The organisers, task setters, and PWC staff are always faced with the significant challenge of getting pilots off launch safely while minimising the pressure at launch, reducing stress of the start, and making the task fair for all competitors. Get one of these wrong and good intentions are not rewarded.
The trouble yesterday is that the collective intentions were good, but led to maximum stress at launch and the start with a significant proportion of the field feeling hard-done by. The combination of a large start cylinder with the first turnpoint placed on the far side of the start cylinder implied that to be competitive you had to fly almost twenty kilometers before the start window opened, on a day where conditions allowed a slow trickle of single launch opportunities. In other words, not all pilots could launch on time to make it across to the start.
....And so the war of words began soon after the task was flown and the goal buses were on the way back to HQ. To the credit of the goal setters (drawn from the experienced pool of top Brazilian comp pilots), Rafael Barros immediately apologised unreservedly for getting it wrong after the first complaint was posted on the whatsapp group.
What was less impressive was the pace at which the virtual shouting degenerated into mud-slinging. It was entirely regrettable to see Goran provoked into response after counter-response where threats were made.
The facts are that: despite setting the task to try and make it safe and telling pilots to launch as early as possible at the briefing, it was not possible to get everyone off quickly enough and many pilots were unhappy. Insisting that 'I told you so' does not make for harmonious cooperation between competitors and organisers.
Another disturbing turn was being told at the briefing that if pilots did not respect the rules of the air when joining a thermal with respect to turn direction, the turn direction would be dictated to us all day! In twenty plus years of world cup, this is a first.
I don't know if protests were lodged, but I think this will all blow over seeing as we get to fly close to 100km every day. That's why we're here remember? The best comment of all on the whatsapp group was some monkey satire about the lunch supplied at launch: "The bananas are too sweet".
As for team SA: Russell did us all proud screaming into goal a mere minute down with Jon and KJ late to the start and shutdown by shadow to narrowly miss goal. Russell is looking good at 24th overall.
I managed to take a tumble down the west slope tying my glider into knots that took half an hour to sort out, so my day was done before I even managed to launch. I took a slow glide into town enjoying a solitary lunch in a quaint little restaurant where I was further challenged with my limited Portuguese, I thought I had ordered chicken and rice but received pork and salad.
I am thankful for the discard system as I have the opportunity to redeem myself in the days to come.
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