Tullio Gervasoni <<tulliogervas>>
writes:

After the trouble caused by Davis' article on the Italian pilot
selection process for the 2011 Worlds, I'd like to give my point of view.

Everything started just after I came back from Australia in February, when
Flavio Tebaldi (the Italian team leader) announced that the team for the Worlds
was already decided: the gold medal team from the 2009 Worlds in Laragne plus
Karl Reichegger as the sixth pilot.

Last year the last slot for the team for the European Championships in Ager was
decided less than one month before the event between me and Anton Moroder, so I
asked Flavio to postpone his final decision about the sixth pilot until after a
number of our competitions and he accepted.

The last comp before the final decision was the Italian National Championship in
Feltre. He said that the choice for the sixth pilot was now extended to
everyone, and would have been made following A GENERAL EVALUATION BASED ON
DIFFERENT PARAMETERS in the comps flown, not telling me which parameters they
would be.

I agreed (and I still do) with him on the early choice of the 2009 gold medal
team, including his choice of Filippo Oppici, who is currently living in the
States and has not flown any comp in Italy in the last two years. I do not share
the opinion of many other Italian pilots that find this unfair, as I think that
because of Filippo's flying skill he deserves his place on the team.

In the meantime I flew a number of comps, included the ones in Florida.
Recently, a seventh slot in the team became available. A few weeks ago I planned
to fly the Alpen Open, but I saw the forecasts and I didn't go, then I went to
Feltre for the Italian championship. I was there when I learned that an eighth
place was available.

In Feltre I talked with Davis about this year's selection, pointing out the fact
that even though I was fourth in the general rankings in Italy one month before
the Worlds that didn't necessarily mean I was going to be chosen to fly in the
Worlds. Even being placed always in the top six pilots in the last four years
was not enough to be selected sixth, seventh or eighth for the Worlds. I
supported this with the general ranking for Italian pilots the last four years.

The weather at the Italian Nationals was terrible and we didn't fly a single
task of our championship, which was cancelled.

On the same day the championship was cancelled, a pilot that had just spoken
with Flavio called me and reported that the sixth and seventh places went to
Reichegger (who has done well at Cucco in the last few years, as Flavio said)
and Selenati (who is young and could improve quickly in the near future). The
last chance for a selection was the Austrian championship.

May I say that even Reichegger is the right choice as the sixth pilot? I reckon
he's one of the best pilots we have, no discussion, and I already said this to
other Italian pilots. But what about the next two pilots?

So I sent an email to the pilots, Flavio, and Luca Basso (our hang gliding and
paragliding federation president) explaining the fact that Flavio said that he
would take into consideration the pilot's efforts and results and that I was
going to many competition and doing well in the recent years. My point of view,
together with the rankings, was sent to Davis, also.

Then the Austrian championship was postponed due to bad weather.

So Flavio, not having an additional competition between the likely candidates
for the eighth spot had to choose. He confirmed Reichegger and Selenati, and
assigned the eighth place to me.

Then the rest of the story. Davis wrote an article about our discussion in
Feltre, and after the team had been decided and published on the World's web
site, published his article in the Oz Report secure in the knowledge that the
selection had been finalized. Right after the article was published Flavio
pulled me out of the team saying that he had enough of my reasoning and that the
article was shaming his work.

In my opinion the article just mentions some FACTS about what happened in Italy.
Even the sad issue about the problems with our local NAC (Italian Aero club) and
the FIVL is well know by most of the pilots, even if it just divides more and
more the Italian hang gliding community.

Davis argued in his article against a subjective process for choosing the teams,
which is his position. But I think that there is no way to say that just using
the rankings can give the best team. This is demonstrated by the Italian results
in the last years as Filippo wrote in his article. Davis' argument does not
stand up against our results as a team.

At the same time, I don't even think that, like it has happened, a last minute
selection based on just one comp can be the best way to choose a team.
Especially in this case, when a higher pilot's ranking position, supported by
regular placements in the last four years has apparently little to no value and
now doesn't appear to make a difference in the choice for a team of eight
pilots.

There is a concern that Davis published the previous pilot rankings which were
only used as a support of my opinions in the email I sent to Flavio and the
other pilots. Such rankings are public knowledge in the US and Davis wasn't
aware of how this is not the case in Italy.

I don't think that having expressed my point of view to Flavio and the rest of the
pilots is such a criminal thing that I deserve exclusion from the team.