Club Class - Class growth - progression - Have we seen any?

On Dec 17, 11:01*am, John Cochrane
wrote:
It's interesting to see there is enough Club Class activity without
any promotion or meaningful recognition. *It appears the true lack of
interest, activity, progression and growth for the US Club Class lies
within the Rules Committee.

Sean Franke
US Club Class Team 2010 & 2012

No "promotion or meaningful recognition?" World team selection is
restricted to club class gliders. There is a separate club class
scoresheet. We have club class regionals.

It would be a much more effective post if you said what it is exactly
that you want the rules committee to do that we are not doing rather
than just hurl snarky comments.

I presume the answer is "club class nationals" as opposed to just
"club class scoresheet and club class world team selection." But 14
gliders is not enough for a viable new class. So, again presuming, are
you arguing that this small difference in scoresheet will make dozens
of additional pilots appear, enough to overcome the consequent
destruction of sports class? Really? Are there really dozens of
pilots, not now participating in sports or club regionals or
nationals, who are waiting breathlessly for a fully separate contest?
Ok, look up the numbers, make the case. You could start by looking up
the seeding list and coming up with a list of people you think are
qualified but are not coming to sports nationals because current club
recognition is inadequate. (The argument that they don't even come to
club regionals because a separate scoresheet and world team selection
at nationals is inadequate seems pretty far fetched.) "build it and
they will come", by some sort of magic, is not enough.

If this isn't what you're arguing, what is it you want?

Participation is second only to safety on the RC priorities. "Club"
class gliders are by far the least represented in contest soaring. I'm
putting together the numbers now, Over the last two years only 17 out
of the 711 "club" gliders on the FAA database showed up. We want to do
anything we can to get these people out. So, support for club class at
RC is very strong. But so is support for sports class and anything
else that gets people to fly. We need to work together to find a
solution that creates a viable, 20-30 glider minimum, club class while
also not driving away the other 1/2 to 2/3 of the gliders that show up
at sports contests. We're working on that. Do you have productive and
concrete suggestions?

The 2011 poll had an open ended questionnaire about what was keeping
people from coming to contests. Many pilots took a lot of time to
write us lots of thoughtful suggestions. Time and distance were by far
the biggest barriers. Cost is mentioned as well. There was not a
groundswell of "I would fly contests if only there were a pure club
class nationals, not just this separate scoresheet business."

John Cochrane

Are you suggesting there is "not much Club Class activity" because
only 17/711 show up? I suppose it then can be argued that the World
Class is most popular because most show up at the National level? Is
there really any applicable logic in either statement?

Handicap restriction and a separate score sheet was certainly a step
in the right direction. I applaud the RC for taking that step.
However, there remains no official US Club Class.

If you look back to an earlier post you'll find productive and
concrete suggestions. Will fewer pilots show up to a restructured
Sports Class (Club/Modern)? Unlikely. Will more show up because of
an official Club Class? Unknown, that remains to be seen. I think
there is growth potential without "driving away" gliders by
restructuring. The RC should consider restructuring the Sports Class
nationals into the Club & Modern Class Nationals with two distinct
score sheets. Some Club Class enthusiasts have even expresses
interest in adopting international rules. Arguably this could produce
the most prepared pilot for World level competition.

Sean Franke