"Tony Verhulst" wrote in message
...

There have been several pro's and con's towards soaring in Olympics, but
nobody argues that it'd
rise the popularity of the sport. So it is important for soaring
community. Therefore my question is
following:

Wich way is soaring worse than sailing?

Because in sailing, you can "park" a bunch of boats, with the requisite
TV crews, along the couse line. People will be able to watch the event -
not so in soaring. Yes, I'm aware of the proposals to transmit GPS
coordinates of the competitors to be displayed in some fashion. It ain't
the same, IMHO.

For other would be Olympic events, see:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5746437

Tony V.
http://home.comcast.net/~verhulst/SOARING


The only way I can see soaring as a spectator sport is as a very technical
one. Not only would it require real-time GPS tracking, it would require on
board TV cameras on every competitor. Several camera aircraft would be
needed to follow the leaders plus a staff of color commentators to explain
why the pilot in 3rd place is taking a big chance by passing up that 5 knot
thermal in an effort to claim 1st place.

You couldn't do it real-time, you would have to cut away to another sport
while the drama develops. Most of it would be edited recaps of the last
hour or so of the action with color commentary. Long final glides just
aren't very interesting except to the pilot.

The rules would have to be vastly simplified so the audience could
understand them. Start gates, finish gates, simple speed triangles and
maybe even free distance would interest the audience.

On the other hand, soaring is a visually compelling activity. There are
very talented videographers who could produce stunning video clips that
would hold a very large audience.

The technology to do it just barely exists and it the cost would be
astronomical. However, do it right and you would have half a billion people
from around the world on the edge of their seats.

I've got a feeling that it will happen sooner or later.

Bill Daniels