Rules No One Likes to Follow

As I write this I’m just wrapping up a draft of the “refactored” 2020 IAC Rule Book. The word “refactor” comes from software design and means that we’ve reorganized the book for clarity and to remove fluff, but without changing the core of what it tries to do. This turned out to be a much larger project than I expected, but I’m very hopeful it will address many concerns I’ve heard about the book’s readability.

Naturally the project took me through every single line of the rule book multiple times. I like to defend the contest rules because I think overall they are very good, but along this arduous journey I started collecting lists of rules that I think cause us problems. In this article I will share with you some rules that I honestly believe are very rarely, if ever, followed.

So I don’t get a rash of angry emails about how I’m very nitpicky about the rules, let me say two things. First, you are right, and you need people like me. Second, I do like to understand the rules, and I do want them applied equally, but I arrive at my position out of desire for equitable treatment for everyone. When we have rules that are unevenly applied it creates grievances; it means we are favoring the feelings of the most vocal, or the ones we know or like the best.

The good news is we don’t have to ignore the rule book to be happy. If we work together and use the IAC’s rule change proposal process we can change the rules to better reflect what is important to us.

Late Arrivals

According to the rule book:

Competitors are required to make the first briefing and be ready to fly the first program, which is the Known. Competitors who arrive late receive a penalty. Missing the briefing is a cash penalty of $50 and a point penalty if that fee is not paid by the time of the first flight.

Missing a flight entirely results in a DQ for that entire flight. That’s right, big fat zeros for every figure!

The jury is allowed to waive these penalties if the tardiness is outside of the competitor’s control.

In actual practice:

Competitors do not seem to mind the cash penalty. I suppose that $50 is seen as a drop in the bucket compared to the overall expense of competition. Maybe the competitor even rationalizes it as a donation. The point penalty for missing the briefing should apply if the funds are not handed over in a timely manner, but with so many busy people at the start of a contest, it’s probably not a high priority.

But what should the Contest Director do when a competitor calls a few days before the contest and asks to be allowed to skip the first day of the contest due to a work commitment?

The only safe answer according to the rules is to say “That’s up to the jury”. But the motivation to get another competitor signed up is strong. The answer is usually “yes”.

Right now you might be thinking: so what? Why can’t someone come in late? But don’t the feelings of the other competitors, who settled their work commitments to show up on time and volunteer, matter? How does the jury, who is tasked with enforcing the rules, turn a blind eye to them when a competitor protests? Is a work commitment a circumstance beyond the competitor’s control, or isn’t it? Don’t we all work?

This is a great example of a troublesome rule because there are so many different perspectives: we have the tardy competitor, who is trying to pay the bills and still find time to support a local contest; we have the other competitors in their category who had to sit out in the sun for a full day of volunteering; we have the Contest Director who wants to get one more person registered; and we have the jury who has to make a fair and impartial ruling. If you’ve been in this sport long enough you’ve probably been in each of these positions.

What to do about it:

I think this rule should be amended in two ways:

1. We should explicitly state what authority, if any, the Contest Director has to authorize a Late Arrival.

2. The penalty should be reduced so that Juries will not be so reluctant to apply it. Zeroing a flight is a reasonable option in some circumstances, but a point penalty is more appropriate when the schedule allows for make up flights.

Invalid Free Program

According to the rule book:

The rule book specifies strict penalties for mistakes on free program forms. For a missing signature, the competitor suffers a point penalty which varies by category. For an incorrect Presentation K value, the penalty is that the Presentation score is zeroed. For using the wrong forms, another penalty. Math errors are very serious and result in a Hard Zero.

In actual practice:

These errors are largely inconsequential nowadays because a) software like OpenAero has made these mistakes very rare, and b) most of these mistakes are caught by the scoring program.

For that reason, Juries seem very reluctant to actually apply the penalties.

What to do about it:

The rule book has been around for a long time. So long, in fact, that it precludes not only smart phones, not just the internet, not just LCD displays, not just laptops, but even pocket calculators!

Back in these dark, troubling times, people used pens with ink to draw on paper. They didn’t print sequences, they copied them using photocopiers you would probably recognize today or via a stencil copier like a mimeograph.

Software makes lots of mistakes, but the nice thing is you can fix those mistakes and, once they are fixed, they are fixed for good. With people you have the same old mistakes to fix again and again. One person might learn but people cannot.

This is why the rule book specifies stiff penalties for errors in Free Programs. Back when people were doing this stuff by hand errors were common and they really mucked things up.

