Part of the appeal of showjumping is that it IS elitist. I think this is
one of the biggest obstacles to growth in our sport. Many people think that
you have to be rich to fly or compete in sailplanes and it keeps them away
from our sport. When they find out that they can join a club and soar
relatively reasonably, they are very surprised. One of the original goals
of the World Class was that the sailplane be "reasonably" priced and I agree
with that. I see having Soaring as an Olympic sport being an avenue for
getting more exposure and more people thinking about becoming involved in
Soaring. I think our sport suffers from underexposure. I think it would
benefit us all if a few thousand more sailplanes were built and sold world
wide every year.

Gary Boggs

"Andreas Maurer" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:07:47 -0700, "Gary Boggs"
wrote:

But then we're back to having to have the latest (most expensive) design
to
be competitive. I always thought that one of the reasons to have an
Olympic
contest was to test the pilots, not the plane or the pocket book. Having
a
handicapped contest would open it up to more than just those who could
afford the latest designs.

Showjumping also uses pretty expensive designs - these horses are
easily twice as expensive as the most expensive glider, and here also
the "pilot" is only doing half of the job. Yet the sport seems to
work...


Bye
Andreas