So it seems those who resisted the establishment of a bona fide Club
Class here in the U.S. have now *******ized it.

How utterly inane and comically predictable!

Ray Cornay

The pilot ranking list shows Ray Cornay flew an LS4 in Region 5 South
in 2008, but has not flown any sports class nationals. (I don't have
"Mike's" last name.) Ray has snarky things to say about people
"resisting the establishment of a bona fide club class", but when we
ran a club class contest in region 5 south 2009, he didn't show up.

And that's the basic problem. Everyone loves the idea of 50 new pilots
duking it out in club class gliders to get on the world team in the
abstract. Alas, it didn't happen in reality. Exactly one eligible
pilot/glider showed up two years in a row at sports nationals. People
with access to better gliders don't borrow a standard cirrus for their
two week gliding vacations just because some rule said so. And people
like Ray, for whom this whole thing was designed, do not show up.

Before spouting off we should all go look at the sports class results
at
http://www.ssa.org/members/contestre...lass+Nationals

and at the US team ranking list at
http://soaringweb.org/US_Team/HomePage.html

(I gather the updated versions including this year's results will be
up soon.)

These are the sad facts that the US team committee has to deal
with.Should we really send pilots to the worlds based on these
results? Look hard and think what you would do. The SSA built it, they
don't come. At some point you face reality.

The claim that anyone at the US team or rules committee "resisted"
club class is also not founded. Two club class contests have been
held. Anyone who wants to organize one is welcome to do it. We'll
chalk Ray up as a volunteer to CD the next one.

No, the RC did not destroy the single most successful contest class in
the US (sports class) by passing a rule saying that 2/3 (yes, 2/3) of
the gliders who actually show up can't fly, all based on an unproven
theory. The SSA came close, by saying that 2/3 of those who show up
can't earn team points. We all should learn from this good but
unsuccessful idea and the world class debacle: you need to grow and
show popularity of a contest class before you commit to it. If you
want club class to succeed, put on a club class regional or super
regional, and show up!

Disclaimer: I had no part in the US team decision, nor do I speak for
the rules committee -- my opinions only.

John Cochrane