Just another "not invented here" response from the U.S. Soaring
Community and the powers that be. I am saddened, but not surprised.
The more and more I mull this decision over in my head, the more and
more I beleive in my heart that it is "class warfare" - literally. If
you cannot afford at least a $60k-$80k+++ glider, a bright shniy Cobra
trailer, the cost to insure them, the cost of all the latest
instruments - then just stay out of our way and let the rich boys/sons
of rich boys show you how racing is really done.

I'd like to remind erveryone AND the rules/US Team committees of the
purpose of the FAI for developing the "Club Class" (I may not have the
language 100% correct, but the ideas are).
1) To preserve the value of older racing gliders
2) To offer an "affordable" level of racing that includes racing a the
highest level - the World Championships

With this decision to effectively ditch the Club Class concept for
both a US nationals and for US Team pilot selection, the RC and US
Team Committee have rejected these two seemingly good ideas for these
times of economic uncertainty and difficulty in attracting youth/
younger (say under 45 years old) pilots to racing.

Just to be clear, "Club Class" does not aim to take advantage of huge
european glider club's fleets of older gliders as the name and
discussions here may imply. In fact, many euro glider clubs have gone
right past these older ships and filled their fleets with even newer
glass single seat ships. The fact is that to be really competitive in
Club Class, any pilot in the world had to make a $$$ commitment to
these older ships with all their age and flaws. But it is a great deal
less $$$'s than a new ASG-29.

Rather, "Club Class" is simply the name given to the concept by the
IGC, not a name given to what was actually happening. In fact, very
few if any pilots showed up at any Club Class worlds in ships they
just picked-up/borrowed from their club's hangars. People made the
concious choice to focus on this class, and to spend a lot less money
doing it. If people had the choice here, maybe they would have done
the same. We will never know because the concept was an orphan idea
from the get-go here in the U.S. The "powers that be" had gotten out
of these ships long ago and had/have no interest in preserving the
value and racing utitility of these gliders

If there are not 100's if not 1,000's of these type of ships here in
the U.S. then someone please correct me right now. Whether or not US
Clubs fly these ships in their fleets, there is a huge pool of
potential ships out there to be raced and this decision just makes
this all the more unlikely.

I, personally, would like to send a big thank you to these two
committees for thinking about the value of my club class glider, and
the development of lower cost solutions for myself AND those not so
well funded. I feel very catered to now... As do the owners of the
many hundereds, if not thousands of club class gliders here in the
U.S.

In conclusion, the biggest implication and driving idea behind these
changes seems to be that by opeing in up selection to every pilot and
(nearly) every glider, then we will magically get better results in
this class. The further implication being that the pilots we have sent
to the Club Class WGC's have been sub-standard compared to those we
have sent to the "FAI" Classes.

Well I think that we should be aiming for much better results in EVERY
class, every time, rather than ditching a concept because it did not
work out.

I humbly ask the two committees to critically review the results from
this years two WGC's. One of, if not the, highest placing pilot was in
Club Class. He got there flying Club Class ships despite having to fly
against newer ships that have CLEAR advantages in certain conditions
no matter what the handicaps are in the US Sports Nationals.
Congratualtions to a terrific job Sean!

What the h--l happened to everyone in the FAI Classes? Maybe the
conclusion we should be taking away is that to better prepare U.S.
pilots for racing at the WGC-level, we should be having our racing
system conform to how everyone else flies contests, including by
making a commitment to a stand alone club class.

The one good thing about this is that maybe Sports Class, with many
more "hot" ships and "hot" pilots, will get to fly Uvalde someday....
Or PROBABLY NOT....

A Saddened,
Tim EY

P.S. Maybe we should just disregard class specific scoring for U.S.
team selection and go with straight percentage scores and with all
national scores merged - this would allow for an East West uber
Natioanals as well. It would be easy, and then put the best scoring 12
pilots in contention for the 12 WGC slots every WGC-cycle... I am now
putting my asbestos suit on