On Sep 18, 10:33*am, John Cochrane
wrote:
My name is Mike Carris and I have just purchased, with a partner, an
old forgotten PIK 20B that will take at least 500 total hours to get
flying again. I did this for one reason, to fly in the Club Class,
which is an FAI event, except in the USA. Now, there will be no club
class, just another opportunity, it seems, *for a very few *people
that can afford it, to get another chance to be on a world team. *Why
not allow the Club Class to flourish as it was intened. Soaring in the
USA takes a step backwards with this decision.

Do something for the sport, you know the one that does not require
mega bucks to compete in.

Mike Carris "0"

Megabucks are not required to compete in sports class. Dave Stephenson
had a habit of crushing us with KA6 and Fokas; Tim McAllister has won
in a Libelle. Sports class is handicapped. The handicaps not only
work, they favor older gliders. *The tasking guidelines also favor the
older gliders. Tasks are supposed to be set for a standard cirrus, and
if that's too short for a nimbus 4, too bad. Ray Gimmey didn't buy his
way from nowhere to sports class dominance with an ASG29, he happens
to be a pretty good pilot too! *Read the proposal -- this said nothing
about club class in the US, it said only something about how the US
team will select pilots for the world team. There is and will be a
club class anytime someone wants to organize and go to a club class
event. Which I hope you will do; vibrant club class racing in the US
would be great to see.

John Cochrane

Why wasn't there a Club Class Nationals in 2010? It stands to reason
that if there is sufficient interest on the part of pilots of Club
Class equipment to compete for national team spots we'd be able to
sustain at least one contest per year to make it happen.

TIm did a nice job with his borrowed Jantar at the Sports Nationals
this year. I think his point about mixed performance across gliders in
the contest is partly true. On consistent days with streeting and
winds less than 20-25 mph the Jantar was hard to beat. For those of us
flying current generation gliders the difference in performance just
couldn't make up for the handicap. On windy days with limited lift
bands and long glides between good lift lower performance could make
it hard to get that next climb and then all the handicap in the world
couldn't help you. That said, the last day was in the second category
and was won by a very ably flown Libelle.

The challenging thing from my perspective is that we don't have enough
pilots willing to do what Tim did - rent, borrow or buy a Club Class
glider to compete in Sports Class Nationals on a consistent basis.
What it means is we send people to the worlds chosen from a limited
competitive set. It's true that it is different flying Club Class
than current generation FAI class. However, I think the competitive
disadvantage of changing glider types for the worlds (by picking the
team from the full Sports Class) is outweighed by the reduced size of
the pool of pilots competing for spots on the team (when you limit the
team only to pilots flying Club Class gliders).

9B