On Sunday, August 10, 2014 2:01:55 PM UTC-6, John Cochrane wrote:
Granted devaluation is a mess, but this situation does not require a rules change. If the whole start zone has no lift, if many pilots cannot stay up, then the task should not be opened. If the task is opened anyway, the CD should cancel the task when it becomes clear that an unfair situation developed. If the CD does not cancel the task, pilots may protest. There is precedent from Parowan, when pilots at the end of the grid had no chance to start, and the protest was upheld.



11.1.3 A valid competition day is a day on which every regular entrant is given a fair opportunity to compete,...



10.8.1.2 After the announcement of task opening time, the CD should consult with the task advisors as to whether the selected task is fair and safe.



3.1.3.1 ... The CD ...is responsible to the SSA for insuring compliance with these rules and fair competition.



(also search about 5 other instances of "fair" in the rules)



You know the process, put in a protest ASAP.



John Cochrane

John,

I agree that a protest could be filed at this point, but I still think the rules need to be changed so that not all the responsibility is on the CD during a contest. With start calls no longer required at most contest the CD does not always know how many are on course or not until long after the gate is open. There were several that landed out only a few miles away but the CD did not know if they had started or not.

We also need some hard rules in the scoring for percentages that attempt, etc. that automatically devalue a day until it is zero if too great of a percentage of pilots can't attempt the task. I realize the program should work that way but right now if they don't make a minimum distance they are treated as if they did not try. So if only one or a few get away they get 1000 points rather than a few or none. The definition of a credible attempt may need to be changed to something less restrictive like those that turned in a flight log for the day.

I was one of the few that was not affected by the result but and I have friends on both sides that benefited and were hurt by the last day. Would be nice if we had hard rules so it felt fair to all and they didn't feel like someone had to rule for one group or the other.

Tim