On Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 9:35:31 AM UTC-7, John Cochrane wrote:
Rules were not such a big deal. Tactics were enormous, and both my biggest failures and greatest learning experience. In weak weather the gaggle tactics are everything. It doesn't require just flying under their rules. You have to fly really big contests, and fly with them. You have to anticipate what the other gliders will do, and where the gaggle will form. Who was to know that the upwind end of the start line at 5000' was the wrong place to be, and the downwind end at 2500' was the right place to be? (Because that's where the germans and french were, hence the gaggle formed there, left form there and hung together through abysmal weak first leg).

Yes, if the US had a vibrant contest scene with 65 gliders in each nationals class, all flying exactly under IGC rules, with long long tasks, lots of landouts, lots of foreigners coming to fly so we see how they fly and learn to anticipate their moves, we would do better at worlds, and I would have done a lot better at worlds.

Just passing "use IGC rules" for every contest in the US will not make that happen. Most of our nationals classes struggle to attract 15-20 pilots. Those pilots don't aggressively fly gaggles even if they are flying AT. If we fly contests so you absolutely must have a crew or a motor, half of the pilots including me will not show up. The crowd who now flies OLC will absolutely not show up. 6 pilots flying together under IGC rules is worse training than 25 pilots flying under US rules. 50 pilots flying under US rules is even better. A huge difference at worlds is just the size of the thing. When there are 15 contenders it's a lot different than when there are three.. When the sky is full of gliders you get a lot more practice at gaggle flying than when there are only a few of you, and who cares about the scoring formula.

The right answer are specialized contests and events in the US run to train for world events. The US team is making that happen. The grand prix are making that happen.

We have the assigned task. We have the turn area task. Nationals call maybe one MAT per contest. Tasking is really not an issue. The only difference between US and IGC rules is a slightly more complex scoring formula under IGC rules. The big difference is the size and competitiveness of the contests. No change in rules, especially one that makes it harder to attend, is going to fix that

John Cochrane

Well said John, thanks! Where's the "like" button? ;-)

Craig Funston