On Tuesday, April 21, 2020 at 6:34:22 PM UTC-4, wrote:
“13.5m is just historical burden of massively failed class that should have no record category or competition class”

Well thats a slap in the face to all us guys flying them! Stick you ass in one of these short wing birds and set a record before you condemn the whole class.

If guys are worried that state, national, and world records are no longer attainable without oudles of money or super ships look at the 13 meter record lists, there are many areas where a person of meager means can chase records specially at the state level..

Dan
Holder of 6 13n records

Dan: you are making the assumption that 13.5m gliders are affordable. Some low-performance models are, but as the expensive, higher-performance ones become more common, it will be more difficult to set even state records in a low-performance glider. E.g., I was all hot to set 13.5m state records in my 12.6m Russia AC4, but then a fellow club member bought a Mini-LAK, with "full-size" 13.5m wings, flaps, ballast etc, which has (according to the official handicaps) a 25% performance advantage. So now I think I'll concentrate on Sports Class records.

In any case, the whole point (to me) is to challenge myself to go farther faster. In states where the official records (in some class) are sparse, trying for them is one way to do that. I fly in a small state. In larger states with more established records that is a much higher bar, simply given the history of other pilots' achievements. Witness the "reset the records" thread. So one is limited to other ways to measure ones' exploits against others, e.g., OLC.