On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 1:19:43 AM UTC-8, kirk.stant wrote:
On Monday, December 17, 2012 10:02:46 PM UTC+1, Sean F (F2) wrote:

In response to comment calling the public petition for a TRUE...US Club Class into question, I must chuckle a bit. Well, actually a lot. Again, great people on the RC I personally respect and enjoy. But on this point roughly 50 US Club Ship owners have considerable discrepancies in opinion. It appears that rather significant communication gaps exist with the US RC. We can and will have disagreements over such matters but remain friends, gentleman and passionate pilots who love the sport together. This petition is about choice. Is choice good? Is providing an option to US pilots good? US rules or IGC?







Our petition is actually VERY SIMPLE. If said pilot wants the option to fly IGC rules (handicap range and taking philosophy), they signed the petition. If they do not, or are not sure, they did not sign. The petition leaves zero room for subjective question design (and omission), interpretation or "analysis...".







50 US pilots have clearly, openly, publicly, proudly voted or the formation of an IGC rules based US Club Class! We (50+ and growing steadily) are very proud of this petition and continue to grow each day as the visibility into this topic grows.







Sean



F2



Why don't you guys quit whining and just go have your race, FAI rules and all! Nobody is stopping you - there isn't a law that says you can't have your own race outside the SSA franchise. We've been doing it for years in Arizona, with our own subset of rules. And we have a lot of fun.



If a lot of Club Class gliders show up, and everybody has fun, then you will have a leg to stand on. Right now, all I see and hear is a lot of bitching and moaning about how the SRA is dissing the poor little Club Class, etc...



But I guess I won't bother, since my glider isn't retro enough.



Kirk

66

Kirk, you are right. We can do this outside of the SSA. However, there are drawbacks.

1. Lower participation. Attendance will be diminished without SSA sanctioning. Many don't have resources to fly two major contest the same year. You must fly an SSA sanctioned contest to get seeding points.

2. US Team. The USTC will not recognize a non-sanctioned contest for US Team placing. It's a bit ironic that a contest flown under IGC rules wouldn't be recognized for US Team placing under this scenario.

3. Hurt Sports Class. We don't want to draw Club Class gliders from the Sports Class to another venue. Holding a separate non-sanctioned Club Class "Nationals" at another location will force pilots to choose which location they want to fly on their limited time and financial budget. Our proposal will help Sports Class organizers by ADDING gliders to their location. We want to see Sports Class held intact and at the same contest hold an FAI US Club Class Nationals.

Sean Franke (HA)