On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 11:12:45 AM UTC-8, 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.

To be clear, experience is not the issue in the pilots I mention. However the local racing events run at our glider port are handicapped by pilot skill. (I can hear the gasps and harrumpfs already.) It isn't a perfect system, but gives the hope - and sometime the reality - that a less experienced pilot can win or place. It is self correcting in that the handicap is increased with wins or places so it becomes harder to win as the pilot goes faster.. This makes everyone try harder. This has definitely increased participation as it challenges everyone, skilled and novice.

The original notion of sports class was to keep the high rated pilots out, but that got thrown away in the interest of filling the grid.