At 23:51 14 July 2009, Tom wrote:
I figured I better let some time pass before I chimed in since I was on
the

short end of the ruling at Parowan.



1 - I have no problem with the protest since the rule allowed it.

2 - I have no problem with the decision of the committee and felt they
upheld the rule.

3 - I have no problem with Charlie opening the gate when he did so per
the

rules.



Everyone was correct. The rub is the rule itself. This rule punished
competitors that flew well (in this case a vast majority of the field)
and

benefited those that landed out / back or choose not to fly. It is
frustrating to have 4 hours negated to zero.



To make matters worse, the Sports Class was moved to the end of the grid
the
next day since the 15 and 18 meter guys did not have a contest day.
Hello!?
Neither did Sports. Separate topic, but if you fly Sports at R9 you will

not receive the same attention to detail as the FAI guys. Our starts are

historically called poorly and until this year we always launched last.



All week long in the pilot's meeting we were reminded that competition
pilots represent a very small percentage of soaring people. Reading RAS
and
going through this last Region 9, it is clear that crappy rules and
scoring
that requires a degree in mathematics will probably keep this number in
the
same range in the future.



Can't bitch without making suggestions right? Two rule suggestions -



1 - Change the rule so that if a majority of the field scores, adjust the

competitor's score that was not able to start. Instead of bringing 20
some
scores down to zero, adjust 1 or two scores up.



2 - As suggested in other posts, change the call when the gate opens.
Opening the gate 15 minutes after the last competitor starts the t/o
roll
is
not viable.



Tom Dukerich OD2

The UK rules are very similar regarding the opening of the gate, but the
CD has the discretion not to open the gate, or to delay the opening.

Some years ago the last day of a competition was marginal as far as
weather was concerned. The leading pilot persuaded other pilots, who had
no chance of winning, to refuse to take a launch in the hope of getting
the day scrubbed/devalued. The net effect was to shorten the launch time
and enable the gate to be opened earlier than would have been the case
with a full grid. After the gate opened the weather stopped launching for
several hours. If the "protest" had not been made the full field would
never have been launched and the day scrubbed.
Unluckily the second place pilot, who had launched, did not score enough
points to win.