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TMA North of 7 Meuses extended

Very bad news has reached us: under pressure of Ryanair the TMA of Charleroi was extended to the East, which makes distance flying to the North of 7-Meuses mostly impossible behind the centre of Profondeville, where the TMA starts at 3500ft AMSL (1050m AMSL). Unless one first flies to the East (Courrière cloverleaf), but there too one reaches the YMA again some 5km after the East-West axis of the Meuse… (click the map to enlarge).

The soaring federations and the BVVF-FBVL have already put this on the agendat of the BELAC committee, where conflicts of intrest between commercial aviation, air force, and the recreational aviation represented by the Belgian Royal Aero Club are handled.

Also on the agenda: the lowering or rather said the shifting of the limit of the LFA GOLF 2 to the South, where the two cited flying sites under the LFA GOLF 1 (FL50) are now situated instead of LFA GOLF 1 (FL70), which is also a small catastrophe, because one shall first have to fly to Dinant or Ciney to be allowed to fly to FL70 (when GOLF 2 gets activated). Spontin is still under GOLF 1…

See the maps in the AIP: click on the following link, then “en-route charts”, then on GOLF2-zone:
http://www.belgocontrol.be/website/eaip/eAIP_Main/html/index-en-GB.html

On top of that a misterious zone “NAMUR AREA 2” was created Notrth of 7 Meuses, West of the Meuse (under the TMA that starts there at 750M AMSL), for which there is nothing yet in the AIP but which will probably be used for the Temploux airfied, which is strange because there is no need to do that for this reason. We shall keep a careful eye on this and the other things, and keep you informed through this channel and the members mailing list.

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Non-certified paragliders banished from Belgian Opens

The General Council of the Belgian hang gliding and paragliding association (FBVL) has decided to follow the strong recommendation of the FAI-Commission CIVL, which has decided to suspend all not-certified paragliders (type certification) during FAI category 1 paragliding competitions (World and European championships).

This recommendation to extend this suspension to all FAI category 2 paragliding competitions (National championships, also the BPO and BAPO), has put national associations in an awkward position at several levels.

This decision of the FBVL does not concern the smaller or bigger or “light”-versions of a certified model, even if this version was not certified.

The Council is aware that this is very disappointing for the pilots that fly on these machines, but the CIVL did not leave us much of a choice since the legal liability and even penal responsibility (different laws in Belgium) of the organizers and the FBVL Council members could be engaged, because not taking into account this recommendation could be considered as negligence.

The pilots that want to retire from the competitions because they don’t have another paraglider to fly on will be reimbursed for a big part or the totality of the registration fee (this will depend on the negotiations between the organizers and the FBVL.

With regard to this suspension in FBVL competitions, the Council will reevaluate the situation in accordance with future evolutions within the CIVL.

The FBVL Council.