On Sep 22, 8:13*am, wrote:

Noel:
You are right in the "target market".
Your glider is just right for the sports class and will fit into club
as that comes about. It is also good enough to be competitive in
regionals in standard class and even your first nationals. When you

UH -

Thanks, one would hope that many gliders would be suitable in an
indexed/handicapped class... That's the idea of having a handicap in
the first place! :-)

My concern is the fact that having multiple handicapped classes might
split the field and/or confuse newcomers. The knee-jerk reaction by
newcomers is to be relieved to have the top-tier guys in a different
class, but ultimately it waters down the competition and differences
in the index/handicap values will lead to all sorts of wrangling about
who and what can or can't win in a particular class. We see this in
auto-racing all the time - people will buy a specific car for a season
or two, so that they have an easier shot at winning with a specific
handicap. That would be to the detriment of your basic competitors
who haven't the funds or the experience to hop around between
different ships.


Some things that are available and being done to try to help you get
going:

Thanks for the tips! I've done a bunch of reading and preparation
over the last several months already. I am lucky to have the Region 8
contest nearby, although I might look at driving to another Regional
on the west coast next year if it happens earlier in the season. Our
group doesn't tend to do mentoring in competition (at least in terms
of the flying part), BUT they do hold a couple of XC seminars each
year where folks do lead-and-follow type flights; and the local pilots
in the northwest have been more than generous in sharing their
knowledge and assistance. Having a talk or two with the first-timers
before the flying begins would be great, though - to help avoid those
rookie mistakes.

Oh, and there's one more preparation item you forgot to mention: The
all-important Silver Badge. That was the #2 reason I didn't make the
competition in Ephrata this year. Work time-pressures were #1, but
they had the effect of squeezing me down to only a 3 day window right
before the competition to try for my Silver... And with no guarantees
on the weather, it just wasn't solid enough for me to make that leap.

Thanks, take care,

--Noel
P.S. Totally on a tangent, but there is another frustrating reason I
think competition (and general soaring-pilot) numbers are dwindling:
Very few CFIGs that I have flown with are interested in Cross-country
flying, and few of them promote it or competition-flying. Seems like
a darn shame and a tremendous waste of an opportunitiy, since XC
soaring - to me - is the best way to keep people involved in the sport
over the long-term. I don't care who you are, local soaring around
the airport is *going* to get boring at some point, and you're going
to get tired of paying the (rising) tow-fees to simply hover near the
airfield!