On Wednesday, April 15, 2020 at 1:19:26 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Jfitch thanks for the post. We have both had this same discussion before. Competition by its very nature is competition. We all do it for various reasons and motivations. If one is looking for absolute safety in competition just sign up for condor racing and have a ball. As for reality racing you said it yourself, the guy who takes major chances beyond reasonability will eventually 1. Loose, 2. Hurt himself. The odds are against the guy who consistently finds himself digging out of holes on race days. Thats a fact. He may win a day or two, he may even win a contest or two but he will not be a consistent winner. Thats his choice and his problem. Neither I, ssa, nor contest management is responsible for his choices.

Those of us who object to another level of legislation/control are objecting because we object to a “nanny state” mentality that is creeping into every aspect of society. We soar for the freedom it delivers. We race for the measure it gives us of our skills. Some of those skill involve knowing our own capabilities and applying them to the fullest. That may involve taking chances at landing out. That may involve reaching for an area we suspect has lift, getting there low, connecting and moving on. Thats not necessarily luck, thats making an educated decision, weighing the odds and trying it. Those are soaring skills. If we don’t want to test those skills in a contest then it becomes another set of skills we are testing, namely how well we can follow someone else who is making our decisions for us, hence the prevelence of gaggle flying today etc.


I hate gaggle flying, I trust my skills but not those of many of the idiots flying today. I fly my own race and yes it had cost me on weak days but so be it. It is still a test of my knowledge, decision making skills, and my choices along task.

A hard deck is another level of restriction not needed by the majority of racers. The guys who push beyond their abilities will still do just that, they will, as someone else here stated, still thermal low just to avoid the hassle of a land out even if they know their only gonna get distance points n still wreck themselves. Nothing gained by the rule. Or they will find other creative ways to screw up, damaging their ships and themselves.

Dan

Dan, a couple of comments on that. One: the guy who is always flying low and making low saves will very likely eventually get bit. But it can take a long time - I know several pilots who (the consensus was) where "dead men soaring". Some of these proved the label quickly but for others it took many years. Were they especially lucky or especially skilled? I don't know, but the consensus was correct, ultimately. In that many years, some of them won many contests doing what they do. Good for them, but hard on their more conservative competition. A very common refrain I hear from pilots at my glider port: "I won't enter contests because it makes you do things you would not otherwise want to do." Flying in big gaggles and getting low are the two things most often named.

Contest rules are there for only two reasons: to ensure fair competition and encourage safety. It is a continuum from free-for-all to sit-at-home Condor. The question is, are we in the right place? Your definition of "making an educated decision" isn't the same as mine. Tilting the rules one way or the other is likely to attract one constituency or another. There is no morally right answer, however it is almost universally decried that the number of competition pilots is dropping. If we add a hard deck, we might lose you but gain 3 others - I don't know.

I attempt to fly without uncontrolled risk. That means always being within gliding range of a known landing site (even though I fly a motorglider). A casual perusal of some of my fellow competitors IGC files shows that is not the case for them - they will often be below their best L/D to a safe landing. That may be an educated decision, but it is also a pure gamble on the weather. Hitting on 15 at blackjack is also a gamble (and perhaps an educated decision). Is that what soaring competition should be?