The 2009 Club Class Waiver

[Sam Giltner[_1_]]

The 2009 Club Class waiver:
A separate Club Class will be allowed in Regional Contests by waiver in
2009. The Club Class is a handicapped class similar to the Sports Class,
but with two differences:
1) Gliders allowed to compete in the Club Class are restricted to US
Team Club Class Team gliders (www.ssa.org >Sailplane Racing>US
Teams>Selection>List of Club Class Team Eligible Gliders).
2) Normal Sports Class Regionals rules apply, except that the AST task
is allowed (this is not allowed in the normal Sports Class).
Pilot entry requirements, fees, PRL ranking earned, medallions earned,
are all the same as the normal Sports Regionals. US Sports Class handicaps
are used. The inclusion of a Club Class should be published before the
preferential entry cutoff. The distinction between the Club Class and the
Sports Class should be made clear. The contest sanction application should
treat the contest as a normal Sports Class Regionals. There is a box on the
sanction application form regarding whether a waiver is requested. Answer
"yes" and as a description write "2009 club class waiver".

Ken Sorenson SSA Contest Committee Chairman

[Pat Russell]

I would be very careful about calling this the "Club Class."

The International Club Class uses a different list of gliders and
different handicaps. It also uses "relative" (not absolute) handicaps
to adjust the speeds.

Perhaps this should be called the "US Club Class" to avoid confusion.

[AK]

On Jan 21, 9:15*am, Sam Giltner > wrote:
> * The 2009 Club Class waiver:
> * A separate Club Class will be allowed in Regional Contests by waiver in
> 2009. *The Club Class is a handicapped class similar to the Sports Class,
> but with two differences: * *
> *1) *Gliders allowed to compete in the Club Class are restricted to US
> Team Club Class Team gliders (www.ssa.org*>Sailplane Racing>US
> Teams>Selection>List of Club Class Team Eligible Gliders). *
> *2) *Normal Sports Class Regionals rules apply, except that the AST task
> is allowed (this is not allowed in the normal Sports Class).
> *Pilot entry requirements, fees, PRL ranking earned, medallions earned,
> are all the same as the normal Sports Regionals. US Sports Class handicaps
> are used. The inclusion of a Club Class should be published before the
> preferential entry cutoff. The distinction between the Club Class and the
> Sports Class should be made clear. The contest sanction application should
> treat the contest as a normal Sports Class Regionals. There is a box on the
> sanction application form regarding whether a waiver is requested. Answer
> "yes" and as a description write "2009 club class waiver". *
>
> Ken Sorenson SSA Contest Committee Chairman

This is a great news. Thank you!

[AK]

On Jan 21, 9:15*am, Sam Giltner > wrote:
> * The 2009 Club Class waiver:
> * A separate Club Class will be allowed in Regional Contests by waiver in
> 2009. *The Club Class is a handicapped class similar to the Sports Class,
> but with two differences: * *
> *1) *Gliders allowed to compete in the Club Class are restricted to US
> Team Club Class Team gliders (www.ssa.org*>Sailplane Racing>US
> Teams>Selection>List of Club Class Team Eligible Gliders). *
> *2) *Normal Sports Class Regionals rules apply, except that the AST task
> is allowed (this is not allowed in the normal Sports Class).
> *Pilot entry requirements, fees, PRL ranking earned, medallions earned,
> are all the same as the normal Sports Regionals. US Sports Class handicaps
> are used. The inclusion of a Club Class should be published before the
> preferential entry cutoff. The distinction between the Club Class and the
> Sports Class should be made clear. The contest sanction application should
> treat the contest as a normal Sports Class Regionals. There is a box on the
> sanction application form regarding whether a waiver is requested. Answer
> "yes" and as a description write "2009 club class waiver". *
>
> Ken Sorenson SSA Contest Committee Chairman

Great News, thank you!

[[email protected]]

On Jan 21, 1:18*pm, Pat Russell > wrote:
> I would be very careful about calling this the "Club Class."
>
> The International Club Class uses a different list of gliders and
> different handicaps. *It also uses "relative" (not absolute) handicaps
> to adjust the speeds.

Dear Pat,

Please expound on the distiction between IGC's use of "relative"
handicaps and US Sports Class use of "absolute" handicaps.

Thanks.

[Pat Russell]

In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
contest. In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.

The difference causes the boundary between points for finishers and
non-finishers to be shifted. The amount of shift depends on which
gliders show up for the contest (in the IGC case).

-Pat

[Howard Banks[_2_]]

To change this a bit, has anybody else noticed that the results of the poll
of pilots by the contest committee on this subject were heavily against
changing the sports class and introducing a club class variant?
Does this committee -- or the rules part of it -- take no notice of the
results of these polls, or what?




