On Tue, 19 Oct 2010 13:17:07 -0700 (PDT), "noel.wade"
wrote:

I'm not thrilled about the OLC changes; but I have a question: How
much does the SSA (or do USA pilots) contribute to running the OLC -
in terms of $$ or equipment?

If its funded primarily by the Germans then we're kind of stuck with
their rules, since we're partying on their system. We may not like
it, but its not "ours", so we can't control it or expect the owners to
necessarily accommodate our wishes. :-/

--Noel
P.S. I know that some of us have made donations to the OLC. However,
$5 donations by a couple-hundred US pilots do not count much towards
the operating costs of the whole OLC system; especially given the
exchange rate the last couple of years!

Hi Noel,

don't worry - us Germans are much more pi**ed off about the OLC
rulemaking than you guys on your side of the big pond.

So far noone in Germany was able to influence OLC rulemaking, although
quite a few rule changes are necessary to make the majority of gliders
competitive again (the current index calculation clearly favours
gliders with a high index and an engine).


Example:
Taking a closer look, many rules (index calculation, removing of a
return-bonus) are tailor-made for 18m motorgliders, rendering
club-class gliders without an engine chanceless.
These rules were introduced after the OLC guys had bought 18m
self-launchers...



Andreas