After hearing about this event from several of my buddies who were
there, I wrote the rules committee with my views on it. As usual,
these are suggestions, not a campaign platform, and I'm curious what
others think of them.

Short version: keep the 5 mile safety finish as is. Expanding it adds
a hornets nest of problems and just turns the race into a crapshoot.
Add an explicit provision that the CD may call off the task, even if
the start gate has opened, if it is impossible to complete the task
safely or legally. I wasn't there, so I don't know if this was the
right decision at Cesar Creek, but the events suggest that this is a
tool the CD should have

Here's what I wrote the RC:

No need to rehash here the events of Cesar Creek this year. Last
year, Cesar Creek also had two days of severe thunderstorms with mass
landouts, and similarly miraculous lack of major damage. The
thunderstorm day at Tonopah 15M is also relevant for our thinking
here. I gather there were also a few days at Uvalde 15M in which lines
of thunderstorms blocked legs, and many pilots who finished did so by
taking substantial risks.

Proposal: Explicitly allow the CD to call off the task, even if the
start has opened.

The CD has this authority now, since there is no rule against it. If
anything happens, you can be sure that the FAA, NTSB, and lawyers will
think the CD had the authority to get on the radio and stop the race.
Let's clarify this fact so that worrying about the rules doesn't cloud
what is already a hard decision for CDs.

I know that some people will worrry that CDs will be too quick to call
off the task. For that reason, and because few CDs will have much
personal experience with this kind of rare extreme weather, the rule
should come with explicit guidelines in the CD guide or the appendix
to the rules. I'd write this:

The task should be called off if it cannot be completed safely and
legally. Examples include widespread thunderstorms, squall lines,
tornadoes, strong turbulence, extensive IFR conditions, or extreme
winds, that pilots cannot avoid, either because such conditions block
a mandatory leg, or because they will cover the 5 mile safety-finish
radius around the finish airport.

The point is both to encourage pilots to land rather than press on in
such conditions, and to ensure a fair contest. We don't want to award
points for flying in obviously dangerous conditions such as these.

Isolated thunderstorms are avoidable, an accepted part of contest
soaring, and should not cause cancellation of the task, even if pilots
must make substantial detours to avoid them, or wait for them to
pass. The safety finish should be used rather than day cancellation
if the airport is unsafe, but safe conditions exist within 5 miles of
the airport. Task cancellation should be reserved for unsafe or
illegal weather, not weak weather.

The task should not be called off once the minimum time of a TAT or
MAT has expired, or once any pilot has completed an assigned task. In
these cases, canceling the day is unfair to pilots who recognized the
potential for severe weather and started early. It was possible to
complete the task. Task cancellation should not unfairly reward late
starters.

When there is the potential for severe weather, the CD should monitor
weather radar and reports. In such conditions, the CD is encouraged to
report severe weather by radio to pilots, and to allow pilots to relay
this information.

Of course, pilots must bear the ultimate responsibility for the
decision to abandon the task in severe weather, and should be reminded
of this fact. The CD cannot evaluate conditions on course as well as
pilots can do so. The fact that the CD has not called off the task is
no guarantee that conditions are safe!

(end of suggested guidelines)


I do not like the idea of expanding the safety finish, which is a
competing proposal for dealing with this issue. First of all, if it's
unsafe in the last 5 miles, it's probably not that great in the last
10 miles either. Second, this doesn't deal with squall lines etc. on
course, or widespread bad weather. Third, the fundamental point is
fairness - the day should be canceled, really, because it's unfair to
race in blatantly dangerous conditions. If we open the "finish" to 10
or even 20 miles, or suddenly allow people to drift downwind for
distance points, we make a mockery of the race. The poor guy who
sacrificed a lot of speed to get upwind and make the 1 or 5 mile
finish, or set up to get around the thunderstorm, now gets destroyed
if the gamblers who went downwind suddenly get a break and don't have
to make the last 10 or 20 miles. If we have to resort to these sorts
of "finishes", we should just get out of the business of racing and
awarding points.

I worded this rule as "call off the task" not "call off the day". At
Tonopah, the right thing to do was to recall the gliders, do a roll
call that everyone had made it back, and then attempt a new task off
to the southwest, where conditions were fine. It might not work; you
might not get everyone back for a fair start. But the rules should not
disallow it if it can happen.


John Cochrane