing with a adequately
fixed ground anchors was well-proved and tested for many years in
international competitions. This towing system was developed by a german
F3J-working-pool who was working for 7 years on safety questions. The
idea and intension was to keep the tow-men out of the line of fire (
wipping lines ) by using a towing -bar or a V-rope and to use a well
fixed ground anchor instead of "human anchors " who are in serious danger
as well .
The accident in Slovakia was sincerely regreted but the
towing method used in this accident had nothing to do with the safety standards
in F3J competitions today.
Furtheron the German Aero Club will send a protest
letter to the chairman of the F3B/F3J sub-committee Mr. Thomas Bartovsky
!
Also the german Aero Club will again present a proposal
at the next CIAM meeting which includes a detailed drawning and description
for the so called 2-man-towing ( one main stake with at least 2 additional
stakes, similar to F3B turnaround ) in addition to the proven towing method
according to Sporting Code from Jan 1st 2001.
The German Aero Club also prefers to see F3J going on with
"hand-towing" and not to establish power-winches to keep the specific identity
of the popular F3J class. This was decided on a meeting early this winter
!
best regards....Stefan Eder ( GER-2003
)..........
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