In my opinion, it is simply not possible to have fair competition in a
single task group with Nimbuses at one end and K6s at the other.

I have done a lot of task setting in British Regionals and Nationals.
UK Nationals are OK from the point of view of spread of glider
performance because they are run as Open, 15m and Standard. Gliders of
low performance within these classes are generally not entered
(although they could be, of course, as long as the pilot is eligible to
enter at Nationals level in accordance with BGA rules).

BGA-approved Regionals are handicapped and so you could say that they
are run to the equivalent of Club Class rules. It has always been
acknowledged that handicapping only works fairly over a reasonably
narrow band of glider performance. The question is, "what is a
resonable band of handicaps". My own view is, certainly 10%, possibly
20%, but no more than this. The greater the handicap spread in a
single task group, the more anomalies will arise. Glider handicaps
should reflect average theoretical cross-country speeds (Sporting Code
para 7.4), and perhaps a better name for them would be "speed indexes".

However, with a large number of entries in a competition, you can split
the gliders into two (or more) task groups based on handicap. Each
group has a different task for the day, generally the higher
performance group being sent further (unless they had an enormous task
the previous day). This is what we have done at Lasham for many years
and is not only fairer to the pilots but also makes the job of the Task
Setter more straightforward. The Task Setter can optimise different
tasks for the glider performance and pilot ability that he knows he is
dealing with. In my experience this works well, certainly a lot better
than trying to set one task for a huge diversity of glider performance
and pilot ability.

For instance, on one of my task setting days at Lasham I sent the UK
Open Class nationals (38 gliders) on a 450 km task, Regionals Group A
(16 gliders) 400km and Regionals Group B (20 gliders) 325km. Start
lines for these three task groups were separated for safety reasons but
the finish directions were similar to prevent crossing tracks.
Regionals "A" was the high-performance group with gliders from Nimbus
to Discus. Regionals "B" had gliders from DG300 to Astir. The split
between A and B at BGA Speed Index 104% was made by the organisers when
the glider entries were in and the handicap range could be seen.

Finally, some quotes from the Sporting Code for Gliding:

"7.4 HANDICAPPING. If handicapping is to be used, its purpose shall be
to equalise the performance of gliders as far as possible. The handicap
figures used shall be directly proportional to the
expected cross-country speeds of gliders in typical soaring conditions
for the competition concerned. The handicap shall be applied directly
to the speed or distance achieved, for finishers to the speed only, for
non-finishers to the distance only. Competitors completing the task
shall not be given less than full distance points, and competitors not
completing the task shall not be given more than full distance points."

"7.7.6 Club Class. The purpose of the Club Class is to preserve the
value of older high performance gliders, to provide inexpensive but
high quality international championships, and to enable pilots who do
not have access to gliders of the highest standard of performance to
take part in contests at the highest levels .... The only limitation on
entry of a glider into a Club Class competition is that it is within
the range of handicap factors agreed for the competition .... A Club
Class championship shall be scored using formulas which include
handicap factors.

Ian Strachan