It looks like there we have a chicken-and-egg problem here, with two opposing propositions:

(a) The sport of soaring in America is on the decline because the contest rules are geared towards older pilots who'd prefer roaming through the skies all day to racing. Since this type of contest flying is not attractive to the younger competitive pilots, they are leaving the sport in droves.

(b) The decline in the sport of soaring in America is caused by the lack of new young glider pilots entering the ranks. Consequently, the glider pilot population is rapidly aging and the older pilots, who are now in the overwhelming majority, are tailoring the contest rules according to their own preferences. Most of the the senior pilots aren't very competitive and they enter contests in order to socialize and get some flying in. Others, who are still competitive at heart, realize that they no longer possess the psycho-physical capabilities required to be competitive with the hotshots like Sean, who are in their prime. Both groups of geezers, although for slightly different reasons, prefer the loosey-goosey tasks (like MAT and TAT with 30 mile radius) that currently prevail in the US contests.

From what I can tell, Sean and Wilbur subscribe to the proposition (a) and claim that changing the rules and turning the US contests into true racing competitions would bring about a renaissance in the sport of soaring in America.

However, what if the proposition (b) is the one much closer to the truth? What if the current arcane US contest rules are not the root cause, but rather the effect of the aging glider population and the decline in the sport of soaring in America? Then changing them would not do much, if anything, to fix the root cause of the problem.

As an illustration, take a look at the number of contestants in this year's Senior Soaring Championship (55 entries, 6 guests, and 7 on the waiting list), and compare it to this year's US Junior National Camp and Contest (6 entries). I rest my case.

However, there is a definite bright side for the competitive US glider pilots in their prime: they should find it relatively easy to do well enough in the US contests (given the past-their-prime competition) in order to qualify for the US gliding team. Compare this to the German or French gliding teams, where even the recent world champions are not assured of being selected.

Branko Stojkovic
XYU