On Thursday, August 7, 2014 6:14:39 AM UTC-7, Sean Fidler wrote:

I made a "judgement" decision that the strong wind conditions were just too unsafe (based on the previous days decision and common sense) and talked to the CD about it and informed him that I was going to pull off the grid for that day. I felt the CD was under tremendous pressure from certain pilots to launch as the previous day one pilot was able to get up and fly.

All sorts of decisions about whether to fly, the type of task to fly, the direction of tasking, etc. require judgments about evolving conditions and potential scenarios for things to go bad. CDs and Task Committees, in my experience try hard to ignore the shouts of the mob and apply their judgment as to to what would make a safe and competitive task. You don't want sailplane racing to be about who has the highest personal risk tolerance.

It goes for takeoff and climb out in strong winds as much as judgements about how to task so that the competitors aren't sent into harm's way (in this case extensive OD and driving rain) out on course with tasks that are too constrained for the conditions.