End of Season Sunset Warning for SSA-OLC Participants

There are several factual inacuracies in this post, as noted below:

Yuliy Gerchikov wrote:
"Doug Haluza" wrote in message
oups.com...

As far as changing the rules, the sunset rule has been on the books for
longer than almost anyone can remember.

Doug, I think you know very well which rules I refer to -- and those are not
FARs. OLC has been designed and introduced as an open forum for the pilots
worldwide to share and compare flight traces online. Their rules
specifically said that they did not intend to police submitted traces for
airspace violations, etc. *That* is what has changed since SSA took over.

Actually, the OLC rules say they reserve the right to take action
against the pilot for airspace violations, if they become aware of it.
I have confirmed with the OLC International team that they do not wish
to sanction flights that the national OLC team does not wish to
sanction.

If you insist on quoting the rules, their rules, in particular, say (in the
most current version dated 7/13/2006 available at
http://www2.onlinecontest.org/regeln/2006/regeln.php): "10. Validation.
Flights and scores will be accepted if no objections have been filed against
them within 4 weeks after the corresponding weekly deadline". Why have some
scored flights much older than that been quietly disappearing lately? *That*
is what has changed since SSA took over.

The flights that have quietly disappeared were withdrawn voluntarily by
the pilots, once the problems were pointed out to them in private. Most
pilots have been quite reasoanble and decided to do the right thing.
Only two pilots have refused, and taken their position public on r.a.s.


Another example, from your own presentation: "SSA has exclusive rights to
OLC in US -- SSA Membership is now required." Makes me go Hmmm.... *That* is
what has changed since SSA took over.

The SSA did not make this [FAR] rule, they just decided not to ignore it.

Exactly, they *just* decided. Just like that. They *just* decided to go back
and check some of the flights for some of the violations and pull them.

No, the SSA has been checking since the beginning of the year, and
reporting to the SSA ExCom at their request. We did find one flight
early in the season that appeared to land too late in SeeYou, but not
when checked against the USNO, so no action was taken. We did not
become aware of any other cases until recently. No flights have been
"pulled" but flights that have received formal complaints that appear
to be valid have had the scores temporarily set to "null" and a note
added in the offiicial comments to avoid duplicate complaints.

If it is indeed true that "the [SSA] Board has directed [you] to look at
Sunset and Class-A", then, again, one has to wonder what rules will be
pulled out of the hat (or out of the FAR) tomorrow. I gave you some ideas
yesterday -- anybody on the Board listens?

Posting to r.a.s is not the proper way to put business before the
Board.

The aspect of it that strikes me most is that SSA came uninvited and took
over this great public resource, this open forum for pilots, and started
telling everybody what can and what can't be posted there -- and by whom.

SSA was invited by the OLC organizers to sanction the OLC-US which was
renamed the SSA-OLC. The two parties executed a formal Memorandum of
Understanding on July 7, 2005. SSA has not restricted who can post (but
only members will be elligible for awards). SSA has taken the position
that flights above 18,000' without a proper ATC clearance, or flights
after sunset without approved lighting should not be posted because it
could damage the SSA's working relationship with the FAA (and is also
unsporting conduct).

Here is an idea for you: why doesn't SSA take over the US part of
rec.aviation.soaring as well? You could make another presentation and tell
us that "SSA has exclusive rights to r.a.s. in US -- SSA Membership is now
required." While you are at it, why not put a big SSA banner with commercial
ads right on top of every posting. And then somebody on "the Board" could
decide that some things posted here are "damaging to the image of our
sport", and next thing we know is some appointed "SSA-r.a.s. Admin" telling
us "you must remove these postings from the r.a.s. because they make us look
bad as a group". This kind of things can be done to the Internet, you
know -- just look at China.

I'd like to send this new SSA-OLC dish back to the kitchen, and have my OLC
the old way, the way we grew to like it. SSA on the side, if you insist,
please, thank you. So that I can throw it away if I am being fed too much of
it to my taste.
--
Yuliy