8 = Championship validation

Proposal from

Andy Phillips - GBR

Proposal title

Championship validation

Existing text

S10, 4.3.3

The title of champion shall be awarded only if there have been at least 6 separate valid tasks in the class and at least one task of each type (navigation, economy, precision) has been valid.

S10 ANNEX 3, 1.8.2

The title of Champion in any class shall be awarded only if there have been at least 6 separate tasks.

New text

Reason

With the huge amount of time and investment put into any championship by all concerned, it would be a disaster for it not to be validated, as it was in 2004 in Portugal. In 2011, both the PG and the HG Worlds only had two tasks each and the PG Accuracy Worlds only 4 tasks. All were validated. There is nothing to gain having the current rule, but a lot to lose.

In the event of poor weather forecast, a Meet Director is under great pressure to get his championship validated and may end up setting inappropriate or non-meaningful tasks. Even worse, he may start tasks in unsafe conditions; this was evidenced in a (later cancelled) task in Spain 2012 in which pilots were still being told by marshals to take off 15 minutes after sunset, even though there were already over 30 pilots in the air queuing to do their spot landing. Flying after sunset is illegal in Spain, but I believe the directors felt pressure to get a valid task to ensure a valid championship.

This proposal also addresses the discrepancy in the text between S10, 4.3.3 and Annex 3, 1.8.2.