Why the 2011 U.S. National Competitions should be Cancelled

The Red Rocks National Paraglider competition is scheduled to begin on July 24th.  This is the first competition in the U.S. since the FAI / CIVL bombshell on Friday outlawed Competition Class paragliders in CAT 1 competitions and went on to, "Strongly recommend that this ban be followed in future Cat 2 events."

I'd like to explain the logic behind my title statement.   I know many won't agree, and I'd like to hear the reasons my logic is flawed.  This may turn into a long post, but it's not a simple issue.

The Problem:
The latest batch of Competition Class paraglider designs have demonstrated unstable/unrecoverable characteristics following a frontal collapse - this is particularly the case when accelerated.  This may be because of the stiffening structure which can lock the cravate, it may be the higher aspect ratios, or it may be the high speeds of the new designs.  It may be a combination thereof.  At this point the problem is undeniable that these wings feel stable and safe but they have negative tendencies after a normally recoverable collapse.  The attitude that "good pilots don't have a problem flying them" just doesn't work anymore - Many very high quality pilots are tossing their reserves and an undeniable number have died while competing on the world stage.

The Solution:
The manufacturers and their design teams have the talent to address the problem, and will do so when regulations are put into place that require healthy characteristics (as is the case with certified Serial Class gliders).  The market needs to require this also - The FAI has now ruled, with the changes to the Sporting Code, in an effort to motivate market and the manufacturers to fix the problem.  By requiring Certified wings in Cat 1 events and recommending them in Cat 2s (which are the qualifiers for Cat 1s) they are essentially leveling the playing field at a "safer" elevation of level.

Whether you agree with the decision or not, depends on your level of denial.  Make a mental journey outside paragliding for a moment and imagine the Red Bull Air Races allowed any type of aircraft design and a newer, faster, design emerged that was faster and more maneuverable - until it went unstable.  15 pilots bought the new design - they had to, to remain competitive.  The first event produced new records for speed and was even more thrilling.  But as the pilots got comfortable and began pushing the aircraft, things started happening and resulted in the loss of two pilots in one event.  Would the organizers and sponsors just shrug it off as, "Well this is extreme flying and these pilots knew what the risks were."  NO  There would be an inquiry and all flying would stop until a solution was formulated.  The loss of money would be many times the losses seen in our little sport.


Why the U.S. National Events should be Cancelled
Here's my logic path to the my conclusion.

1. The FAI has outlawed Competition Class wings in Cat 1 comps
2. Because Cat 2 comps (like the US Nats) are stages where WPRS and NTSS points are earned in order to qualify for Cat 1 comps, the FAI has "strongly recommended" that all Cat 2s also limit the field to Serial Class wings.
3. A pilot who qualifies for the World Championship team (Cat 1) using a competition class wing in the US Nats will have to fly a different (Serial Class) wing when competing in the Cat 1 event.  This isn't a good measure of the pilot or his 'system' to compete at the worlds. 
4. If the U.S. Nats go counter to the recommendations of the FAI, the liability to the US Nats organizers, USHPA, and any Sponsors who can be shown to benefit from the flying of the event is quite high. 
5. If the organizers decided to make it a "Serial Class Competition" in accordance with the FAI recommendation, many of our top pilots would be competing on unfamiliar wings and/or not competing at all, which would allow points to go to lesser pilots and skew the NTSS for the next worlds in 2013.  
6. This is a decision that puts the meet's fate between a rock and a hard place.  I've found that, when in this position, the conservative decision is usually the best one.  The negative ramifications of another death or multiple incidents are not good for the sport and could be viewed in hind sight as foolhardy.
7. Therefore the U.S. Nationals, which are scheduled for July 24th, should be cancelled. 

This is not a good outcome.  Pilots have made plans, bought tickets, and contracts have been signed by the organizers. But it pales in severity and financial consequence to the impact the FAI decision had on the 120 World's Championship competitors, who had traveled from all over the world.  The decision makers need to sit back and consider how hard those decisions were to make - knowing that the world was watching and that there would be a serious backlash of emotions and disagreement.  Yet, it was made for the right reasons.

