25 September 2011

Best Of Diadems VS Worlds

Back to the European stories now:)
Возвращаюсь к европейским историям, их несколько осталось.

While I was competing in the Best Of Diedams, I was thinking about how much better this competition felt than then Worlds to take part in. So, I decided to make a little table and compare the upsides and downsides of these two comps. We could compare almost any other competition with the Worlds (Dutch, Slovenian, French), and we would see pretty much the same picture, I think. Keep in mind, that this is only my personal opinion, so please don't be offended:)
Во время коротких австрийских соревнований я думала, насколько эти соревнования лучше, чем Чемпионат Мира. По всему - по организации, по духу, по цене. Практически любые другие соревнования, в которых я когда либо участвовала, были лучше, чем этот ЧМ. Хотя я и не жалею, что поехала на ЧМ - главным образом потому, что мы жили в совершенно восхитительном итальянском доме. Ну и плюс все-таки полезно было увидеть в действии дельтапланерных чиновников. Вот, составила сравнительную табличку (в русском переводе сразу следом за английской версией).

  Worlds Best Of Diedams
Entry fee 450 euro 80 euro
~Lift to the launch Not included in entry fee Included in entry fee
~Retrieve Not included in entry fee Included in entry fee
~Lunch Included in entry fee Not included in entry fee
Days to stay in hotel ~20 ~3
Tasks 2 2
Pilots 150 38
Take off procedure Chaos on the launch despite lots of staff, two years of preparations and all the rules followed. Pretty clear
Quantity of the guys uploading GPS tracklogs 2 guys for 150 pilots 2 guys for 38 pilots
Attractions for the tourists and mass media ~Live-tracking in Internet
~Opening and closing ceremonies
~Interviewing by Mass media
~Live-tracking in Internet
~Big Screen Live-tracking with commentator on the goal field
~Two Hang gliding simulators on the goal field for tourists
~Tandems for tourists
~Food & music on the landing field
~Interviewing by Mass media
~Closing ceremony
Helpful staff There were lots and lots and of staff, but only a few speak English. Even less could help. All the important questions were to decide by Italian Team Leader:) Four guys were enough for everything.
Conflict of interests Very questionable.
~Meet director = Italian team leader (lots of pilots didn't really trust the live-tracking devices then).

~There were lots of discussions about organizers might be playing on the side of Italian team

~Possible Unfairness towards different manufactures: Aeros HAD to fly with certified spogs, while other manufactures just wrote the numbers they thought are good enough. Moyes & WW were carefully checked for being non-prototypes gliders, but the inspectors looked the other way while checking the prototypes from Icaro (there was constant gossip among all the pilots saying that some Icaro gliders were having longer crossbar and foam, which are not certified modifications).

~Possible unfairness towards different pilots: everyone had to fly in certified helmet. But only one was not allowed in. Others could do big modifications, which obviously makes helmets not certified anymore (such as - big holes, bolts for the camera, holes for the headset, taking foam out because the helmet was too big, cutting some parts out because the helmet was too noisy). I heard a few times from different people that one of the pilots actually passed the "exams" with the Lubin helmet with the fake certification sticker on it. When the steward later said that they didn't see any modified helmets - it can not be truth, as my helmet passed and it was very visibly modified.
No conflict of interests detected
Competence ~ Questionable competence in weather estimations: wrong launch picked.

~FAI steward seemed to forget her job:), and instead of being a steward and the pilots advocate, was only policing and arguing with the pilots,

~Meet director allowed policing not policable rules (helmets for instance: nobody checked if the helmet was modified too much, had foam out, big holes; or if the helmet already had a major damage).
Tasks were longer than the weather conditions allowed. Conditions were rather poor.


  ЧМ Best Of Diedams
Стартовый взнос 450 евро 80 евро
~Подъем на гору Не входит в стартовый взнос Входит в стартовый взнос
~Подбор! Не входит в стартовый взнос Входит в стартовый взносe
~Обеденный сэндвич Входит в стартовый взнос Не входит в стартовый взнос
Сколько дней все это было ~20 ~3
Сколько тасков 2 2
Количество пилотов 150 38
Процедура старта Несмотря на несколько дней обсуждений процедуры старта, в первый же день на старте был хаос в связи с тем,что стартовые комиссары сами не поняли, что от них требуется Тут все понятно
Количество ребят, сливающих треклоги с наших GPS Двое на 150 пилотов, причем оставлять свой GPS и уходить было нельзя Двое на 38 пилотов, прекрасно хватало, и можно было оставить, если что.
Меры по привлечению туристов и газетчиков ~Можно было следить за пилотами он-лайн(если знаешь ссылку)
~Красивые церемонии открытия и закрытия
~Интервью
~Можно было следить за пилотами он-лайн(если знаешь ссылку)
~Можно было следить за пилотами на большом экране на посадке
~Вокруг бегал комментатор и бурно следил
~Два дельтапланерных симулятора активно катали туристов
~Для самых смелых работал тандем:))
~Также была музыка и еда на посадочном поле
~Ну и интервью брали
~И церемония закрытия тож симпатичная была
Конфликт интересов Под большим вопросом.
~Директор соревнований был по совместительству тим-лидером итальянской команды.

