Frank Whiteley wrote:

Personally, I don't know why we are using regional filters at all
unless someone in the SSA is planning on regional records/awards.

The regional filter began with the 2005 season, did it not? SSA takes
over at some point during the 2006 season. You would know better than I
if the addition of the Regional filter was at the behest of SSA, but I
think it was a good idea whatever its source, and I also think regional
awards make sense.

I like the regional filter as it allows us to easily review, compare,
and hopefully learn from, flights that can be readily related to our
own. It doesn't do me much good to look at a Discus 2B flight at Minden
when what I really want to know is what did Jim Hard and Kevin Ford do
in their 1-26's here in my neck of the woods, on the same day that I do
nothing of the kind. I want to do be able to do what they do, some day
(and I'm sure not getting any younger).

Except for filters like the Regions and the Clubs, it would be very
difficult to get the info that I want about flying what I fly, where I
fly. Conversely it also helps me plan where to go to get the kind of
flying that I can't get here at all, or cannot get in a particular
season. In fact, I want more filters. I like the idea of the Departure
airfield filter, new for the 2006 season. And I want a glider
type-specific filter so I can easily sort for 1-26 flights, or whatever
type I may fly or hope to fly. Not all 1-26 flights, for example, get
posted to the 1-26 Association, though I suppose most do. Information is
good. The more you have the more ideas you get for how to put it to use.

The whole point of the OLC is motivation, and it works, as clearly
evidenced by the growth in participation in each successive season. Go
back and look at the data for 2002, 2003, and 2004, as well as last
season, and you will see a strong progression in participation, and a
big improvement in presentation and in amount of information available.


The regional query also removes flights outside the region,
so it misses what some pilots based within the region may be doing.

Flights by an individual pilot, wherever made, seem easy enough to get.
There are plenty of refinements that can still be made in the OLC but
subtracting information, and the filters we use to get it, would be
moving in the wrong direction.

As you say, you "can still import flights into a spreadsheet or database
and filter appropriately, [it] just takes extra time and effort." And
knowledgeable individuals will continue to do just that in order to
satisfy their particular curiosities. However, a good number of OLC
participants, and potential participants, are not yet ready to construct
their own spreadsheet or database type filters. The combination of
computer and software facility and sailplane proficiency should not be a
double barrier to participation for the Flyin' New Guys that we want and
need.

Give 'em the info, keep it simple, and keep 'em flyin'.


Jack