On Friday, June 20, 2014 8:28:43 AM UTC-7, Papa3 wrote:
The rules already address why the day wasn't "devalued"; 100% of the competitors who attempted the task completed. Nobody except AV8 made a marking distance.

No disagreement that there was no devaluation because the published rules required no devaluation.

The devaluation rules require an understanding of the term "contestant".

11.1.1 A Contestant is a regular entrant whose Scored Distance (Rule 11.2.3) is greater than zero.

The situation is complicated by:

11.1.3 A valid competition day is a day on which every regular entrant is given a fair opportunity to compete, and at least 25% of
Contestants achieve a Scored Distance not less than the Standard Minimum Task Distance.

and

11.2.3.5 Scored Distance is zero if:
* The pilot has no valid start time (Rule 10.8).
* The pilot lands at the home field (or the pilot of a motorized sailplane used the power unit after launch) and the distance
calculated above is less than half the Standard Minimum Task Distance.

Since standard min task distance is 50 miles there would have been a huge difference in the R9 day 1 scores if a few of the pilots had managed 25 miles. These pilots would have qualified as "competitors" and caused the day to have been invalid.

Something to consider on the next thunderstorm day or when the rules come up for revision.

Andy (GY)