~Было очень много людей, считавших, что организаторы играют на стороне итальянской команды.

~Под большим вопросом справедливость и равноправность по отношению к разным производителям.
Пилоты Аероса были единственными, кто обязан был летать с сертифицированными антипикухами! Остальным производителям разрешили просто написать те числа, которые они лично считают безопасными (ниже сертифицированных).
Аппараты топ-пилотов Мойеса и ВилсВинга проверяли очень дотошно на то, что аппарат не прототип, не какая-то новая версия, а стандартный. Аппарат Герольфа проверяли весь день, так боялись.
Зато на то, что двое топовых Икаровских пилота летали на очевидный прототипах, организаторы закрыли глаза и ничего не видели.

~Под большим вопросом равное отношение к разным пилотам. Далеко не все летали в сертифицированных шлемах, но только один не был допущен до соревнований. Остальные летали в модифицированных шлемах, с отрезанными боковыми частями, с проделанными дырками и болтами для камеры, с вытащенным пенопластом (ну че, шлем а то маленький был). Один даже летал в том же шлеме, в каком Герольфа не допустили.
Конфликта интересов замечено не было
Компетентность ~Очень под вопросом компетентность при оценке погоды. Два дня были пропарены просто по некомпетентности организаторов в этом вопросе.

~Даже стюард ФАИ, работа которого помогать пилотам и быть на их стороне, забыла свою работу и только орала на пилотов по любому поводу.

~Директор соревнований был слабым. Он допускал любое тупое решение группы ФАИ. Допускал смену правил в неправильную сторону. Вы знаете, что те же самые правила про шлема были год назад на Чемпионате Европы? Но тогда директор просто поставил членов ФАИ на место ,сказав, что во-первых ни у кого нет квалификации проверять шлема на сертифицированность, во-вторых это он подписывал все бумаги по безопасности пилотов, а не ФАИ, и это не их дело ему указывать.
Тут можно только заметить, что до цели оба раза никто не долетел. Ну, не то, чтобы таск был длинный, просто погода слабая.

I don't want to seem a cold or ungrateful person when I talk about this year World Championship.

I am sure there were some people in the organization who took on their job because they love the sport and they try to do the best for the hang gliding. I thank them for that.

But...what do we really need for the good comps?
Competent task and safety committees. Cleverly organized take off and finishing procedures. Efficient downloading of GPS tracklogs. Fair competitions.
Was it there? Hmmmm....

Do we prefer to close our eyes on all this? Should we just blidnly be glad that at least somebody was ready to organize Worlds at the times, when FAI made it so expensive and unattractive for organizers to hold a first category event? When we see the Europeans happening in Turkey and no Women Worlds anymore, we might see that something wrong is happening with our sport.

I wonder, what if we would organize big event, something like Women World Cup, and there we would spend money not on FAI, but on attracting mass media to our sport. Hey, girls, would you come:)?


Я, наверное, кажусь очень холодным и черствым человеком, раз пишу такую критику. Обычно принято только хвалить организаторов.

Я уверена, были среди организаторов хорошие люди, любящие спорт и заботящиеся о пилотах. Им спасибо.

Но что нам действительно надо для хороших соревнований? Компетентный таск и сэйфити комитеты, нормальные условия на старте и посадке, не сильно долгую процедуру сдачи GPS, справедливые соревнования.

Вместо этого у нас были какие-то странные соревнования с упорами явно не туда. Хотя, может, мы должны быть довольны, что хоть кто-то вообще все еще проводит чемпионаты Мира, в то время, как ФАИ сделало настолько дорогим просто проведение первой категории (десять тысяч евро организаторы должны заплатить ФАИ + полностью все расходы по присутствию группы ФАИ на соревнованиях). И мы удивляемся, почему нету Чемпионата Мира среди женщин, и почему Чемпионат Европы где-то в Турции. Куда-то не туда движется наш спорт!

