The other teams - including the South Africans fly together, train
together, work as a team. Know each other's strengths, know the FAI
rules backwards and know how to exploit them etc.

On your own it is much harder - Look at Mark Holliday - he was alone in
15m and probably placed a lot lower than if his partner had been able to
make the contest.

The majority of our clubs are training with stuff Methuselah would have
regarded as "quaint". The competitive pilots (in many countries like
Holland, UK, Germany, France, etc) get competitive equipment, at their
own expense and learn how to use it to maximum effect. Relatively
straight forward strategy.

The German model does make things better, because their club structure
and social leanings encourage an investment led ecosystem. That way
there is new shiny stuff to train on etc. Of course they then ship the
stuff to South Africa to fly at places like Gariep and Bloemfontein -
because you can't buy weather.

On 2012/09/18 11:55 AM, kirk.stant wrote:
On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 12:33:04 AM UTC-7, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:

Let's face it gentlemen: The sport in is decline, in the US in

particular. You need to breed testosterone fueled young blood glider

pilots. How do you expect a geriatric population of pilots who discuss

how to hoist each other out of cockpits with mini cranes to kick ass

against the likes of the Supermenschen of the 4th Reich - where every

village has a glider club with cheap winch launches and hot gliders (no

Schweizer museum relics!)?

Except your racist answer doesn't exactly explain the French, British, Polish, and South African pilots, among others, who were also at the top. Although I tend to agree about the museum relics...

Kirk


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771