I do fear the impact of flarm, if any for those smart enough to game it to an advantage or now the use of radio chatter at regionals. I can only hope that the idea to drop the worst day, whether some of us are believed by others not to fully understand it, will never rear its ugly head.
Sorry Ray, I think the world has it wrong and we have the best. You and others helped create what to me is downright magic. Carry that with you and let the World chips fall where they may.
R

Yeah, I'm really surprised that this winter's flame war has been over
the idea of using IGC rules, like next spring, at nationals. I thought
for sure that flarm radar (require stealth mode?), the team-flying and
pilot to pilot communication experiment, and the structure of future
national competition (more handicaps? merge classes?) would be the
huge issues we'd be discussing over the winter. Surely, these are the
issues that have bedeviled the rules committee the most -- we really
don't have clean simple answers here. And, in practice, they still
look to me like the issues with the likely most profound impact on US
contest soaring this and in the next few years.

A minor point. As I think about it, it makes no sense whatsoever for
the US to have two sets of rules as fundamentally different as IGC and
US going on at the same time. If one contest uses a line, no altitude
limit, kilometers, and no penalty buffer zones, while the next contest
uses a cylinder, altitude limit, miles, and buffer zones, there will
be no end of confusion. Scorers and CDs can barely keep up with one
set of rules. It also makes no sense to create a completely new set of
hybrid rules halfway between US and IGC, losing the many years of
experience behind every single paragraph in the US rules and opening
us up to who knows how many bugs.

So, the question really is, should the US go wholehog to IGC annex A
for its rules, in all classes. The RC is starting to be attracted to
the idea, because then we could all quit and go home, and if you don't
like a rule, call Switzerland.

Look for it to be polled in the fall.

John Cochrane