World Championships 2010 - Day 6

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Today seems to be the worst day of all so far. It is foggy, rainy, and cold. Well, at least we’re at cloudbase 😉.

Yesterday, there was a big discussion here in headquarters. Flip and John, the two FAI representatives, had suggested to discuss several issues. One of them was why FAI did not admit a female Japanese pilot to the comp. The FAI had argued that she did not have the competition experience necessary for participating in a World Championship, the organisers of the Worlds wanted to admit her because they want to encourage women to fly comps, and because the pilot is very experienced and is an instructor. This turned into a general discussion on FAI rules. Another issue was sponsoring. The Worlds are sponsored by adidas, and the company has given a huge amount of money. So their logo is on the pilot numbers that pilots attach to their gliders. Genia had refused to do so, and written something about that on her blog. This opened up a huge discussion on the OzReport. So as you can see, there is a lot of, let’s say, politics going on here.

My personal highlight of the morning was talking to Mike Harker. Shaking hands with one of the pioneers is always very special. And talking to him was just fantastic. What an exciting life!

As for Klaus, Rebi and me, we went to the Timezone outlet store yesterday. Timezone is one of the sponsors of the German National Hanggliding Team. The clothes are everything but cheap, but you get good prices at the outlet store. That is in Rosenheim, a two hour drive from here. We came out of that store with four big bags. We had some nice lunch in the town of Rosenheim (bread stuffed with different toppings, yum!), then drove back to Schwangau.

In the evening, there was a fantastic party in the party tent. There was that group of locals performing traditional Bavarian dances again. I was amazed about how many young people are in that group. They performed a couple of dances, then they invited the guests to participate. They showed us how to do the dance, and we all had so much fun. In the end, the boys performed a pretty amazing sort of stunt show. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of that.

Eventually, the tent was closed, so we decided to go to a bar here in Schwangau. But at three, we had to go home. No chance of more dancing or hanging out. Anyway, it was a great evening 😊.

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Photos

View today
Fog, rain, cold.

FAI discussion 1
FAI representatives John Aldridge and Flip Koetsier, Meet Director Heather Mull.

FAI discussion 2
As you can see, a lot of pilots were interested in discussing several issues.

Timezone
The results of our shopping tour to the Timezone outlet.

Tasty lunch
Toasted bread with a topping of potatoes and thyme.

Party 1
Traditional Bavarian dancing group

Party 2
The traditional Bavarian dancing group again.

Comments

[Davis Straub]

No what came out of the discussion?
How much money from adidas? Where did it go? Logos? What came of that discussion? BTW discussion was held here: http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19940, http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19929, and here: http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19942

[Katha Turbostern]

Re: No what came out of the discussion?
We did not really find out where the money went. It was more a general discussion on how far sponsoring should go. I'll post your links in my next story, thanks, Davis.

[Davis Straub]

How about the logos discussion?
Was there some understanding/resolution of that? How did the competitors feel about the CIVL rules? Any drug testing going on?

[Katha Turbostern]

Re: How about the logos discussion?
I could not completely follow the discussion about the logos because I had some other things to do, so I don't know what the result was. I'll try to find out. Many of the competitors thought that the rule concerning the Japanese pilot who was not allowed to participate in the comp is not a good one because it hinders pilots from participating in a comp. So on the one hand, it is always said that there are too few (female) pilots that fly comps, but on the other hand, there are obstacles put in their way that make it too difficult for them. Therefore, some competitors thought that the rules were too rigid or inflexible. There is no drug testing, and there won't be any. At least it hasn't been announced.