WGC Uvalde: US Team... What Happened????

To everyone with an interest:

Given the sub-par, and I am being generous here, performance of the US Soaring Team at the recently completed WGC. Is anyone else wondering what in the world happened?

Maybe the lack of debate and substantive change around this topic is why we did so badly in the first place.

Clearly, US Team selection, training, and decision-making (among other things) did not work. And if our team can't work at here at "home", then how can we expect it to work when we send teams overseas.

We can't do much worse than we just did, so how can we change our competitive fortunes? Or does no one care?

Al Batross

On Monday, September 17, 2012 1:11:31 PM UTC-5, wrote:
To everyone with an interest: Given the sub-par, and I am being generous here, performance of the US Soaring Team at the recently completed WGC. Is anyone else wondering what in the world happened? Maybe the lack of debate and substantive change around this topic is why we did so badly in the first place. Clearly, US Team selection, training, and decision-making (among other things) did not work. And if our team can't work at here at "home", then how can we expect it to work when we send teams overseas. We can't do much worse than we just did, so how can we change our competitive fortunes? Or does no one care? Al Batross

the other pilots were faster. there is very little home field advantage in soaring in my observation. fast pilots are fast, no matter the location, weather, etc. it seems to me that we sent the fastest pilots in the US to the contest and they weren't as fast as the fastest pilots from other countries.

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 12:33:04 AM UTC-7, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:

Let's face it gentlemen: The sport in is decline, in the US in

particular. You need to breed testosterone fueled young blood glider

pilots. How do you expect a geriatric population of pilots who discuss

how to hoist each other out of cockpits with mini cranes to kick ass

against the likes of the Supermenschen of the 4th Reich - where every

village has a glider club with cheap winch launches and hot gliders (no

Schweizer museum relics!)?

Except your racist answer doesn't exactly explain the French, British, Polish, and South African pilots, among others, who were also at the top. Although I tend to agree about the museum relics...

Kirk

Given all the circumstances I think it is fair to say that our team were underdogs going into this competition. But I still think that we can take pride in how they represented our country. Dick Butler, in particular, completed Concordia, won two Contest Days and placed 7th in the Open Class. That is quite an achievement!

There have been many GREAT glider pilots that never won a world title. That does not diminish their skills or their achievements and certainly I don't respect or admire them any less for not having won at the World level. The level of competition and the difficulty of the competition itself serves as a reminder of just how special our own World Champions have been. It makes me appreciate the accomplishments of the late Paul Macready Jr., the late A.J. Smith, George Moffat (twice) and Doug Jacobs all the more.

I was happy for Dick Butler's success and think that we should celebrate the event by congratulating all of our USA Team Members for their efforts in representing the rest of us.

I thought that their percentage of the winning scores were pretty good, I haven't done it but maybe someone could look at how many points per minute were scored, overall, and then how many minutes they were actually out of first place. If this were done I think we probably did pretty well. These are very good pilots and a mistake that loses a few minutes is really significant.

I'm with the glass half full crowd. So what if we didn't beat the pants off the rest of the world. It's a big place. We should be celebrating our amazing pilots, and ALSO all the other amazing pilots of the world. We hosted a great event and it had to be very exciting to be a part of. ... Aaron

P.S. lets get captions on all the photos in SoaringCafe. I'ld like to match faces with names.

First, the US Soaring Team is highly unlikely to be competitive (or likely within 2500 pts) at a World Championship until the SSA starts (and continue's for some time) competing under the same set of competition rules. In this case, FAI. The SSA apparently believe's that it's rules are better rules than FAI as alot of energy is spent on them. With that, in my opinion, US pilots will never be properly trained or prepared for top level competition. Far from it. FAI and US rules differ significantly. The only country in the world that uses different rules is the USA.

The SSA is fairly powerless to do anything about these recent World Championship performances. They are happy sending a US Team and having fun. Which is fine. But clearly, the US as a country, is not competitive in the 15/18/Open classes. Not even close to being close. Even with a super-glider in Open.

