US SSA-OLC League new for Summer 2006 Season!

Vsoars wrote:
Why does the OTC end the contest before the official beginning of Fall?
Eliminating the final days of summer is very discouraging to clubs
like mine.

Agreed. Why not end the contest at the same time OLC ends - mid
October? Still gives time for US clubs to tally scores for various
winter gatherings and award presentations.

-Tom

The OLC is an international contest, and all the national leagues run
on the same schedule. It was set up based on a European perspective, it
really has nothing to do with the weather in Texas or Minnesota, or
Alaska. From my personal perspective, the league schedule cuts out the
best Appalachian ridge days in the spring and the fall. But overall, I
think it is a fair compromise.

As much as we might like to drive the bus, we have to be realistic
about the relative size of the US pilot population. There are a little
over 500 US OLC competitors and over 5000 from Germany alone. BTW,
despite the fact that the US only has about 6 out of every 100
competitors, we had 14 of the top 100 OLC pilots last year. I think
this is because in the US, we are actually blessed with lots of good
places to fly, good weather, and plenty of airspace to fly in. So we
really should not complain too much.

I don't think the "why don't we do it differently because..."
discussions are very productive. We should focus on how fortunate we
are to have a critical mass of pilots in Europe who have developed this
great form of decentralized competition, and be happy that they want to
let us compete (and steal more than our proportional share of the
glory!).