I agree that we may have to reevaluate contests in the US to keep
interest up with rising costs. If you’re hauling a trailer with a
small SUV halfway across the country and back the fuel cost can be
over $1000 now plus lodging, food, entry fee and rising tow costs.
Shorter national contests closer to home would be less expensive and
may bring in fresh competitors and enhance competition.

The thing to remember is that the purpose of a national contest is to
choose national champions and US Team members for future world
competitions. We have to look at how this will change the selection
policy. If it’s easier to get a good ranking flying in California then
they’ll be at an advantage versus pilots in Pennsylvania where you
have to struggle around a task more often. How will that be dealt
with?

One way would be to have a location handicap similar to the Hilton
Cup. Another would be to just have a voting system for the teams
similar to what the British team has.

I’m not sure if I agree with eliminating any classes. First 1-26 is on
their own and have a “Championship”. They’ll get very mad if you try
to take their contest away. They actually have a high turn out too.
This year they have around 22 on the list – about the same number as
Standard Class and 18 Meter had this year.

World Class has an equally dedicated following but a bit smaller. The
advantage I see and the reason I’ll be flying my third World Class
National this summer is cost. They’ve been very helpful to junior
pilots in finding gliders and helping defray costs. They’ve combined
many of their contests with other groups to enlarge the total number.
I’m sure this will continue in the future.

Open Class is just cool and shows what’s possible with technology when
you can do anything with the design. Again they have small numbers now
but have been combining their contests with others.