On Sep 19, 1:55*pm, hotelalpha wrote:
On Sep 19, 12:50*pm, Andy wrote:

Over the last two years Open and Standard Class have
averaged 12 -13 pilots at the Nationals. *World Class
has averaged 7 pilots.

How would 10 Club Class pilots by IGC definition
be any different? *Should we start thinking of ways
to bring non-qualifying gliders into the Open, Standard
and World Class so there is a greater pool of pilots?

I believe there is enough support to have an independent
Club Class within the Sports Class. *We can't expect
the Club Class to grow in the US until it gets proper
recognition. *We have already deviated from IGC standards.
Further deviation may do more harm than good.

Sean Franke

Perhaps we should combine FAI classes in some way - less than 15
pilots at a nationals is a crying shame. We already prioritize team
selection across classes a bit based on the relative competitiveness
of the nationals. Below a certain threshold I could see, say, picking
a pilot for the team in Standard Class based on performance in the
15M nationals. I sure don't think World Class is a shining example of
what we'd like the breadth of competition to be to qualify pilots for
the worlds.

The other way to deal with this is to apply a version of the above
logic to Club versus Sports. If you have more than, say, 15 pilots
with above 85 seeding who complete at least 2 Nationals in a the
period, flying a qualifying Club Class glider you'd pick team members
from that group, otherwise you broaden out to the more inclusive
definition. That may be too complex, but you get the idea.

I haven't checked, but my guess is the average seeding at the FAI
nationals is higher than at the Sports nationals. So, it's not just a
question of 10 pilots - it's the 5-6 who are national caliber as
measured by seeding, then you narrow down to the subset of those who
will go to more than one Nationals in a three year period and Club
Class ends up being a cozy club indeed. Show up for two Sports
Nationals with a qualifying glider and you have a pretty good shot at
making the team.

To my way of thinking we have a choice of making 2/3 of the
competitors at the Sports nationals eligible for team selection or
excluding 2/3 of the pilots. We're not excluding any pilots at the FAI
nationals form team selection.

9B