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The beginning of a year is a time for reviewing achievements and setting new
goals. 1997 was important for the FAI for obvious, and less obvious, reasons.
Thanks to the Turkish Aeronautical Association, we staged the 1st World Air
Games. This raised our profile both within the air sports community and in the wider world. Not as much as we might have wished, but significantly
nevertheless. There is no doubt that we shall find it easier to obtain TV
coverage of air sport in the future.
So much is obvious; the less obvious consequence of 1997 was that it was the year in which the world governing bodies of the air sports - the FAI Air Sport Commissions - were finally brought face-to-face with a long- buried question: are competitions purely for competitors, or are they also for the public? The World Air Games proved beyond doubt, if proof were needed, that air sport competitions have some way to go before they can be easily televised or watched with sustained enjoyment by an on-site spectator. Some sports, notably parachuting, have made good progress towards "viewer-friendliness" and have clear plans for further developments in this direction. Others, the majority, have as yet done little or nothing. It can be argued that it is perfectly respectable to say you are not interested in attracting spectators, nor in getting your sport on TV, but only in indulging in monk-like isolation in your private passion. But then you must be prepared to accept the consequences: no external financing for your sport (from TV and sponsors), and no public outcry if some bureaucrat decides to close down your airfield, prohibit flying over your local area, or double the tax on your aviation fuel. For the public cannot identify with, or even have sympathy for something it knows nothing about. Curiously, those least inclined to share their sport with the public at large are often those who complain most about having to dip into their pockets to fund the structures that make the practice of their sport possible. And those most inclined to rail impotently against bureaucrats. Sports with big TV audiences are influential at the highest levels of government. Motor racing is an instructive example. This is an elitist sport if ever there was one. And, when all is said and done (and with apologies to our FIA colleagues), watching a modern Formula 1 Grand Prix - unless there is a pile-up at the start - is a bit like watching the grass grow. And yet the sport has been expertly packaged for TV and enjoys a vast world-wide audience. As a result, one European government has recently made a special exception to its strict laws against tobacco advertising specifically for Formula 1. The Prime Minister made a public statement defending his position. Can you imagine such a thing happening for an air sport? I can - but only if we decide we want to be major players on TV. What is needed for this to happen? First, the majority, or at least the leaders, must want it to happen. Second, there must be radical re-appraisal of contest formats and rules. One senior TV man told me recently "Your aim should be that nothing lasts longer than a football match." Maybe this is unrealistic. But progress is possible. All international cricket matches used to last 5 days. Under pressure from TV, a new kind of match, lasting only one day was invented. If cricket, possibly the most conservative of sports can do it, so can we! The other key requirements are transparency, and instant knowledge of results. The first person to arrive, in a race, must be the winner. It is no good having the person who arrives fifth or tenth beating the number one because of staggered start times or complicated handicapping rules, unless you are able to create suspense by displaying target times on the screen for each contestant (as in down-hill skiing). Once the race is finished, there must be no delay in displaying the results. As in ice skating, the judges must hold up their cards immediately. It is ludicrous that, in some cases, official results are not available in air sports until DAYS after the event. Rewriting the FAI Sporting Codes to make contests simpler and more attractive for the viewing public would also have the salutary effect of saving trees. The Codes are getting fatter and fatter, and more and more changes are being made each year. This poses a problem not only for those who have to traznslate them into numerous languages, but above all for the competitors, who have to spend more and more time reading more and more complex rules. So the goal that I have set myself for this year is clear: persuade anyone who will listen that air sport competitions must change in such a way that a casual visitor can understand what is going on, and derive enjoyment from it. And so that you can make an enjoyable TV programme out of what is happening. The digital revolution means that a lot of air time is suddenly becoming available. We must get our share of it. Readers are warmly invited to air their views on this topic in the Air Sports International Letters column.
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OTHER ARTICLES OF ASI FEBRUARY'98 ISSUE | News In Brief | Letters To The Editor | World Records | | Simulated Flying - Birth of A New Air Sport ? | | World Gliding Championships In Your Home Town | | John Roake talks about...My Turkish Adventure | | The 41st Gordon Bennett Race | | A microlight look at the 1st World Air Games | |
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