On Dec 15, 9:50*am, Andy K3WYC wrote:
On Dec 15, 7:10*am, wrote:









On Dec 15, 8:50*am, Andy wrote:

On Dec 14, 2:25*pm, Sean Fidler wrote:

There is clearly a wide range of opinion on this subject.

Really? *Show me a west coast thermal flyer who would rather fly a
contest dry. Show me an east coast ridge runner who would rather fly
dry.

In USA all those pilots can fly in sports class if they want to.
Don't mess with the FAI classes freedom to fly with ballast at pilot
discretion.

Water ballast allows a pilot in an FAI class to fly with the wing
loading he chooses (up to max gross wt). *I weigh only 165 pound and
fly a glider that is almost *50lb lighter than some others in my
class. *In a dry contest that puts me over 150 pounds lighter than
some pilots I would compete against.

Any "no ballast" rule should allow all pilots in an FAI class to fly
at the same wing loading or be assigned an appropriate handicap.

Andy (ASW-28 GY)

Current US rules provide for organizer to allow bringing the the
weight of the light guys up to the *heavy guys. This was implemented
in 2010.
UH

The rule requires fixed ballast and does not allow the ballast to be
in the wings where it is safe. The rule also applies no handicap to
pilots that are over the handicap weight with no additional ballast.

With no fixed ballast I'm at the 778lb limit for my ASW-28 so there is
no way I can adjust up to an LS8 with a heavy pilot that may be well
over its 820lb limit. *Since both gliders have the same wing area
there is an obvious disadvantage except when conditions are very
weak. *The SSA handicap weight was never intended to be a weight
limit. It's just a reference weight for calculating a handicap. As you
know I have advocated setting the no ballast contest weight limit to
that of the heaviest un-ballasted glider in the class.

This problem is one reason to always allow ballast in FAI classes
except where it poses a safety issue *- which provides feedback on the
OP's question.

Andy

test to see if my "nickname" gone back to "Andy" The other name was
intended only for use in a JT65 forum.