Phil Pritchard wants the pilots to decide on the rules
The main conflict and antagonisms that occur with regard to CIVL
are due to its structural faults. It is an organization setup to mainly sanction
World Championships, but it is run by people who are not active competition
pilots. Its delegates are most often not active competition pilots.
There is often quite a disconnect between what the pilots want in a World
Championship and what the CIVL delegates want. Pilots have been sent to sites
that are not appropriate for a world championship because of the activities of
entities other than the competition pilots.
One issue that Phil brings up is the conflict between the rules and their
application at competitions and what is in the best interest of the competition
and the pilots at the time. CIVL, the steward, the jury, and especially the Jury
President have only the rules as laid out by CIVL (and thereby the CIVL
delegates) to go by during a competition. The rules are inflexible and often
inappropriate for the actual competition. This is much more the case in World
Championships than in other Category 2 competitions.
Phil would suggest that the pilots have a say in the rules as they apply to the
competition that they are attending. As examples, he mentions that there are
often cases where the CIVL rules of eligibility keep a pilot who has come to the
Worlds from actually flying. Phil would ask that the pilots be asked and allowed
to vote on whether these pilots should be allowed to fly or not.
There are other instances (we can suggest looking back at a certain date in the
Worlds in Hay in 2005) where a flexible or innovative application of the rules
would have lead to a better outcome. Again involving the pilots in helping craft
that application of the rules would have been appropriate but not possible under
the current structure.
CIVL can continue to cause the level of dissatisfaction and conflict that it
currently does, or it can step back and realize that there has to be a better
way to reduce the antagonism. I suggest that at its Plenary meeting the
following be enacted:
"The pilots at a Category 1 competition may vote in their daily general pilot
briefing meetings to determine the outcome of any issue brought by a team to the
pilot meeting."
The safety committee called the day. Tove said that the reason was
not the launch conditions but that they felt that the combination of strong
winds and strong lift would make it too rough out on your flight.
I measured the winds at seven feet above the ground at a steady twenty two mph with
gusts to twenty six mph out of the north northwest. The cu's were popping,
likely at about eight or nine thousand feet.
Len Paton, who helps a bit with the weather for the comp, was the only safety
committee person to vote to launch. He has been a strong voice in the past for
setting wind speed limits.
The forecast was for forty one or forty two degrees today, and it was likely
getting close to that out on the runway.
The flight tracks can be viewed here using Google Earth:
http://ozreport.com/data/2006_Sportavia/tracks.kmz. Save the above to "My
Places" and it will automatically get updated daily as new flights are recorded.
The Oz Report, a website fanatically dedicated to all things hang gliding and
paragliding, has been implementing Google Earth functionality in some very
interesting ways.
Wind, the prospects for weak lift, and high temperatures keep us
grounded.
The wind was again twenty two mph gusting to twenty six. Again it
seemed like a mild breeze to me away from the trees. Unlike yesterday which was
obviously a booming day and much lamented that we didn't fly, no one really
cared that much today looking at the sky and the approaching trough.
The high temperatures undoubtedly had an effect on the temperament of the safety
and task committees.
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