BobW wrote, On 10/21/2014 8:04 PM:
Snippage...

...Sometime I think you are right. One club member I fly with has been
flying for 45 years. Is current glider is a ASG 29 with one vario, a 45
years old Badin type 100 mechanical vario, nothing else. Take off first
fly all over the place land last. I wonder??? Gilles

Unless your club member also flies contests or posts on the OLC, you
don't
really know how efficiently and effectively he is flying. If it's been a
long time in the same place, he doesn't need navigation equipment, and
staying up a long time isn't difficult in an area one knows well.


Oookay - winter must be approaching in the northern hemisphere. :-)

Coupla comments...
- Certainly contests and OLC are helpful gauges of "soaring efficiency
and effectiveness" but, somehow or other, along the way I concluded
people enjoy the sport for a heckuva lot more reasons than "just" those
two. SOMEthing must've been keeping Gilles' fellow clubmember at it for
the more than 3 decades he or she was at it before OLC came on the
scene! Just my guess, of course. If a person's having fun at soaring all
their life, who am I to care whether or not they're being efficient and
effective, so long as they're being safe and are happy. Everyone
associated with the sport benefits. JMO...

The comments weren't intended to reflect on your club member's abilities
or happiness! Instead, it was directed at the idea that "a lot" of
instruments might make a pilot "dumber" and less effective. My
experience is going fast and far safely, especially in less familiar
places, is much easier with a moving map soaring computer and audio
vario; conversely, at my home field, when wandering around
opportunistically, they aren't much benefit.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm
http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl