training | Free Flyers Union

Procedures and Training for Better Safety

Organiser

By Maxime Bellemin on Thu, 30 Oct 2025 - 22:04

Discipline

All

What do we want ?

We want procedures and training, because they are the right tools to address safety.

Aviation entities have embraced "Competency Based Training" and "Threat and Error Management" approaches more than 20 years ago (search sources at IATA, ICAO, FAA...) to better address the safety challenges they face. To make a very long story very short: threats exists in the air, mistakes are unavoidable for humans. To circumvene or counter them one has to: prepare, repair and ultimately recover the situations at hand.

How do we achieve that ?

We achieve that by training people (before action) on specific competencies and by applying ad hoc procedures (during action).

We lost a pilot during PG French Open 2024, a dramatic fatality. During following next three weeks, FFVL created a working group that reflected about what should be done to continue with comps in 2024. And at the end of 2024, another working group had 3 months to define and implement changes for the 2025 season. The major outcomes have been:
- revamped competition rules and operational (practical) manuals
- a series of training sessions for both organizers and pilots

Section 7 is only about competition rules.

What FFVL has done does not pretend to be perfect or finished. It has not been unanimously accepted by the French competition scene. But we can learn from this experience wich followed the ideas expressed above. I gathered a score of the documents produced by these working groups in a GPT with some instructions to answer queries from pilots or organizers. You can try it here (a ChatGPT free account is needed): https://chatgpt.com/g/g-69024ab024c48191a3328dd6fabca2df-ffvl-pg-racing-assistant (active link below). The creation of this GPT is a personal initiative, I received no backup or instruction from FFVL. Due to wording issues and work still in progress, some answers are inaccurate, but it shall give you a picture of the framework.

Here are some suggestions for your prompts:

What training courses does the FFVL offer for competition?
What are the obligations of a pilot during a competition task?
What are the key positions for organizing a competition?
Is the position of takeoff manager compatible with the position of scorer? (answer is wrong)
How do I create a competition on Flymaster?
Is the position of real-time tracking compatible with the position of scorer? (answer is not accurate)
What is the procedure to follow when a pilot's position is no longer updated on Flymaster?
As a pilot, what are my obligations during flight?
I would like to start competing, what should I do?
Is the introductory competition training module free? (answer is not accurate)
What is the content of the introductory competition training module?
How long does the introductory competition training last?
How many people are needed to organize a Federal 2 competition?
What is the profile of a safety officer at a competition?
What are the prerequisites for becoming a meet director?
Can the meet director fly during a task?
What should the meet director do if a competitor reports rain on the radio during a task?
If I am a competitor and I realize during a task that my radio is not working, what should I do? (answer is not accurate)
What secondary tracker can I use in competition as a pilot?
What competencies must a competition pilot develop?

My purpose here is not to promote this work or these answers, nor AI, but
- to illustrate a global concept for safety in PG/HG comps.
- to motivate a group of people to structure and draft training plans and procedures at international level in order to improve safety in PG/HG competition events.

What are your thoughts about this? Who is in?

Issue category :

Link

FFVL PG Racing Assistant

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Comments

Organiser

By Josh Cohn on Mon, 3 Nov 2025 - 18:02

Maxime,

Thanks for sharing! I'm curious how much of this could/should be taken on in e.g. the US. We do have some similar documentation requirements already, in part for insurance reasons.

I tried asking the GPT this but it short circuited:

How many additional staff are now required at a competition?

Are there some parts of the initiative that are more controversial/seem less supported by evidence than others?

Are there any parts that are at risk of 'fighting the last battle', being overly focused on preventing one specific type of tragic but rare event?

Organiser

By Maxime Bellemin on Mon, 3 Nov 2025 - 19:00

Hi Josh,

Thanks for your interest!

> How many additional staff are now required at a competition?

Past documentation and web research are not in the scope of the tool. So that it has no past reference (but its answer is not that bad). My personal assumption is that 2 to 3 additional people are required in the staff: safety director and live-watchers mostly. This is linked to the situation in France prior to these changes. None was required before.

> Are there some parts of the initiative that are more controversial/seem less supported by evidence than others?

The exact same ones as mentionned above: safety director and live-watchers. "We lack volunteers", "We take care in a different way", "We have no accidents here", "We know how to manage a comp", "We are different from others", blah blah blah.

> Are there any parts that are at risk of 'fighting the last battle', being overly focused on preventing one specific type of tragic but rare event?

The whole idea is to avoid looking for quick wins or any kind of problem/solution approach. There are no specifics in the concept. It is on a different level, more global, holistic, cultural, pick whichever your prefered.