Post by flyjoe180 on Jul 10, 2007 11:00:52 GMT 12
This all looks and sounds very interesting, I didnt know it even existed. NZ appears to be a very popular international gliding venue.
In April we announced that the Final for the first GP series will be held in New Zealand. This news was greeted with very positive responses from the qualified pilots and many Delegates also sent me emails of support for our decision.
Thank you to you all for your support of the Bureau.
This newsletter will, I trust, fill in some of the gaps from the April announcement.
The Final will be at Omarama starting on the 19th of December and with the last competition day planned to be the 24th of December. An additional two days of GP racing will then take place at Wanaka on the 27th and 28th of December as part of a wider multi-sport event.
The Final will be managed by three parties:
IGC – the Bureau will provide the key contest directors
Gliding New Zealand will provide the key support people, the airfield support and facilities necessary for the Grand Prix racing itself
Air Sports Ltd will provide the media coverage package as well as the logistical support for the pilots and their aircraft
The GP is being held in New Zealand because Air Sports Ltd have found an investor who is prepared to back their vision of creating air sports as a media-presentable product. The investor, who is not from within the aviation industry, is in this for the long-haul and is willing to work with ASL to create the right market to enable us to all benefit from significant sponsorship in due course.
How do I see this benefiting the IGC? My dream is that we will derive sufficient funding from the media exposure created through ASL’s products to be able to provide funding from IGC to support our core WGC events. But, we need to be realistic; it is going to take some time to create the demand.
The investment in ASL guarantees the coverage for the Sailplane Grand Prix Final in New Zealand using streaming on the internet and on standard size indoor screens on site of:
Live air to air shots and multiple on board cameras and
These are the same products that were demonstrated in January 2006 with the addition of the internet coverage.
The investment in ASL also underwrites the cost of supporting the IGC officials and the pilots and their gliders to attend the Final.
It is not planned to provide any large-scale spectator facilities at Omarama, but to focus instead on providing high quality internet coverage, and hopefully some level of broadcast TV exposure.
The Wanaka event is being prepared and managed by “Flying-NZ” (the Royal New Zealand Aero Club – the NZ NAC) and it will include all of the media capability that ASL have available. Skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, aerobatics, helicopters and ballooning are expected to participate in the Wanaka event.
I have recently written to all the other Air Sport Commission Presidents to ask for their support for this event.
This will, in a small way, allow us to rehearse the formats for the 2009 World Air Games.
For 2008 and 2009 we are now continuing with our plan, announced at the Plenum meeting in March, of running Qualifying GP race in 2008 with a Final in 2009.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
Heres a site showing details and results from the NZ 2006 Grand Prix. They use some really modern technology in this event by the looks of it (some seems to resemble Americas Cup style graphics):
www.gp06.com/
In April we announced that the Final for the first GP series will be held in New Zealand. This news was greeted with very positive responses from the qualified pilots and many Delegates also sent me emails of support for our decision.
Thank you to you all for your support of the Bureau.
This newsletter will, I trust, fill in some of the gaps from the April announcement.
The Final will be at Omarama starting on the 19th of December and with the last competition day planned to be the 24th of December. An additional two days of GP racing will then take place at Wanaka on the 27th and 28th of December as part of a wider multi-sport event.
The Final will be managed by three parties:
IGC – the Bureau will provide the key contest directors
Gliding New Zealand will provide the key support people, the airfield support and facilities necessary for the Grand Prix racing itself
Air Sports Ltd will provide the media coverage package as well as the logistical support for the pilots and their aircraft
The GP is being held in New Zealand because Air Sports Ltd have found an investor who is prepared to back their vision of creating air sports as a media-presentable product. The investor, who is not from within the aviation industry, is in this for the long-haul and is willing to work with ASL to create the right market to enable us to all benefit from significant sponsorship in due course.
How do I see this benefiting the IGC? My dream is that we will derive sufficient funding from the media exposure created through ASL’s products to be able to provide funding from IGC to support our core WGC events. But, we need to be realistic; it is going to take some time to create the demand.
The investment in ASL guarantees the coverage for the Sailplane Grand Prix Final in New Zealand using streaming on the internet and on standard size indoor screens on site of:
Live air to air shots and multiple on board cameras and
These are the same products that were demonstrated in January 2006 with the addition of the internet coverage.
The investment in ASL also underwrites the cost of supporting the IGC officials and the pilots and their gliders to attend the Final.
It is not planned to provide any large-scale spectator facilities at Omarama, but to focus instead on providing high quality internet coverage, and hopefully some level of broadcast TV exposure.
The Wanaka event is being prepared and managed by “Flying-NZ” (the Royal New Zealand Aero Club – the NZ NAC) and it will include all of the media capability that ASL have available. Skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding, aerobatics, helicopters and ballooning are expected to participate in the Wanaka event.
I have recently written to all the other Air Sport Commission Presidents to ask for their support for this event.
This will, in a small way, allow us to rehearse the formats for the 2009 World Air Games.
For 2008 and 2009 we are now continuing with our plan, announced at the Plenum meeting in March, of running Qualifying GP race in 2008 with a Final in 2009.
Bob Henderson
President, IGC
Heres a site showing details and results from the NZ 2006 Grand Prix. They use some really modern technology in this event by the looks of it (some seems to resemble Americas Cup style graphics):
www.gp06.com/
