On Tuesday May 4th the Club was pleased to have a visit from Diana King, a member of the BGA's Executive Committee.

The British Gliding Association is the governing body for the sport of gliding in the United Kingdom. It has enjoyed delegated authority from the Civil Aviation Authority since 1929 to regulate the sport, flight crew licensing, and airworthiness of aircraft. A couple of years ago the Executive Committee of the BGA realised that they were becoming detached from the membership. To correct this the Chairman of the BGA, Dave Roberts, made sure that an effective communication strategy was included in the BGA's overall business plan. Diana's visit was a direct result of that strategy.

The purpose of the visit was to initiate direct two way communication between the club and the Executive. For the BGA's part, Diana briefed members of Andreas Gliding Club about the BGA's purpose and challenges that they face on our behalf. Diana pointed out that the main challenge currently is minimising the threat to gliding and indeed most of the recreational flying community of the British Isles from the increasing regulations demanded by European legislation. This is mainly driven by the new European Aviation Safety Agency or EASA.

Following some very productive discussion members of the Club were also able to ensure that an influential member of the Executive Committee had a good, first hand, understanding of the issues that affect gliding in the Isle of Man. Not only those issues that are common to most small clubs within the BGA but also issues that are peculiar to the Isle of Man, such as its geographical disadvantages and its constitutional differences.

The Isle of Man is not a part of the UK, or indeed the EU. It is an autonomous Dependency of the Crown with its own Parliament (Tynwald), which is in fact the oldest continuous democracy in the world. As such UK laws and EU directives and the resulting regulations designed for the UK and or the EU are not necessarily valid or applicable in the Isle of Man although, in time, parity is often achieved by Act of Tynwald but often with differences that are relevant to the Isle of Man. For example the British Air Navigation Order (ANO) is not valid here; we are bound by our own ANO, which is very similar. One effect of this is that all ANO exemptions, for aerotowing, winch launching, and motor gliding instruction have to be obtained from our Dept of Transport and not the CAA via the BGA.

This is one illustration of how operating in a different jurisdiction to that of the sports governing body needs some careful thought. To be sensible about the issue most BGA regulations are applied without any problem, however those derived from UK or EU legislation where there is no parity in Manx law provide us with a potential problem if the instrument of law is not enacted by Tynwald. The current topical issue is the effect of the European Aviation Safety Agency regulations that come in force in EU countries in September 2003. As currently understood Manx Law does not currently recognise EASA and our own Dept of Transport is still investigating the consequences of the legislation for the Isle of Man. We were able to discuss at length with Diana these issues.

Another example is that we are not able to enjoy the possibility of Sports Council or Lottery funding from the UK. Generally Sports Council funding is made out to national governing bodies of their respective sports. This is also true for the Isle of Man Sports Council. Unfortunately the BGA is not a Manx governing body and as such we do not qualify for funding here. In fact gliding is not recognised at all as a sport here in the Isle of Man. We discussed with Diana some possibilities for overcoming this problem.

We feel sure that Diana has taken back with her a much improved understanding of the special issues that affect us here as well as the constitutional differences between the UK and the Isle of Man. We are confident that she can advise the Executive Committee of the BGA where conflict might apply or where practical issues will ensue.