The XC Open Series has now chosen to comply with the FAI recommendation and is only allowing Serial Class competitors.

Admittedly, there may be some unintended consequences following the FAIs ruling.  But it's a step in the right direction and I, for one, am glad that they stepped-up and made the tough call.   The right thing for the U.S. to do is a "stand-down" for the season and allow the system to reset so that when the team selection is made, 2 years from now, no unfairness can be asserted.

Agree?  Disagree?  I've never been higher than the top-20 in the NTSS and wasn't planning to go to the nat's this month.  And I'm not the smartest guy in the room.  I'm open to other viewpoints and will gladly publish those with merit to this site.

Tim

World Championships Cancelled and Comp Gliders Outlawed

In a dispatch from one of the US Team Pilots:

"The FAI, ... has instituted an immediate ban on competition class paragliders in Cat 1 events, and has strongly recommended that this ban be followed in future Cat 2 events.


Due to this FAI rule making, the organizers have ended the competition. The competition is valid under the rules, and prize giving will be tomorrow afternoon."

And here is the official announcement from the Competition Organization:

As a result of the tragic events in the second task of this FAI event, and after due consideration of all the information available, the CIVL Bureau has decided, under its executive powers, and with the full support of the FAI Executive Board, to suspend the certification of Competition Class Paragliders, with immediate effect. As a result, the organisers have decided that it is not possible to continue with further tasks that meet the aims of World and Continental championships, as set out in the FAI Sporting Code. The two tasks flown to date are both valid under the rules and are therefore sufficient to meet the minimum requirements set out in Section 7B. The 12th FAI World Paragliding Championship is therefore considered to have been validated. The closing ceremony and prize-giving will be held tomorrow, Saturday, 8th July at 1pm in the main square. The CIVL President has thanked the safety working group formed by the pilots and team leaders, for all their work on developing ideas to improve safety. He believes there are some very useful ideas there that we hope the relevant CIVL subcommittees will follow up. The Jury President, Vitor Pinto, and other CIVL Officials present have stated that, the organising team has made every effort to comply with the FAI Sporting Code which covers all aspects of competition rules and safety considerations for FAI 1st Category events. These include the new and complex rules introduced this year for Competition Class paragliders. “We greatly appreciate the excellent work of the organisers and we are all deeply disappointed that, through no fault of the organising team, that this competition has resulted in such a sad outcome, ”Mr Pinto commented. Competition Director, Steve Ham, also announced that the organising team is preparing a bid to run the first FAI World Paragliding XC Championship in Serial Class , here in Piedrahita at this time next year, “The CIVL President has told us that he welcomes the proposed bid and that the CIVL Bureau will be favourably disposed towards it,” he said.

Jose Luis Diaz Iraeta – Event Director Steve Ham – Competition Director

Wow - Seminal moment indeed.  I hope this disappointing decision (at the moment) has an overall positive effect on our sport.

Congratulations to the US team for representing the US with skill and professionalism.

Fly Safe -
Tim

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Piedrahita, Spain - No Fly Day

The mood in Piedrahita is a somber one.  At 10AM an open pilot meeting was held with pilots and Team Leaders to discuss their feelings about whether or not this competition should continue after the 2 fatalities and numerous reserve rides yesterday.  Conditions during the second task of the competition have been described as "level 1" (no hazards due to wind or turbulence) - in fact, the organizers, in a follow-up message called them "mild."  They went on to describe the incidents in a bit more detail -

In the first incident, the pilot was flying low along the ridge. The glider was seen to suffer a frontal collapse, horseshoe and fall in a stable parachutal stall. Close to the ground, the wing spun and the pilot impacted the ground. No reserve parachute was deployed.
In the second incident, the pilot was flying towards goal at altitude. The glider was seen to suffer a frontal collapse, immediately followed by a large cravat and high velocity spin. The reserve parachute was not deployed before the pilot impacted the ground.

