On Friday, 7 October 2016 07:59:01 UTC-6, Sean wrote:
Ron, in regards to the US returning FAI rules, I for one believe that the value of being part of the international FAI system (vs being separatist) is well worth any minor initial change/adoption challenges.

The FAI rules are not hard to learn (easy really), they are just quite different than US rules. This creates two very different styles of competition. In many ways FAI rules are "contextually simpler" when compared to US rules (simple example, start and finish penalties and other scoring formulas). Of course that is just my opinion. But I am fairly certain that I am not alone in that opinion. To me, the key motivator is always going to be "getting back on the same page as all of our peer countries" and not being the "odd ball nation."

Beyond that simple value is, of course, the removal of the US rules scoring software development burden (and ease of use issue). Guy has been a champion of volunteerism. An amazing, giving man. But eventually we need to stop burdening him with this endless project, especially if all that hard work is not providing any measurable return on his investment.

Again, the value of the US soaring community being "a real" part" of the international gliding community (rather than outsiders) is very significant.. We will also find significant value in other areas such as pilot ranking "commonality", tasking commonality (being the same basic sport or something very different and almost experimental) and in general "rules stability." The US rules are constantly changing and because of the system constantly under intense pressure to change dramatically. See Flarm and what almost happened last winter. US rules are unstable. Under FAI there will be more stability.

I think there are many hard value benefits (scoring) and many, many soft benefits (community) that will pay off over time if we re-adopt FAI.

There is also the significant value of putting all the effort that goes into the US rules committee and repurposing those volunteers towards other key SSA priorities. Priorities such as youth pilot development, club growth, contest attendance, cross country transition, general SSA membership strategy, marketing and promotion, etc, etc. I'm sure this list is extensive.

Sure, there will be a short initial learning curve for us to change back to FAI but that is minuscule when compared to our current system of rules which are in a constant state of flux. Significant effort is required to maintain our software each season. It takes significant effort to do a season of US rules committee opinion poll, associated debate and then implement changes. That same effort would have us all well prepared for a new 2017 season of FAI rules in a single winter. A change to FAI would also end all future cycles of our annual US rule change process. This is sensible as maintaining our own seperate system of US rules provides us with NO MEASURABLE VALUE JUSTIFICATION for doing so.

I believe that many US pilots have a growing dissatisfaction with the low realized value of being on an entirely different rules system than all other soaring nations. If we can't show our pilots what we are gaining by supporting an entirely unique rule system, this dissatisfaction will continue to grow rapidly making it increasingly difficult to stay on the present course. That is not a good enviornment for growth, enjoyment, etc.

It's time. We need to let go of the US rules in favor of FAI and becoming part of the international soaring community again. No more being the odd ball.

Sean

Sean, I will let you fight the movement issue as I do not have enough invested in competing at the US or world level. My investment has been and will probably continue to be assisting with coordinating and running events.

The number of venues able or willing to hold events has shrunk and is limited to just a handful. Along with this the number of people willing to run events has shrunk as has the pool of tow pilots.

Bit of a chicken and egg situation; rules used are moot if there are no venues or competition sites available.