The problem seems to be that the DHV certification standard produces dangerous small gliders with poor performance. You'll find out why here: http://www.ikaruspellicci.de/pitch.html (translated), thanks to Tomas.
Many manufacturers do not agree with the DHV testing and certification standard. The manufacturer's design standard (HGMA - hang glider manufacturers association) uses a coefficient that determines the pitch force based the glider's size. Small gliders need a smaller force to rotate the nose up in a dive, large gliders need a larger force.
Corinna has a problem (http://ozreport.com/13.094#1). She is a lightweight. She is on a small glider (as small as she can get.) In order to pass the DHV certification tests her small glider has to have her sprogs set higher than would be the case if the DHV certification standards took into account the fact that smaller glider do not require the same pitch up forces that large gliders benefit from.
To keep her glider from having high bar pressures at full VG (she only pulls it to 3/4rd's anyway) she wants to keep her sprogs as low as possible, and she set them two degrees below the DHV setting (which is allowed, at least so far). For this she is labeled by Klaus Taenzler as crazy (see guilty first, maybe innocent later, or maybe not).
Then as reported earlier, she "whacks" the glider and suddenly for no good reason her sprogs are too low and she has to raise them up and suffers not being able to pull in enough.
So do we want to make sure that small and women pilots have a special handicap when they compete? Is that the idea?
How karmic that the DHV certification procedures should be a special burden to their women's world champion.
Another knowledgeable reader writes:
The DHV has always used moment instead of a dimensionless coefficient Cm which makes it very hard to certify small gliders. The problem with the DHV/CIVL bureaucracy is that they are not good neighbors, that is they don't listen or compromise. As Hadewych van Kempen says, "The German DHV is convinced people only behave the way they are forced to behave."
