World Class: Recent Great News

Charles Yeates wrote in message ...
With Spring and a new season arriving, here are some absolutely GREAT news
for the World Class:

...Of concern was a proposal by the German delegation to
discontinue having World Championships of the World Class after 2009
(the World Class
was guaranteed to have World Championships until 2009 in previous
meetings) and
replace...

I don't know you and I don't know what you said at the IGC meeting but
it must have been retorically f-ing brilliant if you could change the
IGCs mind on discontinuing the WC-WGC after 2009. I still fail to see
why it should be contiued given the fact that the concept of the WC as
it is defined know does not seem to work.


...the Subcommittee decided that the proposals
were likely the result of a lack of information about the progress of
the World
Class,....

I seem to lack that kind of information, too. Can you please explain
or even better: send me your presentation?

and decided to prepare a presentation, which I delivered during the
plenary session the next day, outlining the successes of the World Class
in many
countries. As a result of the presentation, the Italians and French
withdrew
their proposals. The German proposal was voted upon and overwhelmingly
defeated
(with only the German voting for their proposal).

I'll definitely have a word with our delegate about that very soon...


Marcel

Why walk when you can soar?

I for one am grateful for the World Class idea.
I'm glad IGC didn't kill it. It's nice to have
a very "entry level" competition class/records.

I'd like to see a different glider, perhaps the
AC-4 or Sparrowhawk (or variant), maybe as the
next "entry level" World Class glider.

I flew the Russia retract Saturday. I liked it.

In article ,
Charles Yeates wrote:
With Spring and a new season arriving, here are some absolutely GREAT news
for the World Class:
--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

Mark,
These light gliders are a good idea, however the whole concept is for
a one design class so that Pilot performance only counts. The
Sparrowhawk and Russia are interesting gliders but are NOT the World
Class glider, the PW5 is. As someone who has flown one at above World
record performance [undeclared] on my one flight in it [and my Wife
achieved 4 World Records next day on a below average, blue Nevada
day]I agree the Piwi is not suitable for the reasons Ben says. He is
also correct in his comments on gaggles in heavy Standard class
gliders verses light gliders.
To get a true one design comp going we need 40:1 + performance, the
LS4 is the obvious choice, built perhaps in eastern Europe or China to
keep costs down.
There are probably 5 times as many ASH25's in the world as PW5's so
the Piwi has proven to be a failure by the lack of buyers, even clubs
who bought them initially have sold them.
Tom Claffey



(Mark James Boyd) wrote in message news:404e65b0$1@darkstar...
I for one am grateful for the World Class idea.
I'm glad IGC didn't kill it. It's nice to have
a very "entry level" competition class/records.

I'd like to see a different glider, perhaps the
AC-4 or Sparrowhawk (or variant), maybe as the
next "entry level" World Class glider.

I flew the Russia retract Saturday. I liked it.

In article ,
Charles Yeates wrote:
With Spring and a new season arriving, here are some absolutely GREAT news
for the World Class:

Tom Claffey wrote:

There are probably 5 times as many ASH25's in the world as PW5's so
the Piwi has proven to be a failure by the lack of buyers, even clubs
who bought them initially have sold them.
Tom Claffey

I really don't have dog in this fight, but wouldn't that be over 1000
ASH 25s? I'm thinking that's WAYYYY more than were produced! I mean,
there were "only" about 1000 ASW 20s produced, and I sure see a lot more
of those than 25s.
--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

In article ,
Tom Claffey wrote:
Mark,
These light gliders are a good idea, however the whole concept is for
a one design class so that Pilot performance only counts. The
Sparrowhawk and Russia are interesting gliders but are NOT the World
Class glider, the PW5 is. As someone who has flown one at above World
record performance [undeclared] on my one flight in it [and my Wife
achieved 4 World Records next day on a below average, blue Nevada
day]I agree the Piwi is not suitable for the reasons Ben says. He is
also correct in his comments on gaggles in heavy Standard class
gliders verses light gliders.
To get a true one design comp going we need 40:1 + performance

One wonders how the 505 works out in sailing...

