Mike Meier <<Mike>>
from Wills Wing writes:

From the Oz Report – June 25th, 2014 – The 2014 Worlds – Day ONE
(originally from Corinna's blog):

It was very difficult and intimidating at times to fly around the course,
because we had to cross the lake of Annecy twice very low. I barely got
up to 1500m today, which is about 1000m above the goal. With not many safe
landing options on course and a significant northerly wind hitting the
valley, it was a fight to to this short sounding task.

I was lucky to get a really nice landing, while two other guys got badly
injured. Luckily Doc Arnold Nadlinger had also landed in that field and looked
after those guys immediately (broken pelvis and femur, the other one had an open
arm fracture). When I arrived, the ambulance was already there, taking the
guys to hospital. Alain, a very friendly guy of the organization team, helped me
after the landing, as the wind was howling through with up to 30km/h.

From the December 18th 2007 CIVL Pitch Testing Sub-Committee report, describing
“typical” competition conditions:

…the varied conditions of competition—sometimes strong winds, crossing long
distances with few landing fields, operations where thunderstorm or cloud
suck avoidance may be imperative, crowded thermals where handling is a premium…

Has it occurred to anyone in CIVL over the last seven years that perhaps
micromanaging, within ½ of one degree, competition pilots decisions about where
to set their sprogs may not be the most effective thing they could be doing to
improve competition safety?

The point being, I guess, that it seems that whether we’re talking about Valle
de Bravo or the valleys of Europe, the biggest dangers to competition pilots
seem to be coming from decisions made by competition directors about sites,
tasks and weather, and not about any documented problems with glider stability.
And yet, it seems that measuring sprogs is about the only thing that CIVL has
put any time or effort into.

The serious landing accidents have been described by the
organizers:

A British ATOS pilot and a French Sport pilot. They landed behind
big trees with a quite strong wind, so it was dodgy conditions.