I think we need to keep the penalties because we don’t want people to decide it’s easier to hand the registrar a few scribbles on some napkins than to learn how to do things right, but I think we should officially give the jury some leeway when the error is truly inconsequential. We should probably allow digital signatures or eliminate the signature requirement entirely.

You Must Have at Least Two Competitors to Make a Category

According to the rule book:

Did you know that according to the rule book no one can compete for official standings in a category unless there are at least two competitors?

This means a competitor who flies alone in their category cannot receive trophies!

In actual practice:

Contest Directors appear to have devised solutions to get around this rule:

1. If a lower category, like Primary, has only one competitor, they make use of the “Hors Concours” system, which is currently misnamed as the antiquated “Patch” in the scoring program, to allow an upper category competitor to join a lower category.

2. If an upper category, like Unlimited, has only one competitor, they convince someone who hasn’t flown in a long time, or who is otherwise probably not a danger to themselves, to go up and put one flight, or even one figure, into the scoring system so the category can count.

What to do about it:

The simple solution seems to be to strike this rule. While it does make sense that we don’t have a competition in any real sense unless we have more than one pilot, it’s also true that we grade according to objective standards. Besides, the flights count for the regional standings and other awards.

Third Place Trophy is Conditional

According to the rule book:

The third place trophy is only to be awarded if there are three or more competitors.

In actual practice:

Unlike the two competitor minimum, this one isn’t worked around so much as it is just ignored. Probably no one remembers this rule at all. I believe it would cause a legitimate riot if someone seriously filed a protest on this at the banquet (this is not a dare).

Trophies are procured well before the contest by the Contest Director. It’s not required but usually CDs like to put the year on the trophy. It would be a shame to throw those out.

What to do about it:

I think this rule can be struck. This restriction demotivates competitors from moving up in Category and puts the banquet emcee in a tough position. It’s curious that this restriction applies only to third place. If we are to keep the rule shouldn’t the logic be that if we have n competitors we can only give out n-1 trophies?

Wind Limits

According to the rule book:

Flights will be flown in greater than 20 knot crosswind, or 25 knots in any direction.

In actual practice:

Contests seem reluctant to fly Primary and Sportsman with the published wind limits so they often cancel flights when the rules say they should continue.

Contest Directors or Chief Judges may try to put the issue to a vote. Asking the competitors to vote is well intentioned but does not take into account that the competitors are not impartial. The competitor in first place is not aligned with the competitor in second place. The competitor at the bottom of the ranking may be both most interested in making a flight and least safe doing so.

As a juror I’ve always decided to just stick with the rules. The contest continues until the point where the wind exceeds the limits.

What to do about it:

I’ve heard two really good arguments about this rule. One is that the rules allow us to fly contests in wind conditions that are not safe for flight in a parachute. That’s a pretty good point. Another good point is that the demonstrated crosswind component of a Decathlon is 17 knots. That’s more than 20 knots and that’s a popular aircraft. Maybe the standard is too high.

On the other hand, we shouldn’t shut down contests unless we really need to. People come a long way to compete and they usually don’t want to quit flying. Also, the maximum demonstrated crosswind component for an aircraft is just the demonstrated crosswind component. It doesn’t mean the aircraft isn’t safe to land or take off at a higher crosswind speed. I think everyone knows that Decathlons are routinely operated with much higher crosswinds than 17 knots.

I also don’t think we want to restrict all aircraft to the limits of the most meager aircraft that shows up at a contest. Some aircraft are just more capable than others and we all choose to fly what we fly.

This is one I think the rule book gets right and we just need to enforce.

Primary and Sportsman Have Only Two Flights by Default

According to the rule book:

The Primary and Sportsman category are to be scheduled for two flights with a third optional at the discretion of the Contest Director.

In actual practice:

The Primary and Sportsman competitors are often our most eager bunch. Contest Directors are very reluctant to disappoint them by sending them home after only two flights. Upper category competitors are very unlikely to protest. The Contest Director may have discretion but it’s a foregone conclusion.

The very few times I’ve seen Contest Directors make the judgment call to cancel the third flight for Sportsman and Primary, they’ve been absolutely raked over the coals for it.

What to do about it:

I think this is a case where the rule book has the opposite priority order of pretty much everybody. It seems like this should just be changed to reflect what people want.

What Do You Think?

Maybe you can think of some rules I’ve forgotten to bring up! Or maybe you think I’m out to lunch? If so, I’d love to hear from you.