Other half? That's generous. :-) The US does not represent half of the soaring World last I looked. Try the other 98% of the world that uses IGC rules (AND CLASSES). IGC/FAI is completely dominant. Only the US utilizes different rules. The US communicates, indirectly but clearly, that the rest of the world is wrong, dangerous, start gate roulette, will have poor attendance, lots of land outs, etc. IMO we have alot of roulette in US contests. Its not as noticeable because our contests are fairly small in comparison the very large, weaker conditioned European events.

The crowded start problem at the recent World Championship (just as with the low finishing glider that hit the truck) is an anomaly that should be addressed within IGC/FAI rules. The US does not need separate rules. If we must make changes, the US could modify the FAI/IGC rules slightly. Nothing is perfect, but is IGC/FAI so bad that we fight it off like a flaming beast in the night and hide in our castle? What are we (SSA) so afraid of again?

Why cant we all just get along, have fun and play the same game? It's so confusing for any US pilot who aspires to be a World level pilot. Its a massive hurdle. I think it is really frustrating to have no choice. I think each contest manager should have, at minimum, the choice to run FAI. I don't like having this issue decided for me by the SSA as a young american pilot with some lofty goals.

We are sitting in a bubble in the US! We have no disorders, just big phobia of germs. :-)

Allow me to kid a bit without everyone flaming out...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_Boy_(film)



On Thursday, September 20, 2012 7:07:06 PM UTC-4, John Cochrane wrote:
Hi John



I'm not sure where a start height limit and 2 minutes under before start

originated - we've been doing it in UK for years now.



Good! Now let's persuade the IGC, which banned this for Uvalde. Huge

gaggles in the clouds at Szeged was idiotic.



In UK it's conventional to brief 2 (at least) tasks in view of the

variation in possible weather, and then notify the task to be flown 10

minutes before first launch if it isn't the primary task.



This is also by far the most common situation in the US. Task changes

in the air are avoided if at all possible. They are a last ditch tool

for a CD to remedy a looming disaster, but CDs are strongly advised

against it if at all possible. Still, it's nice to avoid the

disaster...



Our contests try to launch everyone in 1 hour, and wait 15 minutes

before gate open. We also require 15 minutes between task change and

launch. So, the decision to open the task is at least 1:30 after the

last chance to change the task on the ground. Often, weather

ucertainty means that the start is delayed further. So it's easy to

have two hours pass. The weather can change a lot in two hours!



What do you do if a pilots' radio goes unserviceable transmit and he can't

be raised to confirm a change - cancel the day?



It happens rarely. Once to me when I was leading the contest on the

last day. Fortunately I heard the task change, rocked my wings in

response to radio call and it was passed on. If you can't hear either,

then you can't hear when the start gate is opened. I don't know of a

case of that happening yet. But it is the pilot's responsibility to

have a radio. If the roll call goes through, and the pilot can't be

raised on multiple tries, tough for him. We're not going to send the

whole fleet into the storm because of that.





I don't claim our way is perfect, but we do listen to alternative views and

are prepared to adopt good ideas.



Hey, come on over and fly one of our comps, see how the other half live..



I'll take you up on that!