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Kevin Brooker[/i][/color]

Kevin I agree with you about contests being tough for anyone other than the pilot. However I strongly disagree that a contest organizer should also be a social and activity director. If the pilot and/or the family of the pilot cannot find their own activities to do while the pilot is flying then they should just stay home.

Yup just keep piling on the responsibilities for the contest organizers. Brilliant![/quote]

I didn't say it was going to make contest organization easier. If having social activities for the non- pilot who is visiting, as Sean put it, western hell holes, be more attractive then you might get the best pilots showing up. If having a social director means contests are full or wait listed the social director is a no brainer investment. The contests which are well attended and have longevity have things to do besides sit around the airport and wait on the pilot. You can change formats, tasks, rules, and whatever you like for the pilots but if contests are to grow there needs to be a way to attract the younger pilots with families and limited vacation time to fly. If the pilot must choose between flying and domestic tranquility; contests will lose and attendance will continue to fall off.

Even if families are taken out of the picture how many of us have friends to bring along for crew? Maybe once and then most likely, if they don't fly themselves, never again. For the most part crewing is thankless, sedentary, and awfully dull. Crewing requires a certain amount of adventurous spirit to drive around unfamiliar parts of the country with an unfamiliar rig for hours to scoop up a friend. I enjoy retrieves but many do not. Why not have a trailer backing contest; lock picking competition; something else to do while the pilots are flying. At least they'd have something to do and might become the National Champion Retrieve Crew.

Yes, doing something besides the status quo will require work. For decades the rule changes; class changes; task changes and flight regime changes have been taking place in various forms and contest attendance is still falling. The lack of attendance has very little to do with the actual flying. Attendance is down for all of the non-flying reasons. What is the risk in trying something different to improve the contest experience?