US Competition Pilot Poll and Election

I would like to hear the thoughts of the US Team Members (especially former members) on the pros/cons of (1) adopting FAI Rules; and (2) making Nationals (Club Class, 15m, 18m, Open) and select Regionals (feeder/practice contests if you will) be subject to more stringent and challenging AT tasking.

While somebody was right that SGP in Ionia was not, in terms of geography and topographical features, the least bit potentially hazardous, the contest nonetheless separated the men from the boys. Both the daily scoring (point) system for top 10 finishers each day and the AT type tasking led to a leader-board that achieved this (separated the men from the boys). If the same had been done at Mifflin or some other more technical location I believe it would have achieved the same results. Fwiw, the "middle of the pack" never complained, but rather I think appreciated the contest format for what it was as each understood where they stood at the end of the day (and every day was a new race).

Chris Schrader

To Andrez above, what a great point!

Why can't a simple question be included???

And these leaders wonder why soaring is a DIEING SPORT!!

Next year it will come down to one rule...

.....Rule #1 - NOBODY HAS ANY FUN.


In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 5:47:15 AM UTC+2, wrote:
To Andrez above, what a great point!

Why can't a simple question be included???

And these leaders wonder why soaring is a DIEING SPORT!!

Next year it will come down to one rule...

....Rule #1 - NOBODY HAS ANY FUN.


In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

Lets see the side by side comparison and lets have a vote!
Mark

On Monday, October 10, 2016 at 10:47:15 PM UTC-5, wrote:
To Andrez above, what a great point!

Why can't a simple question be included???

And these leaders wonder why soaring is a DIEING SPORT!!

Next year it will come down to one rule...

....Rule #1 - NOBODY HAS ANY FUN.


In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

Wilbur,
Do I know you? Have you been racing at all? Why do you hide behind that name? Is your real name Sean? I for one still enjoy glider races, we do them at our club every weekend. You should have learned from the present election mud fight that negativity gets you exactly nowhere.
Herb Kilian, J7

Somehow I think the dwindling number of pilots in our sport is not directly related to the US pilot poll and questionnaire . I remember when a brand new glider was about $30,000 now it is $200,000, might be casual?



On Monday, October 10, 2016 at 8:47:15 PM UTC-7, wrote:
To Andrez above, what a great point!

Why can't a simple question be included???

And these leaders wonder why soaring is a DIEING SPORT!!

Next year it will come down to one rule...

....Rule #1 - NOBODY HAS ANY FUN.


In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

Because they're a lot of fun to fly.

On 10/10/2016 9:47 PM, wrote:
In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

--
Dan, 5J

And a gallon of gas was $0.30 back then, too. So do we all stop driving?

On 10/11/2016 8:27 AM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Somehow I think the dwindling number of pilots in our sport is not directly related to the US pilot poll and questionnaire . I remember when a brand new glider was about $30,000 now it is $200,000, might be casual?



On Monday, October 10, 2016 at 8:47:15 PM UTC-7, wrote:
To Andrez above, what a great point!

Why can't a simple question be included???

And these leaders wonder why soaring is a DIEING SPORT!!

Next year it will come down to one rule...

....Rule #1 - NOBODY HAS ANY FUN.


In a few years, your gliders will be a much lower value. Why? If racing dwindles down to nothing, why does anyone want a racing glider??????

--
Dan, 5J

At 16:30 07 October 2016, Tango Eight wrote:
Sean:

Adopting FAI rules might be the final nail for the sport in the US. Club
d=
oesn't replace Sports, so you lose participation there. There's no way to
c=
ombine standards with 15m under FAI rules, so now the standard class is
com=
pletely dead and gone for good. Guys with old ships racing in the
handicap=
ped "combined FAI class" (can't we just call it 15m, pretty please?) will
b=
e less inclined to race with 27s and V2s and come to think of it,
ASW-20Bs
=
and Cs, Ventus As and Bs and LS-6s don't fit *anywhere* in the FAI rules
sc=
heme of things, so those guys are either racing at parity with 27s
(aggrava=
ting!) or just SOL.

What this means is that your average regional race will now consist of
18m,=
a much smaller 15m class and a Club Class that might be 2/3 the size of
th=
e Sports class is replaces.

You need to get your head out of your 18m cockpit and think about the
less
=
well heeled trying to participate in the other classes. You need us.
With=
out us, your races either get a lot more expensive and a lot less
interesti=
ng socially or people just give up altogether.

It's pretty distressing seeing only 20 guys at a race that used to
regularl=
y host twice that number (New Castle). Incidentally, 8 of the 13 gliders
r=
acing in 15m were either standards or old 15m ships. I'm really pleased
th=
at BRSS was willing to work their tails off to host only 20 of us. Is it
r=
easonable to expect that they'll do it for 12?

I'd like to take the opportunity here to thank the RC for creating the
std
=
+ 15m combined class, because the racing in that class has been a great
dea=
l of fun. =20

best,
Evan Ludeman / T8

Evan, this is why we created Handicapped Distance Task. This enables
gliders with a wide range of handicaps to fly in the same class without
being disadvantaged. Jim

Yeah, gas was actually about a dollar plus (say $1.20) back then (mid-eighties). As a student of a good debate, I hardly think comparing the capital price paid for a toy, to a resource that must be purchased weekly or more often to be mobile in our daily lives is germane. Yes the cost of everything has gone up. But when a non-nessessaity reaches a certain price point the market saturation changes.


On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 8:21:11 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
And a gallon of gas was $0.30 back then, too. So do we all stop driving?

Valid points, but income has gone up to match prices for the most part.
When I left the USAF in 1979 as a Captain on flight status, my pay was
roughly $25K. I spoke with an AF captain recently and she told me her
pay is about $85K. Neither of us could afford a new glider at our then
and now incomes.

....And I recall paying a low of $0.199/gallon during a gas war in the
60s. Many things have gone up and down(!) since the good old days. The
price of gas was just an easy one to remember. I recall a co-worker in
1968 paid $12K for a HOUSE... My Stemme cost a lot less than most
houses I'd live in today.

Fun to reminisce,
Dan

On 10/11/2016 11:05 AM, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Yeah, gas was actually about a dollar plus (say $1.20) back then (mid-eighties). As a student of a good debate, I hardly think comparing the capital price paid for a toy, to a resource that must be purchased weekly or more often to be mobile in our daily lives is germane. Yes the cost of everything has gone up. But when a non-nessessaity reaches a certain price point the market saturation changes.


On Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at 8:21:11 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
And a gallon of gas was $0.30 back then, too. So do we all stop driving?


--
Dan, 5J