Special Rule 11, Appeals Decisions, Duenna Error Policy

Special Rule 11 - RemovedSpecial Rule 11 - concerning the 24 hour embargo following an aircraft crash - is stricken from the Special Rules for the 2008 race with immediate effect. Pilots currently under embargo are released.The Executive Committee underestimated the amount of embargoes that would result from technical glitches rather than true crashes.SOH Leg: VHHX - RPLB AppealTeam Sim Outhouse's leg from VHHX to RPLB was appealed as lacking authentication. They were proactive in contacting the Executive Committee as soon as they realised that there was a problem, and after consultation they reflew the leg. Accordingly, no penalty will be assessed for this leg.SOH Leg: RPLB - RPLU AppealTeam Sim Outhouse's leg from RPLB to RPLU was appealed as lacking authentication. In this case they were not proactive in contacting us and only provided an alternate form of authentication only after quite a bit of time had elapsed. Since they did provide evidence that the leg took place in the end, we will not require them to refly it. However, because this evidence was so late in coming and the team was not forthcoming about the mishap, we have determined that a delay of 15 minutes on the next team SOH leg departure is needed to make up for the questionable authentication on this leg. This penalty should be served as soon as possible.Duenna Error Policy - ClarificationThere seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding what we expect if a Duenna error prevents you from authenticating your flight in the normal way. Although the Duenna is the only officially accepted way of authenticating a flight, all this means is that flights lacking Duenna authentication need to be appealed to the Executive Committee: it does not imply that if there is a Duenna error you must refly a leg. Neither, however, does it mean that you can ignore a Duenna issue and hope that no-one notices.When a team has what they believe to be a good flight and what they believe to be a Duenna failure, they should document the case, bring it to public attention, and immediately notify the Race Officials directly. They should present any evidence that they can produce as to the flight's authenticity. Primarily, we would like to see screenshots of the Flight Analysis window, as we used to use this for authentication. Also acceptable are shots of tracking through Google Earth, screenshots of the simulator itself, and testimony of multiplayer pilots. If the evidence indicates a proper flight, the Race Officials will approve the flight and there will be no penalty. If the evidence indicates an unsuccessful flight, then the team may apply the Retrospective Wingman Transfer, or, alternatively the Committee will assign a proper penalty. For example, the penalty might require the team to re-fly the leg and/or assess an additional time penalty.Best,Matt Smith