On the 22nd of November the JHV (the main meeting of the german paragliding association) was held and the issue of legalizing acro in Gemany came up for discussion (in the moment roll- and pitch angles above 90 degrees are not allowed) Nearly 10 person spoke in front of the public - included Toni Bender and Karl Slezak, the DHV's safety consultant - and said that the complete legalisation is very urgent. The petition was accepted by nearly 100% of the people who were present on the meeting.
However, there already has been once a working group in 2002 which discussed the possibility of legalizing acro flying in Germany. The main reason why that did not go ahead is still valid today: aerobatics flight with paragliders is prohibited by the law, whereas LuftVO §8(1) prohibits aerobatics flight with "Luftsportgeräten", a class which comprises mostly ultralights, paragliders, hanggliders, parachutes. This ordinance can only be changed by the Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA), the highest German aviation administration.
Now a new working group will be formed to proceed this petition further though the LBA and change the law to let the growing german acro community train and live their passion in a legal way!
Good luck!
Further infomations about the legalization process can be found here
and in the DHV Forum (in german)
Klick hier für die deutsche Version
