SRA Poll

"Sam Giltner" wrote in message
...
BB PLease forgive me but my most recent response to you did not mention
THE
TEAM, it did not mention doing away with the Sports Class. Please read my
response again to verify!
I really don't understand why you are so focused on THE TEAM and how the
Club Class will kill the Sports Class. Nowhere in any of my responses have
I mentioned THE TEAM or that we should do away with the Sports Class.
Last month I sent out to the rules committee and other interested pilots
my idea of how both the Sports Class and the Club Class have a place in
this country. If you didn't receive the E MAil I will be glan to send it
again. Just let me know.
But Please lets get off the idea that the reason I am supporting the Club
Class is NOT, I repeat, NOT to justify THE TEAM!
If you kindly give me your cell I would love to talk further. Sam


At 14:43 19 September 2008, BB wrote:
Sam:

If what you want truly is a new competition class, at all levels,
because you think there is a deep pool of pilots who will come out of
the woodwork to fly it, then it seems perfectly sensible to ask you
and club class advocates try a few and show us it's true. (Hidden
agenda: one of the big participationn problems is how few people are
willing to organize contests thes days!)

The RC has to worry about killing the sports class. If the sports
class dies, many pilots literally have nowhere to go. Where do you
race a Nimbus II or a sparrowhawk with no sports class? Since two
thirds of the pilots at Montague flew nonqulifying gliders, you can
understand that we all need to be sure there are 20 new pilots ready
to jump in to replace the 20 we kick out.

Perhaps what you really want is just to have US team selection come
from a club class only contest, and you're quite happy if there are
never club class regionals. Perhaps you even agree that nobody would
show up for a "club class only" contest unless team points were at
stake.

If so, that's a US team question, not a rules question. The RC worries
about how to run US contests, with a special eye to participation, and
with the interests of the average pilot and the organizers in mind.
The US team worries about team selection issues, and focuses on how to
get winners. OK, we talk to each other, but it really doens't make
sense to introduce a whole new class just to jigger around the team
selection rules that we don't write.

If this is really what you want, you could get that much more easily
by asking the US team to run a separate scoresheet for team selection
in club nationals. We don't have to go through the huge effort of
starting a new class -- and making sure it's supported through the
years, at all levels; and that pilots investment in equipment isn't
invalidated by precipitous changes in a few years, and that it doesn't
kill sports -- just to raise the nationals scores of the club team.

Note to all pilots: the most important questions on this poll are
likely to be the questions "would you fly in this class" and "would
less sports class hurt you". We want data rather than guessing about
whether there are people who want to do this.

Again, my opinions only, and keep yours opinions coming -- the RC
wants to hear from everyone on this issue.

John Cochrane
BB


Yes -two scoresheets and a AAT with big circles should make the idea viable.
Then the little guys can use the big boys as a yardstick to see how they
did. Good Idea!

I flew one contest in Sports Class recently, in a ASK21, and Sam flew his
ASW27 (painted to look like a LS-1f). A V2bx and an LS4 were neck and neck
with him for the most part. (Cordele Reg 5 So.2007) Sam did very well
against the newer ships.

I normally fly something with higher performance and had to constanly remind
myself ( forgot a few times and paid the price) of the difference. But I
think the tasking was compatible, given the large size of the circles. The
K21 and the V2bx were outside the club class limits, so we would have been
flying Sports anyway. The LS1f, LS4, and Libelle could have elected Sports
or Club. Only big difference I see is one more "HowIdunit" speech.

Hartley Falbaum
DG808c "KF"