A statement from the IPHVA board, as of March 28^th, 2017:

The board has had a long discussion about various aspects of the flying start rules. As a result of this long discussion, we have recently passed two motions. Detailed wording of rule changes remain to be worked out.  However, the board felt strongly that the result of these two motions should be communicated without further delay.

The first motion concerned launch carts, and the ban on such devices was upheld unanimously. Launch carts were ruled to be a violation of the vehicle integrity rule. We are aware that such a ban may discourage the development of certain HPV designs. However, if launch carts were to be allowed, this could encourage the development of vehicles that become utterly dependent on them to start, and it was felt that is not a direction that the original spirit of the HPV rules should encourage. Furthermore, defining an exception to the vehicle integrity rule could open a Pandora’s box of devices and approaches that also skirt this rule.

The second motion concerned the use of skates by launch assistants.

The use of skates by launch assistants is banned, effective January 1, 2018. This issue was more controversial, and the vote in favor was not unanimous. However, rationale for the skate ban was the equivalence between the pusher/skater combination with pushers plus a launch cart. The majority of the board felt that if launch carts were not allowed, skaters shouldn’t be allowed as well. We are aware that several teams use skaters for launches at WHPSC. We felt that a delayed implementation of this rule would allow adequate time for teams to retrain their people, and to adjust their vehicle designs if necessary.

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