Roy I can surely second your observation of the learning factor of crewing. I crewed for my bro at regionals and natuonals for four years. I picked up many good points. I didnot get to seriously race till just this last year (kids-work-divorce etc lol). The stuff I learned twenty years ago paid off big time this year.

I also go crewless much of the time, but when I have a crew I feel much more confident in stretching knowing my crew is gonna be there. This last summer having my son crew for me was a very imp part of my doing so well. We had a very high powered communication system as well as a homebrew tracking system utilizing 2meter amateur radio repeaters. This allowed me to take chances flying a very low performance machine, that I could not safely take if I was crewless.