Hi Evan.

Some of the details are in the minutes.

Overall, the intention is to do what most other countries do, which is to develop and evaluate US National and Regional rules based on FAI Rules that are used for WGC contests. Where FAI either contains features that are unsuitable for National/Regional competitions or lacks features that are necessary the RC would contemplate making appropriate adjustments.

You might have read the parallel thread on the Australian Multiclass Nationals where they have combined 15m/Std and 18M/Open with handicaps in order to ensure classes have an minimum required number of pilots. As near as we can tell that is an adjustment on top of the FAI Rules used for WGC Competition. While the RC is not contemplating that exact structure for the US, it is an example of how FAI WGC Rules get adapted to suit the needs of National or “Regional” competition.

As to US versus other handicap systems that get used internationally, that is being evaluated. For the most part the raw handicaps (once you invert the scale for US) are quite similar (within a couple of percent), except for very long-winged gliders where the US handicaps are less favorable. If we intend to retain combined FAI handicapped class and Sports Class in the US system - and the current thinking is to try to do so - it might require a handicap system with reference weights and handicap weight adjustment formulas. Whether such a system would be based on the US handicap database or could be based on the handicap systems that are used elsewhere is being evaluated. There are a number of gliders on the US handicap list that don’t exist elsewhere - they seem to be mostly US-centric designs, so we’d need to evaluate whether and how to fill those gaps if they turn out to be gliders that actually get flown in competition - if we were to favor changing over.

There are dozens to hundreds of topics like this that need to be worked through in a deliberate, thoughtful, fair, safe and operationally detailed way.. That means that many questions that people have deep interest in may not have definitive answers for quite some time. The RC asks for your support and indulgence as we work through that process.

For the US Competition Rules Committee
Andy Blackburn, Chair