In the US the national team that goes to the Worlds in chosen by a
strictly objective procedure. You compete, you get points for your finish in the
competitions, you add up your best four meets for the two years proceeding the
Worlds, and you are either on the team or not. No one person or group intercedes
and chooses the team based on any subjective criteria. No politics. No
fighting. Just meritocracy.

Now, it may or may not choose the "best" team. There may be other objective
systems that could be used to choose the team. But it avoids many ugly personal
problems.

Now, Italy (and other countries) has a different system. Really diligent Oz Report readers will
remember that I reported many years ago about the fight between the Italian Aeroclub (their NAC, which is the official representative of all Italian sports
aviation to the FAI and CIVL) and the membership-based federation of hang glider and paraglider
pilots. Well, I've been told that the Aeroclub is completely in charge of determining
who goes to the Worlds (and who gets support) and the federation is cut
out of the matter (and many others, it appears).

In the US this would be like the NAA being in charge of choosing the US national
hang gliding and paragliding teams, as well as licensing all the hang gliding
and paragliding instructors and the USHPA would be left with the magazine.

I have been told that Flavio Tebaldi, organizer of the 2011 Worlds in
Montecucco, Italy, is also the person designated by the Italian Aeroclub to
choose the Italian national team (and three additional Italian pilots to
come to the Worlds). He apparently has chosen the
pilots who, as a team, won the
Worlds in France in 2009 (perhaps an excellent choice).

Here is the current (2011) ranking of pilots in Italy:

The five pilots from the previous Gold Medal team that have been chosen by Flavio (at least, that is what I have been told) to be on
the Italian national team at the Worlds are ranked: 1,2,3,5,10. The sixth pilot
chosen by Flavio is ranked number 7 in the above chart.

Pilots G and H
(for the seventh and eighth slots) have not been officially named (at least not when I
checked recently on the
pilot list found here: http://www.cucco2011.org/). Flavio is apparently waiting for the outcome of
the Austrian Nationals this coming weekend (starting on Thursday) to choose the
last pilot (although the weather forecast for the weekend is for bad weather).
Apparently Flavio has tentatively chosen a pilot out of the top ten as the
seventh pilot for the 2011 Worlds .

In the US, pilots one though six would have automatic spots on the national team
and if there were additional non team scoring spots available, pilots seven and
eight would be chosen. If some pilots ranked in that order can't attend, pilots
ranked lower are automatically chosen in order.

I wonder what the Italian pilots who were ranked higher than the chosen pilots think
about this. I wonder what criteria Flavio is or will be using to choose the
pilots that he has chosen and the one yet to be chosen. Can he share it widely
and will it bare scrutiny?

2008 ranking:

2009 ranking:

2010 ranking:

Click on the graphics above to display a readable version.

The above was last edited on Sunday, June 19th. It was written over the previous
week. I delayed publishing the article a few times, first before I was the last
pilot put on the pilot list for the Worlds, the second time waiting to see what
would happen with the Austrian Open.

As of Tuesday morning the 2011 Austrian Nationals have been postponed.

As of Tuesday evening Flavio has decided on all eight Italian pilots going to
the Worlds. Suan Selenati (ranked higher than 10th) is the seventh pilot and
Tullio Gervasoni (ranked fourth) is the eighth pilot. They are now up on the
pilot list here: http://www.cucco2011.org/.

Perhaps the Italians might want a more defined and objective procedure in the
future.