John and Richard,

I do remember the days when I had no clue how to fly cross country. Luckily, I had an experienced pilot like W3 to fly with at the home base. I quickly realized that following him was no way to get better. Instead, we have gone to setting a task and starting together for fun. After a few clouds we end up making different decisions and splitting off. After racing around the course we compare results to see who did it better and how. This is really fun and much more gratifying.

I go to contests to do the same thing. I put up my best effort and compare it to other pilots at the end of the day. Contests are a great way to improve your soaring skills. I recommend making your own decisions and flying your own flight to anyone who enjoys getting better.

Displaying other pilot's contest ID's and climb rates via FLARM not only make the results of other pilots at the end of the day less meaningful, but each pilot will not have the same sense that they accomplished the flight themselves. Not entirely so, but to some extent. Surely, racing pilots will make some use of this data if available. This is what I mean by watering down the sport and decreasing the adventure of it all.

XC