The consensus expressed by the teams, even the Chilean and Argentine teams, was to continue to fly the comp. The Competition organizers and FAI officials, although refraining from making their decision until later this evening, must be very concerned that any additional events would be very detrimental to the sport and to the sportsmen and women participants. If a day with benign flying conditions can result in more than 6 situations requiring the use of the reserve parachute, how can the organizers contemplate tasking a day with more challenging weather? It's not an easy situation to evaluate due to the emotions of the moment and the liabilities of a less than conservative decision. Final decision should be made by Thursday noon PST.

In what I view as an interim band aid, there are considerations being made to "throttle back" the speed systems of the 2-liners to minimize the potential of collapse while on speed. Since yesterday's events occurred on more than one brand of wing, the problems appear, at first blush, to be systemic to the 2-liner design - A design that feels rock-solid until the wing goes away, but is unstable and unpredictable during attempts to recover to normal flight. It's been my observation that the pilots, with skills and experience on comp ships of the past, have the 'old-school' mindset that collapses can be flown away from, even at mid to low altitude - the way it was on prior wings. The evidence indicates that present-day 2-liner wings necessitate a willingness - a necessity even - to throw the reserve before the ineffective wrestling match.

Mads Sydergaard's comments are heartfelt and his explanation for leaving the comp but still fly the 2-liners shows the raw dichotomy of the situation. Things WILL change after this - it is a seminal moment. Maybe some good will come from this tragedy.

It's been a very sad week for Paragliding as a sport. Xavier Murillo is still missing in Peru and the loss of life in Spain necessitates consideration of the cancelling the World Championships.

I love this sport. It has allowed my eyes to view panoramas and experience joys that no other activity could. But this is a sad time.

Fly Safe,

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Task 2

Click for larger graphic

Task Two at the PG World Championships was a 77Km task to Avila.  Conditions were forecast to be a bit lower top-of-lift than yesterday.   This will come as a relief to those pilots who were buoyed over the 10000' ceiling during yesterday's task and received a "0" score for their efforts.

Here are two graphics showing the airspace issues that the task setters and pilots are working around.


The LIVE LEADER BOARD shows the provisional ranking as scoring is tabulated.  Scores for Task 2 will be posted at http://www.piedrahita2011.com/piedrahita2011/taskReports. . . 

At this moment (1400 PDT) the Competition website has been taken down.  A request to the PG Forum was made to lock the world championship thread.  This was done (and has since been relaxed) due to the extremely unfortunate occurrence of two separate accidents (separated by 70K and 2 hours) that resulted in the death of pilots from Argentina and Chile.  In a release put out by the Piedrahita Staff they wrote:  

2011, Piedrahita

It is with great regret that the organisers have to announce that there were
two serious accidents during the competition task today. The first accident
occurred at approximately 14.00. Argentinian pilot, Francisco Vargas
crashed into the hillside a few kilometres from launch. Emergency services
were called to the site, but the pilot died at the scene.

The second accident occurred at approximately 16.00 in the Avila area.
Chilean pilot Eitel von Muhlenbrock lost control of his paraglider and crashed.
Emergency Services arrived swiftly, but the pilot died from his injuries.

Next of kin of both pilots have been informed.

We do not yet know the cause of either of the accidents, but an investigation
to determine the sequence of events is already underway by the event
organisers, together with Safety representatives of the FAI and the local
police. As soon as we have further information, we will issue another
statement.

There were three further minor incidents today, involving the deployment of
reserve parachutes. All three pilots landed safely and were uninjured.

The organisers wish to extend their deepest sympathies to the families and
friends of both Francisco Vargas and Eitel von Muhlenbrock.

Jose Luiz – Event Director
Steve Ham – Competition Director

My heart goes out to those who are left behind by these great pilots. Tomorrow will surely be a day of mourning on the hill in Piedrahita.

