JM - Cloudbase Paragliding <<jan.minnaar>>
writes:

We have taken a paragliding group to the Alps every summer for the
past twenty three years. Our first stop being Stubai in Austria, and we will be
there once again in July, and so this issue is very relevant to us.

Our national organisation (South Africa) was also one of those that wrote to the
relevant parties to be included in the list of "Legal Countries" that are
allowed to fly in Austria and received no response and have now therefore been
excluded from this special list.

As we are taking a group again this year, we wrote to Manfred to ask him for
further information , and were told to contact a local school.

We have done this, and we contacted Parafly in Stubai and have been sent the
below, after they had to spend a number of weeks finding out the relevant info:

I finally managed to find out what is necessary to fly officially insured in
Austria. The people will need:

- an IPPI Card rating 4

- AXA insurance

- Austrian Guest Flying Permit

Prices:

• Group: Guest Flying Permit per person normally 40€, + AXA insurance depending
on which Premium from 60 € to 90 €

• Per person total insured ca. 100€

Payment:

• Guest Flying Permit directly at the school when you are here.

• AXA insurance directly at the school or by bank transfer directly to AXA (http://www.flugschulen.at/axa/english/index.html)

So it is going to cost EURO100 per person to fly in Austria regardless of period
of time, for South Africans this is a lot of money !!

We do not think that it is fair to force this extra cost on our pilots when we
have a very good licensing system, in fact in our first level of license we
require a far higher skill level than the Austrian equivalent.

We appreciate the law exists, and we have our own issues here with a “licensing
law” but it only cost R200 ie Euro 13 and is not restricted to IPPI 4 and above.
This fee also gets paid directly to SAHPA (South African HG and PG Assoc.) who
pay the site insurance policies, third party insurance etc.

In our opinion, this Euro100 fee is grossly unfair and we would like to ask that
the FAI and CIVL and Austrian Aeroclub review this issue, as we are all members
via our Aero clubs and comply to the IPPI system.