On Tuesday, August 21, 2012 2:19:02 PM UTC+1, John Cochrane wrote:
On Aug 21, 7:54*am, Mike the Strike wrote:

It is well-known that the US scores high on cultural scales of individualism, especially compared with Europe, and even in team games scores each individual competitor. *Team flying is seen as one notch away from communism and will never happen here in contests. *That's why the Europeans often win!



Mike



Cultural explanations are too easy. US pilots will do what it takes to

win. The US team has put huge effort in to team flying in the past

three years. Look at the start times. OK, no great results this time

around, but that's not from some cultural aversion to team flying.



The US has rules against team flying in our national contests. These

were put in many years ago, not in praise of "individualism" but

because it was felt that the presence of teams of top pilots would

discourage "little guy" participation. That issue is constantly under

review, and will be on the upcoming pilot opinion poll. Again. If US

pilots want to team fly, just say so loudly on the opinion poll. It

will happen as soon as pilots want it. (Especially if the "little

guys" write in and say this won't discourage them) I actually think

team flying is a lot of fun, and might encourage people to come to

contests. But we have to hear from pilots on this.



Meanwhile the IGC talks frequently about taking steps to limit team

flying, such as only one pilot per country, but never does anything

about it. I guess countries who are good at it like to keep the rules

the way they are.



It's not about culture. It's about rules. Same with gaggling. IGC

rules make gaggling, start roulette and leaching a mandatory part of

contest flying. US rules make those strategies much less important.

(This is in the distance/speed formulas, day devaluation rules, and

guidance on assigned vs. area tasks. US formulas and prevalence of

assigned tasks make tactical flying much less important) The result

is, much less tactical flying in the US. That is, I think, a bigger

part of why we don't do so well at worlds than team flying. And IMHO

makes US contest flying much more fun. But it has nothing to do with

culture, it's just an outcome of the rules.



Take those "collectivist" or "cooperative" europeans, who seem to like

to gaggle and play start games, put them in a race with different

rules, like the grand prix, and all of a sudden they take on a risk-

taking individualist streak that would embarrass the most redneck

American!



John Cochrane

It's about rules, not culture.
Two pilots are gathering more information about soaring conditions than one..
Team flying and individual flying are different skills, so let's have contests with either, or perhaps even both.

To be scored in the individual contest you just need a rule which says that two pilots representing the same country can't start within, say, 20 minutes (maybe more?) of one another, and that managers must demonstrate that one of their pilots is not acting as sacrificial for the other.

Iain Murdoch