Rumor has it that there may have been many more than the "three" reserves thrown in what the Piedrahita note called "minor incidents" today. This will undoubtedly rekindle the simmering debate about 2-liner wings that are rock-solid until they stop flying, but become unrecoverable. This necessitates the use of the reserve which is a "last-chance" option. If the rumored number of reserves were actually used during today's task, it would indicate that we had about a 5-7% usage of this last chance option, on this day alone. No details about the accidents/incidents today are available, and it would be irresponsible to speculate on the causes at this time.

Provisional results indicate Josh Cohn was the top US pilot at 13th, and Jack Brown was next at 41st. Brad was 58th. Melanie landed at 34K for 12th in the women's class.

Fly Safe -

Tim

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Task 1

It sounds like the first task was a doozy - 153Km! The conditions provided for some fast XC with final glides over 110KPH and average speeds over 45 KPH. Airspace bit more than 30 pilots who either clipped some of the airspace protecting arrival and departure paths to airports, or exceeded the 3048M ceiling.

Josh Cohn tied for third place (and racked up the highest leading points for the day) while Brad Gunnuscio scored 902 points for 28th place. Jack and Melanie had disappointing flights, landing before goal.

Read the play-by-play at http://usaparagliding.blogspot.com/

Scores are at:
Day 1 Task Provisional Results

• Open Provisional
• Team
• Women

I'm looking forward to some great flying by the US team - they are in 3rd place.

Tim

Practice Day in Piedrahita

Brad Gunniuscio has passed along this bit of video.  You can see the terrain and conditions are looking excellent for the first week of the comp.

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Piedrahita, Spain

 The 12th Paragliding World Championships begin on Tuesday the 5th of July in Piedrahita Spain.  The weather forecasts look good and you can expect some long tasks.  147 pilots from all over the world are registered.  For those who are keeping track, the newest 2-liner offerings will be well represented.  In an obvious display that Ozone is producing the most well rounded competition wing, there are 71 Ozone Mantras (9 R10s and 62 R11s) registered.  In addition there are 24 Gin Boomerang 8s - 10 Niviuk Icepeak 5s - 7 SOL Tracer TR2s -  5 Axis Mercurys - 3 UP Edge XRs and a hand full of Serial Class wings like my Gradient Avax XC3 (3).

The U.S. Worlds Team consists of Team Leaders Jeff Huey and Rob Sporrer


Our Team Pilots are Brad Gunnuscio, Josh Cohn, Jack Brown, and Melanie Pfister



Good luck guys!  Fly hard & fly safe -

The U.S. Team Blog can be viewed at http://usaparagliding.blogspot.com/

You can still donate to the team at http://www.usparaglidingteam.org/donate.html

You can keep an eye on the proceedings using the links below.  Thanks to Tom Payne for making these links readily available.

Official sites
Home page
Live tracking
Pilot list

Blogs
in English: Steve Ham (Organisation) : Team Australia : Jack Brown (USA) : Andre Rainsford (RSA) : Mads Syndergaard (DEN) / Bob Drury (XC Mag)  Brett Hazlett (CAN)
in French: Elisa Houdry (FRA) : Charles Cazaux (FRA) : Jean-Marc Caron (FRA)
in German: German Team : Swiss Team
in Spanish: Raul Penso (VEN)

Serial v. Open Class Revisited

The annual discussion flurry about "Serial V. Open Class Competitions" has flared up this month. . . The ignition point was a letter of resignation from Mark Hayman to Brit team leader Kitt Rudd. In it Mark criticized CIVL for making banal rule changes that essentially did little to improve safety.

Mark writes: “I know, living in the real world, that every time I attach an uncertified two-line glider to my body I am increasing my risk substantially of having an accident over flying a certified wing.”

