They have! And many of us applaud them for doing so under relentless political pressure. The old rule, clearly, was not enforced and was therefore useless. If we don't want cloud flying, we should require cameras. I am more than happy to fly with one. Or, develop another technology to identify IMC occurrences. If your not willing to argue equally for an effective means of cloud flying enforcement (vs just an unenforced rule), aren't you really saying that it's not a real problem? That's how I see it.

Now, back to the fact that only 4 assigned tasks (count them with me...one, two, three...........three and a half..........three and three quarters...........FOUR!!!) were flown in the United States in 2014. Are we the first country to adopt OLC as our basic model for competition flying? Sadly, that it not really a joke. It's a serious question. A strong argument can be made that we (the USA/SSA) are the worlds OLCs largest adopter! So much so that our contest tasking is mimicking OLC more and more every year.

Compare our 4 assigned tasks to ----- 31 ----- ONE turn or ZERO turn HATs (MATs). These (HATS) are really OLC tasks. They have absolutely nothing to do with assigned tasks. We ran 8 times as many OLC tasks as AST tasks! Eight times!!!!!!!!

The weather cannot be that bad. Can it? I'll have data on the speeds and land out percentages soon. Most of our contests were out west last year! Wouldn't you think we would get more ASTs? The problem is that the powers that be no longer value pure ASTs.

One reason that Assigned Tasks are a land out concern for the US may be because very few of our pilots are used to flying to assigned turnpoints anymore. Our pilots never try them. It's becoming all about flying wherever one wants. Making it easier. "Maximizing the day" of flying only were the flying is easiest!!! What challenge is that again? That is the whole point of assigned tasking. It's harder!

The art, the challenge of flying effectively thru less then ideal conditions is being lost (in the US) with the ever easier tasks. Hey, there are some nice clouds over there! Oh wait, now it looks better over there! Or, where is the best cloud in that general direction? Let's head to that one! That's not competition soaring, it's sightseeing. It's vactioning. Touring. :-). It's also basically all we do in US contests anymore. Go wherever we want...after weather guy struggles to set the "task" the area with the best weather (assuming the "task" has any assigned turnpoints or turn areas at all).

Who else wants a few more racing tasks and a few less OLC tasks? Remember, I'm not arguing for ALL assigned tasks. I am arguing for "some" ASTs in our competitive contest on solid weather days. I'm arguing that we need to fly far more than 2%. 5x more would be 10% (16 in 2014). Why is that so terrible and frightening?

How is that for hijacking a thread? :-)