On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 11:49:37 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

It's difficult and dangerous to criticize the US Air Force soaring
competition program from the outside. I don't know what their
objectives are or how they measure success. I did have the opportunity
to observe the fleet competing at the regional contest during the
Hobbs Standard Class Nationals last year. I chatted with a number of
the cadets and was impressed with their enthusiasm and surprisingly
good (given their relatively brief exposure to soaring in most cases)
skills. I was also struck by the regimented nature of the flying.
Missions were planned in a structured way before takeoff (though
obviously the cadets were capable of adapting to the inevitable
changes in conditions during the day). The most frustrating--to me--
event was where a cadet pilot was ordered to turn back and land at an
airport along with a large number of non-finishers even though,
apparently, he could have completed the task. Whether that was known
at the time or only in hindsight, I don't know, nor do I know the
qualifications of the individual who gave that order.

In any case, the AF's objectives and constraints are doubtless quite
different from, say, mine.

The AA soaring program has varied all over the map in the three
decades I've been soaring at Black Forest or Owl Canyon...the officer
in charge of it doesn't stay long in the job, and generally seems not
to come from a soaring background. I remember Dave Allen as the best
-- fine soaring pilot, teacher and motivator.

Circa 1974, they were making cadets fly the 1-26 in crash helmets,
which made things a bit tough for the big guys...

At one BFGP Labor Day Contest, the flight line closed on the day of
the barbecue with everybody accounted for except one cadet in a 1-26
who had been out of radio contact for hours. Rather than drive the
trailer endlessly around the course, the CO announced that the team
would settle down for the barbecue and the cadet would be credited
with a day of survival training. With meat going on the fire and
darkness descending, there was a low whistle and the cadet entered the
pattern...he had made it around the course at approximately no knots.

Few years later, I had just finished one day in a contest at Las Vegas
NM and heard a cadet call in from the AFA's 1-34. We watched her come
nicely down a final glide, visibly gaining on the glide slope, nice
safe finish in the bag...and then she racked it over, opened the
brakes, and landed in the sagebrush. 1000 AGL was the Academy's "hard
deck" -- when you were down to that altitude and not in the pattern
you landed out, period.

rj