I know Fossett didn't cross the Atlantic in record
time in a 505, but that doesn't convince me it is a worthless
class...it convinces me Fossett is rich...

Yes I'm aware the PW-5 is the current World Class glider.
I'm interested in what the next one will be...
--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

On 10 Mar 2004 22:00:15 -0800, (Mark James Boyd)
wrote:


One wonders how the 505 works out in sailing...

Pretty simple:
If the wind is weak for half an hour, you don't have to get a trailer
and pick the 505 up to ferry it back to the coast.

Bye
Andreas

In article ,
Andreas Maurer wrote:
On 10 Mar 2004 22:00:15 -0800, (Mark James Boyd)
wrote:


One wonders how the 505 works out in sailing...

Pretty simple:
If the wind is weak for half an hour, you don't have to get a trailer
and pick the 505 up to ferry it back to the coast.

Bye
Andreas

LOL. Andreas, you always crack me up...

--

------------+
Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

I see. In other words.... there were only 65 gliders
in attendance and it was nothing like a normal WGC.


At 13:24 09 March 2004, Charles Yeates wrote:
European women flying the heavy iron and the MEN flying
25 PWees
[)All classes started at different well separated
points and flew
tasks that rarely had common legs

Ben Flewett wrote:
Wasn't there - can't comment.

If the problems didn't happen then perhaps I am wrong.
I just can't see how 40 fully laden Std class ships
can cohabitate with 40 PW5's.

By the way - what comp are you talking about...?
1999
was a WGC year (Bayreuth Germany). Was it a juniors
or something...?

B



At 20:54 08 March 2004, Charles Yeates wrote:

Hmmmmmnn

Ben -- your comments do not match what happened at
the the 1999 Leszno,
PL, competition with mobs of Std, 15m and World Class
ships flying
together. The kinds of problems you forsee never happened.

Ben Flewett wrote:

“Starting with the 2008 events, the World Soaring
Championships
will be held in two major venues, one regrouping the
Open, 18m, and 15m classes, and the second grouping
the Standard, World, and Club classes.”

Outstanding. Have any of the people who dreamt up
that idea ever flown a glider…?

I know what the current requirements are. But again,
the point is being missed. The current requirements
are nothing but an obstacle - no-one wants to fly these
things. So why not change the requirements? Why does
it have to be new?

As for the entry level competition - what is the point
of the US sports class and regional competitions? I
know that in the UK the regional competitions are generally
the first competitions people fly and arguably it is
working well.

Although, I do actually think there is merit to a competition
that provides a starting point for pilots who are starting
out why should it be something as pointless as the
PW5. And why should there be a World Champs if you
only fly them as an entry level competition. As for
the records - whats the point in record flying if you
acknowledge this is only an 'entry level' record?

BTW - poeple should look at glider ads a bit more often.
I know of at least one LS4 for $29.5k and a Discus
A for $50k. How much is a fully instrumented, trailered
PW5?

All valid points but....

You get what you pay for and nobody wants to buy a
PW5 because they are overpriced rubbish. That is why
the World Class concept has failed in it's current
format.

I am a great fan of the World Class concept and will
happily sell my D2 and buy a World Class glider. But
I am not spending $20,000 on a glider that goes no
better than the $4000 K6 I owned when I was an 18 year
old student - especially as it would mean I couldn't
fly against a large number of top pilots as I can in
the D2.




At 20:54 09 March 2004, G.Kurek wrote:
I'm not a big fan of a flying sperm cell either, but
you can forget
that Discus or LS4 will ever become a world class.
One of the major
requirement for that class is: can you produce NEW,
laminate, low cost
glider that will be widely accessible to everyone that
wants to fly?
NOT, can you buy a 30 year old LS3 at the similar price
or if you can
buy new Discus for $70,000, making gliding even less
accessible for
regular folk. Now take a wild guess dont you see any
LS4, or Discus in
majority, if not all American clubs? Is it because
Pewee is better? Or
is it because Pewee is cheaper to aquire and operate?
If that wasn't
the requirement Poles would probably propose Jantar.