A fair opportunity to compete?

On Jul 16, 5:15*pm, Don Johnstone wrote:
On 5 July, 19:40, John Cochrane
wrote:
Charlie's report on the ssa website says it was the last three pilots
to launch who could not stay up, which seems a significant detail. If
the first to launch can find lift, get away from the airport, and wait
to start, but there really is zero lift in the airport area when the
back half of the grid launches, then the decision seems reasonable --
from this very far distance.

Something I do not understand here, why was the fact that 3 pilots could
not stay up a problem, that frequently happens in comps in the UK and the
competitors relight. There surely is not restriction on starting once the
gate is open. Our rules specify that once the gate is open and the
competition has started competitors may take a launch until 1800hrs so
they have ample opportunity to compete if they do not suceed at first. Any
CD in the UK who allowed the cancellation of a comp day that had been
completed by the majority of the competitors because 3 pilots could not
stay up would very likely suffer total humiliation not to mention serious
abuse, both of which would be richly deserved.

While a CD in the UK will listen to what competitors are saying they DO
NOT take formal advice on conditions from competitors. We do have a non
competitor sniffer who relays back the conditions and of course we listen
to comments on safety matters. Competitors should not be used as advisors
in a formal sense, except on matters of safety, there is a huge conflict
of interest and the system is open to allegations of abuse.



I wasn't there but I think I understand the problem. This issue is
where does a CD draw the line.

Should the CD Open the Gate if a storm settles over the airport and
the last 3 competitors can not be launched?

How about if they can be launched but it is pouring rain in the drop
zone, with obviously no chance for them to climb out?

OK lets remove the rain but still obviously no chance to climb out.

The issue is even more of an issue at Parowan due to the distance of
the drop zone from the airport. If you can't climb immediately you
will land out. Even those that tried to move away from the bad weather
still ended up landing out.

On the day in question the conditions were obviously deteriorating as
they opted to cancel the launching of the following classes because
they were have a 100% relights/landouts. I wasn't there but I would
have to admit I would be seriously ticked off if I were leading the
contest and then were one of the last 3 to launch into conditions that
I obviously had no opportunity to climb out in. But I can also see
the point of the large number of contestants that were able to get
away in better conditions but then have the day scrubbed because only
a few gliders were not given the opportunity to get away. It is
unfortunate but in this particular situation I think scrubbing the day
was the appropriate thing to do. Of course not opening the gate to
begin with would have probably been the best thing, but I can see that
this might have been hard to see from any direction other than
hindsight. The CD probably didn't realize that all the glider
launching after a certain time were going to landout/relight until he
had already opened the gate.

Brian