Common John! ;-)

Saying the rules committee has nothing to do with the tasks run at US contests is like saying that the Federal Reserve has nothing to do with inflation, output or employment. Common! Who are you trying to kid?

You guys came up with these experimental task types (only in the USA, even Canada doesn't use HATs). Saying the RC has nothing to do with tasking is just really, really funny when you think about it. Thanks for the chuckle. The purpose of the experiment was to provide CDs a means of providing more more flexibility (lower difficulty) for contest pilots in order to reduce land-outs in unpredictable weather, right? But in reality land-outs have not really decreased all that much. Task challenge and for some overall contest enjoyment has been reduced.

Blame it on the CDs? No. I certainly do not. Talk to the CDs? I do and they have responded to encouragement in some cases. I am thankful for this, but it's only been at nationals really. I'll run the numbers soon. I suspect it was only a 2% increase at best.

Other counties seem to, somehow, run a significant number of assigned tasks at regional level, junior level contests and even junior training camps (and of course roughly 50% at nationals (weather permitting) becuase they are loved by many pilots and simple to manage for beginners. They don't have an enormously higher land out rate. The US runs only 1-2 assigned tasks a year NATIONWIDE at regionals, if we are lucky! A handful more at nationals.. Again, land-out rates are roughly the same.

Many US pilots (and Candian) are no longer excited about US regionals becuase of the silly tasks that are often called. A significant number have entirely stopped planning to attend regionals. Now "we" are even seriously studying the introduction of an OLC task. This will probably further hamper assigned tasks.

I like the idea of the IGC setting a reasonable task ratio standard at the Worlds. Most countries seem to adopt those basic standards in their contests. The US RC needs to inject at least some guidance protecting assigned tasks or we will have none soon.

Look at the turnout for the FAI Sailplane Grand Prix USA (July 2016). We could have had almost 50 entrants if more than 20 were allowed to enter. Some people, perhaps more than you think, still want to to race.

It's incredible how resistant many in SSA leadership roles are to this idea..

Cheerio,

Sean