Craig,

You did not Hijack the threads. I think OLC has something in common with AST tasks. Here is my logic...

I am all for OLC gatherings, events, vacations (whatever we call them). I am the one hosting the Ionia OLC event. Obviously, I fully support OLC events.

We had fairly poor turnout for our Ionia sanctioned contests (3) although 2 of the 3 had over 30 pilots (excellent turnout). Actually, I think one had 40. Anyway... Weather was uncharacteristically poor for those events unfortunately (as it was for many east coast contests those years). I think the main attraction to trying OLC is that it is "not a contest." It is a soaring vacation and you can basically do whatever you want. You don't have to wait for the CD to tell you whether or not you are going to fly on a given day, etc. You can stay home a day or two (something many did anyway at the contests...work, etc). Another benefit is that beginners are free to learn in OLC vacations. The OLC environment (I imagine) actually encourages teaching and learning (for more than contests do). Pilots can freely talk on the radio and latch on to (leech) experienced pilots (who will help pull them along), etc. I think an OLC event is absolutely the right thing for Ionia to try as we have few serious contest pilots and a large amount of beginners. It is going to be great fun and I hope it is well attended. I am guessing 20. That is about the same that we had (on average) for the recent contests.

In my view, OLC is not a truly meaningful form of soaring competition. It is way to unstructured. One can simply grid first every day and move halfway up the scores on that alone! It is a soaring VACATION or potentially a naturally occurring "soaring school." Anyone who thinks these OLC events are soaring competitions is kidding themselves! We are calling the Ionia event the "midwest OLC championships." (www.r6n.org) For anyone who doesn't get it, that is completely tongue and cheek. Sure, we are going to have prizes and reward the longest flights, etc. But we all know it is not an objective test like a contest task. Maybe it will evolve into something bigger than this, but I doubt it. Real contest results will always be the prized goal of the best soaring pilots.

I think one problem we had in the USA is that the only option to fly "events" was SSA sanctioned contests. In most sports 80-90% of the activity is coaching, training and learning. Only 10-20% is actual competition. In soaring (US, can't speak for Europe) 100% of the events (until recently) was SSA sanctioned competition (rules, structure, etc). I can understand (and lived it) how difficult that could be for some. Now with OLC vacations (events) we have another option. I think this is why it is so popular. Kudos to the originator of the OLC event idea!!!

Again, I believe that OLC events make great sense. One benefit of OLC events is that they should take the pressure off the real contest CD's having to run so many watered down OLC tasks. One can hope! That is to say that the number of zero and one turn MATs (and wide turn area TATs) run in real contests should be much less as the OLC soaring vacation events grow. This is great! Contests should be for the serious, intermediate or advanced pilot. OLC is for the soaring vacationer or beginner. Contest pilots can (and will) certainly choose to unwind and attend an OLC vacation event. But most OLC pilots (mostly) are likely not ready for real contests. Now they have somewhere to fly and "event" without complaining about the tasks being too hard. They can accept that real tasks are run in contests and can choose to prepare for those in OLC events before attending the real contest. The competitive OLC pilots will eventually want to test themselves at real contests. This is much better scenario then contests having to accommodate the wishes of everyone including the soaring vacationers with their tasking....