FAI Gliding Commission
President Mr. Robert G. HENDERSON (New Zealand)
President of Honour Mr. Tor JOHANNESSEN (Norway)
President of Honour Prof. Dr. Peter RYDER (Germany) ryder@ifp.uni-bremen.de
1st Vice-President Mr. Eric MOZER (USA) emozer@deltamold.com
Vice-President Mr. Göran AX (Sweden) gran.ax@telia.com
Vice-President Mr. Vladimir FOLTIN (Slovak Republic) vladimir.foltin@lps.sk
Vice-President Mr. Axel REICH (Germany)
Vice-President Mr. Brian SPRECKLEY (UK) bgspreckley@compuserve.com
Vice-President Mr. Roland STUCK (France) RStuck@evc.net
Secretary Mr. Peter ERIKSEN (Denmark)
Aug 16, 2006
Sirs,
My name is Dale Kramer. I have had the honour of representing Canada at WGC2001 in South Africa and again at WGC2003 in Poland. I am writing to you in regards to a situation in Canada that I believe deserves your attention.
My recent goal has been to qualify to fly for Canada at WGC2008, in Germany. However, the events that transpired during and after this year’s Canadian National Soaring Championships have left me somewhat ashamed to have been associated with the contest. In fact, if positive change is not forthcoming, I would no longer be able to say that I would be ‘honoured’ to fly for Canada in Germany.
I should point out that I was declared the winner of this competition, and my final position is not affected by the issues I raise here. I am thus not seeking personal benefit, but rather to address what I believe is a serious problem in soaring competition in my country.
Here are the issues:
A competition day that appeared valid was cancelled after a protest from a competitor concerning the ability of all pilots to make a fair start.
The jury that ruled on this protest included three competitors, each of whose final placing in the contest was affected by the jury’s decision.
The jury did not review any of the flight logs for the day.
The protesting pilot and two of the three pilots who were on the jury refused to submit flight logs for the day in question (such submission is required by the rules).
Subsequent to this ruling, the jury refused to review a protest that I made, noting that the rules specify that pilots who fail to submit flight logs incur a penalty.
With the day in question cancelled and no penalties given for failure to submit flight logs, the contest was scored such that one of the three people on the jury came second and the protesting pilot came third.
A contest penalty of even 40 points for failure to submit flight logs would have taken both the second and third place pilots out of the top three. If the day remained valid (as I believe it would have had the jury examined all evidence and enforced applicable rules), all the pilots on the jury and the protesting pilot would have finished much further down the score sheet.
I contacted our NAC and suggested they consider removing their sanction of this event. They have decided it is not within their power to do so.
Why this should be a concern to the IGC:
Clearly, under IGC rules juries do not include competing pilots and a jury would not refuse to review a properly lodged protest. The jury and its actions were not fair nor did it act in the spirit of good sportsmanship.
It is easy to say that IGC rules do not apply here. Please do not do this.
The FAI Sporting Code, Annex A to Section 3, 1.1e states:
1.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE CHAMPIONSHIPS The
objectives are to:
e. Encourage the
development of safe operational procedures, good
sportsmanship, and fairness
in the sport of soaring.
I believe the IGC has the responsibility to
take action when its core principles are violated by a member country’s NAC
during their selection process. To
accept the entry of pilots selected by a tainted process is a dishonor to the
IGC and what it stands for.
This may seem strange coming from the pilot
who was declared the winner of that competition, and who is thus among those
likely to be selected for WGC2008.
Indeed, it has been suggested to me that since my placing is not
affected, I should let the matter drop.
My view is different: the integrity of a competition is of concern to
all. It troubles me to be declared the
winner of a competition that I believe fell short of basic standards of
fairness and sportsmanship.
What can be done:
I believe that with the backing of the IGC,
Canada’s NAC could be convinced to remove the sanctioning of the event. This would then provide the impetus for a
necessary and complete overhaul of the Canadian competitive soaring movement.
I also believe that the IGC needs to
formulate and publish a document that would provide future guidance to NACs
concerning basic rules, juries and appeal processes that should be adopted in
each country.
I would also like to point out that I have
contacted each of you directly since Canada’s IGC delegate does not believe
there was anything wrong with what happened at the contest. He was a competitor and is also the Chairman
of our Sporting Committee. He took the
position, at the contest, that the day in question was not fair (again, without
having reviewed the flight logs), that it was acceptable to have pilots on the
jury and that (despite specific wording in the rules to the contrary) the
pilots who did not submit flight logs should not be penalized.
I realize that this letter provides only a
summary of the events; I welcome your complete and detailed review of the
events if you so desire. Please contact
me with questions or requests for copies of documents that I have in my
possession concerning the events.
Sincerely,
Dale Kramer
10034 East Lake Road
Hammondsport, NY, USA
14840
Phone: 607-569-2738
P.S. I asked the FAI for all the email addresses of the people I addressed this letter to on Aug 6 through the web contact FAI page. To date I have received no reply.
Therefore this email was only sent to the 6 people I could obtain email addresses for by web searching.
If this email has reached any of you, could you please forward me the missing or incorrect email addresses so that I may send them their copy of this letter.