My vote would be Club, Standard, 18m and Open.
There is not much difference in performance between Standard and 15m while
18m is the growth class worldwide and Standard the traditional entry level
class. Most new flapped gliders have 18m tips as well as 15m [sometimes]. I
would leave Club, handicapped, at a separate championship.
Tom

At 20:12 30 August 2012, John Cochrane wrote:
On Aug 30, 2:44=A0pm, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Aug 22, 11:13=A0pm, Markus Graeber wrote:

I wrote the paper and it has been published as part of a large
article
=
in Soaring International. Unfortunately the discussion of my paper at the
l=
ast IGC meeting in South Africa was rather muted. It was suggested to
have
=
a working group or similar look into it and make recommendations but
nothin=
g has happend so far, the IGC has been extremely quiet since the last IGC
m=
eeting.

You can find the minutes of the last IGC meeting he


http://www.fai.org/component/phocado...ad=3D5447:mi.=
...

Markus Graeber
FAI Vice President - Colombia
IGC Delegate - Colombia

Markus,

Thank you for an excellent review. =A0Please keep fighting the insanity
at the IGC! =A0You are correct the current path is unsustainable and we
keep adding extra classes for misguided reasons.

1. We need to get back to the point that we only need one World
Championship.

2. Adding new classes is a waste of time and money. =A0They have
created
the 20M and 13.5M classes because there are gliders there, but without
handicaps once a new glider is designed for the class (think ARCUS)
all the gliders that they claim to create the class for are
uncompetitive. =A0Is there a big market for a new 13.5 racing glider?

3. Please continue to push for less classes and focus on how we
determine the best pilots not "Everyone deserves a gold star". =A0Kill
the misguided 13.5 and 20M classes now before it goes any further.
Settle on Club, 15M, 18M and Open and hold them all at one site for
the World Championships.

Thanks again for showing wisdom that the others are lacking,

Tim

My article for the Gliding International collection is here

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...sses_Gliding_=
International_2012.pdf

It's an evolution of a Segelfliegen article on classes and rules from
last year

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...ure_rules_and=
_classes.pdf

Markus and I see eye to eye on many things!

Generic link
http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john...index.htm#misc

John Cochrane