Mark was participating in Valle de Bravo in 2009 when he watched Stefan Schmoker wrestle with a low collapse and make a fatal impact.  Mark also had a brush with mortality when he had a major event on his R10.2 that included lines wrapping around his neck as he descended under his reserve.

His message has been loud and clear. . . and, as many times happens when one raises the flag of caution, his message seems at times, to be somewhat overstated -  Perhaps so his voice is heard by the resistant masses of enthusiastic pilots who enjoy the sport as it is.

R10.2 line plan

Marks' main point seems to be that the new crop of 2-liner wings are being accepted by CIVL, and being flown by every wanna-be comp pilot, with only a superficial examination of the flying characteristics of these wings.  The prevailing views seem to be that the current crop of 2-liners (essentially a row of A-lines at approximately 25-30% chord - and B-lines at 60% chord) are very collapse resistant when flown well.  The problems become apparent after the wing goes away - the recovery characteristics are just plain bad.  Where as an EN-D (certified) glider is required to recover with proper pilot input, the 'open-class' uncertified wings aren't required to demonstrate recovery.   It's not uncommon to hear of 2000'+ cascades before the wing recovers or the excitement is terminated in a reserve toss.  Mark is simply asking, as am I, IS THIS REALLY THE KIND OF AIRCRAFT BEHAVIOR THAT WE WANT TO PROMOTE?

I've been flying a long time.  I've flown all kinds of aircraft.  But I've always known that if the aircraft departed from "normal flight attitudes" that I could recover without the need to bail-out.  Even the homebuilts - the early fiberglass competition sailplanes that had marginal stability - the 2nd generation swept-wing jets that required 'skills' - they all displayed a required, predictable level of safety and handling.  Mark's primary message is that this is not the case when flying the open-class wings of the last 2 years.

The argument to Mark's point, is that the "good" pilots have no problem on the new wings.  I agree that with the right set of skill, judgment, and luck a good pilot can successfully fly the new wings without incident.  But is that a healthy attitude when considering the sport as a whole?  Let's look at US pylon racing in the 1930s - Speed and performance ruled - The good pilots lived the longest, but even they couldn't fly aircraft that had negative stability and couldn't survive minor equipment failures without fatal consequences.  To compete with the fastest "good" pilots, many other pilots flew similar *dangerous* aircraft and died trying.  Was that the fault of the pilots, or the system that allowed dangerous machines in the air and required others to compete on that "level" playing field?


Pylon races, in spite of their popularity, didn't survive the carnage of 1933 - 1940 and the interuption of a couple of world wars.  Now the few races that are staged in the US are very highly regulated and safety is highly regarded.

So the question becomes one of scale and philosophy.  How many accidents/incidents are to occur before Mark's cautionary message becomes valid?  In my case, he's preaching to the choir. 

In a parallel logic path, the DHV in Germany is making some important moves that may get the parade moving in the right direction. Jorge Ewald translates -

From a post on the German Forum by Ulrich Prinz:

* DHV recognizes the harmonic community of Serial and Open Class pilots in Germany as a good model that may be applicable for FAI-1 events as well: Introduce a Serial class in parallel, crown a Serial Class World Champion. This would prevent pilots from lower qualification countries from giving in to the temptation to fly in the Open class, just to remain competitive. Hence the DHV will now work on the international level to introduce the Serial Class in parallel, rather than to get rid of the Open class. [which is a complete paradigm change, as far as I can see. Great, Mark Hayman - given he stays away from bikes and stairwells long enough to heal - may have a glorious come-back. Mads and other PWC old-timers may feel like after an involuntary ride in a De Lorean, though...]

* DHV (especially Charlie Jöst, their president) will task the DHV technical department with finding new test criteria for competition wings (in collaboration with the other testing houses). This because it is now understood that today's testing criteria are not applicable to competition wings, which were built for actively piloting pilots

It's great to see a European entity, with an official acronym, working in a reasonable fashion to actually make some positive changes in the way Serial class is viewed.  Stay Tuned!

Tim