At 03:20 22 January 2009, Pat Russell wrote:
>In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
>ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
>contest. In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.
>
>The difference causes the boundary between points for finishers and
>non-finishers to be shifted. The amount of shift depends on which
>gliders show up for the contest (in the IGC case).
>
>-Pat
>

[AK]

On Jan 22, 1:00*am, Howard Banks >
wrote:
> To change this a bit, has anybody else noticed that the results of the poll
> of pilots by the contest committee on this subject were heavily against
> changing the sports class and introducing a club class variant? *
> Does this committee -- or the rules part of it -- take no notice of the
> results of these polls, or what?
>
> At 03:20 22 January 2009, Pat Russell wrote:
>
> >In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
> >ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
> >contest. *In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.
>
> >The difference causes the boundary between points for finishers and
> >non-finishers to be shifted. *The amount of shift depends on which
> >gliders show up for the contest *(in the IGC case).
>
> >-Pat

Yes, but how many pilots voted against who never fly in Sports class.

If we had Sports class only pilots voting on this subject the results
would probably be different.

Let's have a contest and we will see how many pilots will show up.

[PMSC Member]

> If we had Sports class only pilots voting on this subject the results
> would probably be different.

I would like to see this vote taken.


> Let's have a contest and we will see how many pilots will show up.

I doubt if the entry list of a single contest would persuade anyone
either way.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 21, 10:20*pm, Pat Russell > wrote:
> In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
> ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
> contest. *In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.


Pat,

When you say "best" glider at the contest , do you mean the glider
that wins the day/contest, or the glider entry having the most weighty
handicap (newer glider having the best performance capability)?

[[email protected]]

On Jan 22, 10:17*am, wrote:
> On Jan 21, 10:20*pm, Pat Russell > wrote:
>
> > In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
> > ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
> > contest. *In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.
>
> Pat,
>
> When you say "best" glider at the contest , do you mean the glider
> that wins the day/contest, or the glider entry having the most weighty
> handicap (newer glider having the best performance capability)?

The IGC handicaps are used in an inverse way to the US handicaps,
i.e. the higher the handicap, the faster the plane. The time around
course is multiplied by the handicap before determining speed, rather
than the distance. The handicaps are all "normalized" so that the
slowest plane gets no modification. E.g., if everyone show up in
an LS3, Mini-Nimbus, Mosquito, or ASW-24 (all with the same 1.07
handicap) then everyone is scored directly on speed around course
(no modifications for handicap). If one more person shows up with
a standard Libelle (with a handicap of 0.98) then the Libelle gets
scored with straight speed and everyone else gets their time on
course increased by 1.07/0.98 = 9.18%.

I could be wrong about the exact details, since Strepla (which is
used by scoring in other countries) is not open source, unlike
WinScore.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 22, 7:44*am, PMSC Member > wrote:
> > If we had Sports class only pilots voting on this subject the results
> > would probably be different.
>
> I would like to see this vote taken.
>
> > Let's have a contest and we will see how many pilots will show up.
>
> I doubt if the entry list of a single contest would persuade anyone
> either way.

Hey, the entry list makes a big difference to me. There's a bunch
of people in the racing community I look forward to seeing every
year. Maybe I'm not that competitive (well, OK, I'd like to beat
the snot out of W8. Just kidding Ray :-), but I think my flying
gets better when I get to hang out in a contest with really good
pilots. Plus, I've made some really good friends at my few
contests.

On the other hand, flying in a club class contest
would be really attractive to me and a lot of other pilots out
there. As it is the US sports class is further away from the
WGC equivalent than other US classes. I think the US
would benefit from exposing more of its pilots to what they'll
see in the WGC.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 22, 1:00*am, Howard Banks >
wrote:
> To change this a bit, has anybody else noticed that the results of the poll
> of pilots by the contest committee on this subject were heavily against
> changing the sports class and introducing a club class variant? *
> Does this committee -- or the rules part of it -- take no notice of the
> results of these polls, or what?
>
> At 03:20 22 January 2009, Pat Russell wrote:
>
>
>
> >In the IGC rules, the factor applied to your speed or distance is the
> >ratio of your handicap to the handicap of the best glider at the
> >contest. *In the US Sports Class, the factor is the handicap itself.
>
> >The difference causes the boundary between points for finishers and
> >non-finishers to be shifted. *The amount of shift depends on which
> >gliders show up for the contest *(in the IGC case).
>
> >-Pat- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

The RC did pay attention to the poll. I also listened to a small, but
very vocal and dedicated
group led by 5U that think we should give Club a chance to be tried
and see what develops. There
are some real concerns aboutr how this might affect Sports. See the RC
meeting minutes for a view of those.
That said, the RC determined that it is worthwhile to give this a try,
by waiver, and see how it goes. If we see a bunch of new blood, as
some claim we will, it could be good. If all it does is cut the heart
out of Sports, that will be not good- obviously. It will not be likely
to become a full blown class withouit substantial contributions to
participation.
We will watch and see how it goes, then poll and determine next steps.
Please note that the RC does listen to the poll, but it is not the
only input.
Let's give it a chance.
FWIW - UH will be flying a Club Class glider in Elmira. Call me a
skeptical supporter.
UH
RC Chair

[Brian[_1_]]

I have to admit initially I didn't see any real advantage to the Club
class but I think I am starting to come around to the idea. The thing
I really like about it is the handicapped Assigned task, which doesn't
happen in Sports Class. I really like Assigned Tasks and as a result
have almost exclusively flown in the 15 meter class even though I fly
a 30+ year old glider. As pointed out in another thread I have noticed
the significant drop in assigned tasks even in the 15 meter class and
would like to see this task used more.

Brian Case
HP16T