Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot) wrote on 6/11/2019 1:31 PM:
My feeling, part of issue in USA contests.....we don't allow team flying, but almost ANY other "world type" contest allows this.....as well as other Nationals....
Thus, our peeps don't legally get to practice UNTIL they show up in the world scene.

My understanding is "world type" contests go way beyond what most US folks think
of as "team flying"; ie, pilot to pilot while on the task. At "World type" events,
there is also pilot to/from crew, and crew members that spread out along the task
area with Flarm receivers and communicate with the base support people back at the
airport. It's a big operation, with the base people conveying weather, other team
pilots location, their climb rates, and strategic advice to the team pilots.

Do our (US) pilots want to fly like that? Would it attract (or keep) more people
in soaring? If the answers are "no", we should do what we do, and figure out some
other way (besides our contests) to train pilots for World events.

--
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 - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf