All -

I think people put too much of an emphasis on a couple of key words in
my last post, so let me clarify: The key words were "FIGHTING CHANCE".

I was not implying that we have to coddle people, or give them all
gold stars, or anything of the sort. YES, it should be hard. YES,
there should be learning and skill involved. NO, I didn't expect to
win my first contest (and I didn't even come close). NO, I am not some
kind of "win at all costs" personality.

BUT, and this is the key thing that I was trying to point out: Most
people don't go to a _competition_ in order to come in last place.
They want to feel like they can _compete_. You have to give them an
avenue to feel like they are _competitive_.

Will they have fun? Dear God I hope so - I certainly do! Out here in
WA state, we have been holding an event every Memorial Day weekend for
the last 4 years, called the "Dust Up". It was designed to introduce
new pilots to racing. We hold a series of seminars in the 2 months
leading up to the "contest", showing pilots how to prepare and what's
important to bring. Then we hold 3 days of tasks, starting easy and
slowly ramping up the difficulty. We also hold round-table discussions
and presentations each night. Its been phenomenally successful, and
one of the biggest comments we always hear is how people were afraid
to try a "real" contest - either because they feared they would be
embarrassingly bad, or drag the contest down, or couldn't make it
around the course. And it isn't just newbies to soaring - some of
these people are highly-successful XC pilots with 500+km flights! The
point - again - is that you have to have a point of entry that makes
people _want_ to give it a go.

Yes, some people go to contests just for fun. Some don't ever care
about winning or doing well, and that's OK. But those people are the
minority, and certainly NOT the people who are going to push our
National team to get better - which was the origin of this whole
thread and is what I was posting about.

BTW, TATs/AATs can be super-competitive; and if your CD is only
calling 20-30 mile cylinders then they're doing it wrong. And they
don't have to call 1 mile cylinders to do it right, either (otherwise
you're right back to the luck-factor that is such a problem in ATs,
which I've previously harped on so I won't repeat them here). A 5-10
mile circle will enable some flexibility, eliminate some of the luck-
factor, allow a reasonable spread of handicaps and pilot-skills to
complete the task, and still be "race-y".

For MATs... As John and others have pointed out, they can be used in a
ton of ways. Sometimes the weather dictates a starting point and an
open task. But certainly "Long MATs" and an open section with final
turnpoints (to guide you back to the airport from a certain direction,
or over certain areas) can be used successfully and still give a good
task. Of course, if the weather's weak its not going to be as "fun"
for most folks no matter WHAT you call. I'd rather have a task I can
complete, than a ton of retrieves.

Demand better tasking, don't just declare the system broken. That's
like calling a hammer a piece of **** just because you can't unscrew
an AN4 bolt with the thing!

--Noel