On Sep 22, 12:25*pm, Westbender wrote:
Why is everyone focused on the wrong end of this subject? Why are you
focused on a nationals/team selection discussion when the club class
is still practically only a concept in the US at this point? It's like
you want to have the super bowl without the regular season and
playoffs to determine who plays in it. You guys constantly dance
around the real issue....participation. You seem to acknowledge it
only because it limits your options for team selection. Fix the
participation problem first and the issue of where and how team
selection is done will be way easier to solve. Not to mention the
health of soaring competition in the US. There's got to be a ton of
potential contest talent out there who own club class ships. Find a
way to tap into it. As an example, look at the Memorial Day event that
Sky Soaring (Chicago) puts on for those who have never flown in a
contest. The SSA/contest concious folks should find ways to promote
such activities at all clubs. Reach out to the clubs and send a "how-
to guide" for informal club-level contests to get the ball rolling. It
has to start somewhere, and nationals/team selection ain't it.

You make a GREAT point - Team selection isssues are not where to start
a re-invigoration of the contest world here in the US. But the team
selection issue highlights a glaring omission from the current US
contest options. The team selection issue would not be an issue if the
RC would take the decisive step and sanction a US Club Class National
Champion(ship). Then the USSTC would have a representative contest
from which to choose team members for the club class team.

Most importantly in this entire discussion, we/somebody definitely
needs to do a better job priming the pump of competitive glider
racing. There really does need to be a grass-roots effort to get the
club class spirit fired up and out into the open where the RC can see
it is a real, potential force towards building particpation within the
decaying, sanctioned, SSA contest system.

Just maybe, a properly "sold" Club Class competition series could turn
the tide on decreasing participation. Until they or somebody proves
the concept inthe real world, no one in this debate has anything other
than their own, biased in many cases, opinions to offer.

What we can't afford to do is do it in some sort of half-way manner,
from which detractors can say "well see, that did not work." A US Club
Class should be officially sanctioned, promoted and allowed to develop
over a number of years before we can write it off as a failed
experiement. If it fails to do what I think it has the potential to
do, then I will be wrong and gladly soldier on in Sports class until
my dying day or I win the lottery to get into a more modern glider.

In fact, there are already many club class gliders being flown in
informal contests and intra-club racing already happening around the
country. In fact, most SSA Regional Sports Class contests are majority
Club Class gliders, if I am not mistaken. If these pilots have already
stepped up and made a first commitment to race cgliders officiually, I
can not for the life of me see where the RC makes the leap in assuming
that these same pilot's of those club class gliders would NOT compete
at a US Club Class Nationals, all things being possible. The problem
is that many Club Class owners/racers do not see the next logical
progression with their nascent racing ambitions, IMHO. And that's
because there is none.

Sure it is nice to get together and go racing against like ships
around the home area, but there is no wide recognition of that. And in
the end, aren't all our ego's stroked by getting some official
recognition? Where can US club class pilots go to get the recognition
at the regional, national, and international level, like pretty much
every other racer can in the other classed here in the US and in Club
Class around the world? The RC's answer is Sports Class. But this is
an imperfect world of racing for club class ships as TT and others
have rightly pointed out.

So, a good first step would be to offcially sanction a US Club Class
National Champion as scored within the US Sports Class Nationals. Do
that I wonder what the effect on particpation #'s by pilots flying
club class gliders will be.THey don't really know and I don't know.
But what if?

There was available space at this past year's Sports Nationals, if I
am correct. Maybe competing for a Club Class National Championship
would have filled the contest up, and maybe fiilled it up with better
pilots. Surely that would be a good thing from the persective of the
organizers of the contest AND the RC who would have taken a decisive
step and seen increased particpation (maybe.) You cannot wite off an
experiment that never really happened in the first place.

EY