A fair opportunity to compete?

On Jul 14, 7:51Â*pm, "Tom" wrote:
I figured I better let some time pass before I chimed in since I was on the
short end of the ruling at Parowan.

1 - I have no problem with the protest since the rule allowed it.

2 - I have no problem with the decision of the committee and felt they
upheld the rule.

3 - I have no problem with Charlie opening the gate when he did so per the
rules.

Everyone was correct. Â*The rub is the rule itself. Â*This rule punished
competitors that flew well (in this case a vast majority of the field) and
benefited those that landed out / back or choose not to fly. Â*It is
frustrating to have 4 hours negated to zero.

To make matters worse, the Sports Class was moved to the end of the grid the
next day since the 15 and 18 meter guys did not have a contest day. Â*Hello!?
Neither did Sports. Â*Separate topic, but if you fly Sports at R9 you will
not receive the same attention to detail as the FAI guys. Â*Our starts are
historically called poorly and until this year we always launched last.

All week long in the pilot's meeting we were reminded that competition
pilots represent a very small percentage of soaring people. Â*Reading RAS and
going through this last Region 9, it is clear that crappy rules and scoring
that requires a degree in mathematics will probably keep this number in the
same range in the future.

Can't bitch without making suggestions right? Â*Two rule suggestions -

1 - Change the rule so that if a majority of the field scores, adjust the
competitor's score that was not able to start. Â*Instead of bringing 20 some
scores down to zero, adjust 1 or two scores up.

2 - As suggested in other posts, change the call when the gate opens.
Opening the gate 15 minutes after the last competitor starts the t/o roll is
not viable.

Tom Dukerich Â*OD2

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the rule states:

10.1.5 Task Opens - at a time designated by the CD, about 15 minutes
after the last competitor who accepts his designated launch starts his
takeoff roll.

I.e. the CD has the discretion to delay the opening of the task for
whatever reason. The suggested 15 mins is the nominal time for the
last launch to have a reasonable opportunity to get as good a start as
the first launch. The premise of the race is that everyone gets the
same opportunity to start at the same earliest time from the same
location if they desire (eliminating the luck of the grid draw as a
significant factor).

An alternative would be to allow a start immediately off tow and
virtually never cancel the day once the launch starts, in which case
the luck of the grid draw would be a big factor - so are we measuring
skill or luck?

Should Charlie have held the gate opening? It's easy to say yes with
20/20 hindsight but it was not necessarily easy to tell at the time.
The nullification of a day after it has been run is an exceptional
action justified only by "force majure" circumstances. In this case
we all judged in retrospect that we had not set a mostly level playing
field and if those most affected had performed near their average for
the prior two days it would have materially affected the leadership
positions.
..
Second, there is currently in the rules a (to date unused) provision
for "worst day score adjustment" in regionals.

11.4.4 â€* Worst Day Score Adjustment
If this is declared to be in effect, an adjustment is calculated and
added to the cumulative score of each entrant..

If you think the scoring formulas are complicated now, read the rest
of the rule.

QT