The 'Club Class' is popular in the UK and Europe. It
allows you to buy, borrow or hire an elderly low value
glider such as a Libelle or a Standard Cirrus and be
competitive. Actually the UK Club Class Nationals are
usually extremely competitive and normally attract
several current or ex World Champions.

It is good for identifying the best pilots, rather
than those with the deepest pockets.

Handicapped competions only work well if there is a
fairly small handicap range - and the handicaps are
accurate. The Standard Cirrus has been consistently
successful in the Club Class over the years and there
have been some murmerings about its handicap. However
the best pilots chose to fly this type if they can
because of its reputation of success, so there may
be a chicken and egg situation. I am a very average
competition pilot and owning one doesn't seem to help
me very much!

The powers that be seem to be letting more and more
higher performance types into the Club Class. You may
get to a point where it is not worth flying the older
types. If you a flying a Libelle or an Astir, all the
handicap in the World won't help you to glide across
large dead areas, or prevent you from running out of
day attempting a task set to test the pilots of higher
performance gliders.

Derek Copeland

At 11:48 30 June 2006, Frank wrote:

Papa3 wrote:
Frank wrote:

Year after year, the
same guys won the championship, no matter what the
equipment. We're
all potential champions until we put our talent where
our mouth is.
To some extent, I feel the same way about folks that
say they don't
come to the Sports Class nationals because they would
have no chance of
winning. Try it and see. I mean, if you look
back, a well flown

To some extent, my position on participation from
this 'latent' group
of true Club Class pilots is 'I'll believe it when
I see it.' The
idea of running it within the Sports Class nationals
for a couple of
years seems to have a lot of merit.

Yes, I agree on both points. No one really knows what
will happen if
we try a Club Class Championship within the normal
SC Nats, but based
on the popularity of this class in Europe, I for one
have high hopes.

IMHO we still need to adjust the U.S. handicapping
system to reflect
actual results over the last few years, but maybe that
deserves its own
thread ;-).

Frank (X3)

P3