Jury work

Each competition sees three jury members attending. What do they do? Well, they are strictly not part of the organising team; their job is to observe and then be the final arbiters if there is a protest. But that's not all - they are also the representatives of the governing body, the FAI (World Air Sports Federation). They must ensure that FAI rules are followed, that safety is not breached and, like this morning, they can offer help and advice to the organising team to make sure tasks go smoothly.

Today the competition director Anna approached us to check a task description for later in the week. So the jury have spent a good part of the morning poring over paper and internet maps to see if turn points are obvious or tracks are clear. 

There is a fine line to respect here; the jury can suggest or point out potential problem areas but they are not able to instruct (unless on a matter of safety). In this case it was their opinion that some descriptions could lead to confusion - for example, 'turn overhead the church' but there are two churches within 50m of each other. Crews must be able to recognise turn points clearly from features on the map so the advice would be to perhaps look at that particular turn point description and make it a bit clearer. Hopefully we avoid a sticky situation before it even arises.

The fuelling for the task is about to start. You'll find the jury observing as much of the action as possible - without intervening but perhaps gathering evidence should there be a protest later. They can answer general rule questions from competitors or point them to sections of the rules that will help them but they won't give opinions or make decisions. That's the job of the Polish organisers!