Tuno wrote:
snip What is the definition of fair?/snip

JJ:

There is a jury at the contest appointed to make that determination.
They met, deliberated, and rendered a decision, not once, but twice.
If the system was completely objective, we would have computers do
every bit of the work, and we agree to work within those subjective
parameters when we take one of those limited Parowan contest slots.

ted/2NO

Here's a little more background from someone that was in the air then
but has no dog in this fight.

The drop point was non-standard due to a storm shadowing the entire
airport valley except the drop point. It was downwind 5 to 8 miles from
the airport depending on the towplane you drew. Lift was 8 miles or more
away on a ridge still in the sun for early launchers. Release was
limited to 2000 ft above the airport. The storm was slowly moving to
shadow the drop point and the rest of the valley during the launch. The
drop point did not allow searching other areas for lift without risking
a pre-start landout in the desert. With the headwind, virga and sink
back to the airport a direct return from the most distant drop point
without climbing was not possible.

There were no relights in the Std Class (11) or the first 20+ Sports
class launches. The last 3 Sports class launches (except the pull backs,
which never flew) landed out or returned to the airport. The ridge that
had been generating thermals for the early launchers had been in shadow
for quite awhile by then and finally quit producing lift.

The 18 meter class launched next. All 4 landed back or landed out
without contacting lift to climb in.

The 15 meter class then launched the first 3 ships. I was one of these.
All returned to the airport. One straight in quite low. The launch was
stopped when the chief tow pilot recommended stopping due to extreme
turbulence in the pattern from the slowly expanding storm.

I maintained altitude off tow until the 0 quit, but the virga at least
moved out of the direct path back to the airport so I got back with
little drama. But encountered no lift to climb in.

10 for 10 landed back indicating the storm had for practical purposes
killed any chance of climbing from launch given the drop point in use.

By the way, the Std and Sports advisors launched early and had no
problem climbing away and were not in the area at the time. Cloudbase
was 11-12000 ft above the airport with a 6000 ft start height. Sun was
still on the ground at the farthest edge of the start cylinder, 10+
miles away, on the other side of the ridge. There was no 18 m class
advisor. The 15 m advisor was on the ground next in line for a launch
when it was halted.

-Dave