On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 2:12:45 PM UTC-5, Clay wrote:
Something is keeping pilots from racing in droves. The pilots I have asked will (and often do) fly the same terrain on the same day - they aren't beginners and this is not beginner terrain where we fly. Several have participated in a few races, then quit doing so because they felt they needed to violate their minimum safety criteria to have any chance. You can't have it both ways: "if you don't like it don't race" and "we want more people to race".

The idea that folks should show up, pay the entry fee, take the time off, just to participate for fun using a different standard of safety with the knowledge that this will make them uncompetitive isn't attractive to a lot of pilots. They can go fly and have a nice cross country day anytime, anywhere, without any of that.

By keeping the sport confined to your definition of pure, you are making it vanish. In almost all speed sports, rules have been put in place to curtail extreme behavior for the sake of fair and safe competition. Why is soaring so different?

P3 has floated the idea of skill/experience-based classes. When I road-raced motorcycles, that was the system. It is fun to race against people of similar experience, and not be getting stuffed by the fast guys in every corner. The trophies come quicker too. In soaring, even in Sports Class, you'll be competing against WGC caliber pilots. Kinda exciting, but not so much when you get smoked by 20 mph. But I don't know if we really have the level of participation to do this kind of format, or even if it would solve anything.

that's how you learn man! nothing like going and flying the same task as sarah arnold, and she beats you by 5MPH raw speed in her ASW15 while you flew a discus CS. makes you feel like the biggest idiot in the world!

an old saying comes to mind: "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room." basically i disagree with skill or experience based contest classes outside of the current separation (regionals vs. nationals). i feel like it will inhibit personal growth as pilots. i know that i became a better pilot by flying against pilots who were better than i am. matter of fact, i'm still doing it. safely completing a regional's gives you all the tools you need to fly safely in a nationals. and all of us a responsible to sit out a mission we aren't comfortable with, or that we feel is outside of our capacity to handle. i see it all the time. people sat out certain ridge tasks at the sports class nationals this past year. in my first contest, i didn't attempt one of the tasks, because i thought the cloud was too low for me to be comfortable.