Мне интересно, если организовать интересные соревнования, с хорошей организацией, но без ФАИ, соревнования мирового уровня, где вместо взноса ФАИ мы вложим деньги в привлечение журналистов и рекламу спорта и пилотов, приедут ли пилоты? Вы приедите?

7 comments:

  1. Sure we would all come if you organize a world cup event for women! Just let us know when and where, and I will publish and promote it. Thanks for doing that!

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  2. Interesting thoughts. I honestly can't imagine how hard it would be to organise launching on Monet Cucco, the best launching hill in the world!! (even with 150 pilots).
    I recall the pre-worlds went quite smoothly?

    Everyone I spoke to said the sprog/helmet thing was a shambles. All we can hope now is that future organisers learn from these mistakes. There needs to be an organisation looking out for pilots...with rules that make sense and are fair to everyone (not favouring the home team)

    As for women's worlds...it would probably be expensive, but what about having it alongside the worlds comp at Forbes?? Everyone race together but scores are counted separately. Those women who are already in the 'mens' team also get counted in that team! So potentially one of us girls could hold the mens and womens title at the same time ;)

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  3. I am afraid, Kathryn, that if we have women comps along the men Worlds, that means that again only 2 women per country will be allowed and then again it will be not enough women to say that there was a Women World! Some countries don't have women,and some have up to six, so silly to not allow all the competitive women to come just because it is convenient to run together Women and Men Worlds.
    Also, as you can imagine, running the same task for women and men will result in finding not the best leader among women, but the best folower (as this will be the winning strategy then),which is also not good.
    Making the separate tasks, giving to women the separate timing, and giving to women the separate tow-line would probably end up in less focus on women even, and still would not solve the problem of not having enough women! Remember, not all the women like to be aerotowed!

    I heard, there might be a chance to run Women's World as a separate competition before the Men's World. This would be a solution, I think.
    We would have focus on us, we would have task which fits light pilots (as not flying strong head wind legs). We would really find a leader between women. And we would have more women!!! And it is cooler to advertise - the best women of the World are flying togerther;)
    This is what would be good for us, wouldn't it? What do you think?

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  4. Definitely the idea would be to have a comp that would allow any women who qualified for their country to compete, not just to limit it to 2 per team.

    I had not thought about women not leading out if we were in the same comp as the men. We don't have as good a glide as men so naturally we would fall behind and end up following by default. Valid and important point.

    I think we could have separate tasks, but we could still use the same tow line and not be relegated to the 'turkey line' (even though I'm sure Bill would love that ;)

    As for some women not wanting to tow. I understand it may be foreign to some mountain pilots, and maybe scary. But I also do not like short steep ramp European launches, but I know I still have to suck it in and get used to it :0
    To be a true women's champ surely we should have all the skills. Not just be the 'hill launching champion' or the 'tow champion'.

    You did suggest a good solution...run it before the mens comp. I like that idea. It still has its faults i.e. what about those women who are also in the other event and want to beat all the guys...too hard to do 2 back-to-back events?

    Hmmm.

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  5. Yes, I agree, women should learn to aerotow!

    So, we should try to attract as many girls as we can, and not to have again 7 girls and no Women Champion.

    But this is a good point about having two comps in a row for a few women. Could they do that?

    From what I see, it is much better for women to have separate competition, much much better from many points of view.
    (You also can have the men part of the national team to drive for you and support you;)

    But for a few women it could be not good. How many women really might qualify for Men's World?

    This year there were three.
    Next time, I suppose, it will also be Corinna and you.
    What would you think personally?

    I think, it is hard to fly second comp, especially if the first one was good, long, with many tasks.
    But, as for me, I would prefer to have good Women comps (and maybe fly more during Men's Worlds, If I happen to qualify) instead of having no really womens comps...

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  6. By the way, Corinna, if you still here, thank you for your comment and support!

    I am curious, what do you think about the subject we are discussing with Kathryn now?

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  7. The more I think about it, it would be better to ahve a separate comp for women. More fun for sure and it would have more of a bonding effect between us.

    So if there was a Women's Worlds in Forbes we would to to do many things:

    - approach Moyes to see if they are willing to help organise. The main comp starts on the 5th so we could maybe do it beforehand for 7 days.

    - guage the interest with all the women

    - sanction it

    I'm sure there are heaps of things that would need to be done...Corinna would know better than I what's involved.

    As for women entering the 'main' comp. 3 this year - not a lot, but for those who would qualify for both (you, Julia, Corinna), you would be the top women and we really want to race with the top women - if we do not have julia or corinna, it would be pretty sad.

    Personally I will not make the Aussie main team, I know that for sure, but I wouldn't mind flying some days with the guys after the girls comp.

    I'm excited at the thought of it happening now!

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