It's not about the gliders, its about training and preparation as a team from the bottom up. I have been through this on the US Sailing Team. With that experience, in my view, the US Soaring Team is not really a team at all.. The only time the pilots were really together was at the Worlds for maybe a week prior. Its completely individual based unlike the teams of the podium pilots. It is not a team.

We need to develop younger pilots, earlier. We need to develop a true team and leverage it. We need the pilots flying together and committed. We need to play the same game (FAI). That is just not going to happen with the current group.

Our current US Soaring Team qualification system under our US rules, then sending pilots to fly a World Championship under FAI is a bit like qualifying for a poker tournament by playing checkers. Add to that how little time is spent practicing together vs. the other teams.

The club class has shown great interest in being allowed (sanctioned) by the SSA and flying under FAI rules. The SSA committee's will not allow it. They do not want to divide up the numbers of their flagship sports class. Oddly, the US Club Class team has been the most competitive US team lately.

I for one would like to fly FAI rules, at least for some contests. I may be buying a club class glider and hosting a none SSA, club class, FAI rule contest next year in MI. I hope others do the same. Especially if your goal is to be competitive at a World Championship some day.

PS...Look at what Canada has accomplished. Its about flying together all the time...even though they might not fly FAI. What are your expectations for Canada at the next Worlds vs. the US? I would say Canada has serious podium potential. I would say the US will not improve.

I would love to see the US do better. But I see little or nothing changing in the next two years OR NOW WHEN IT MATTERS.

F2


On Monday, September 17, 2012 2:11:31 PM UTC-4, wrote:
To everyone with an interest:



Given the sub-par, and I am being generous here, performance of the US Soaring Team at the recently completed WGC. Is anyone else wondering what in the world happened?



Maybe the lack of debate and substantive change around this topic is why we did so badly in the first place.



Clearly, US Team selection, training, and decision-making (among other things) did not work. And if our team can't work at here at "home", then how can we expect it to work when we send teams overseas.



We can't do much worse than we just did, so how can we change our competitive fortunes? Or does no one care?



Al Batross

On Monday, September 17, 2012 11:11:31 AM UTC-7, wrote:
To everyone with an interest: Given the sub-par, and I am being generous here, performance of the US Soaring Team at the recently completed WGC. Is anyone else wondering what in the world happened? Maybe the lack of debate and substantive change around this topic is why we did so badly in the first place. Clearly, US Team selection, training, and decision-making (among other things) did not work. And if our team can't work at here at "home", then how can we expect it to work when we send teams overseas. We can't do much worse than we just did, so how can we change our competitive fortunes? Or does no one care? Al Batross

There are plenty of excellent sailplane pilots but very few who can pay out the 100,000 it takes to buy a sailplane that will compete in competion flying. It is a rich mans game, the rest of fly the best we can in the sailplanes we can afford and can only wonder if given the chance what we could do..

The other teams - including the South Africans fly together, train
together, work as a team. Know each other's strengths, know the FAI
rules backwards and know how to exploit them etc.

On your own it is much harder - Look at Mark Holliday - he was alone in
15m and probably placed a lot lower than if his partner had been able to
make the contest.

The majority of our clubs are training with stuff Methuselah would have
regarded as "quaint". The competitive pilots (in many countries like
Holland, UK, Germany, France, etc) get competitive equipment, at their
own expense and learn how to use it to maximum effect. Relatively
straight forward strategy.

The German model does make things better, because their club structure
and social leanings encourage an investment led ecosystem. That way
there is new shiny stuff to train on etc. Of course they then ship the
stuff to South Africa to fly at places like Gariep and Bloemfontein -
because you can't buy weather.

On 2012/09/18 11:55 AM, kirk.stant wrote:
On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 12:33:04 AM UTC-7, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:

Let's face it gentlemen: The sport in is decline, in the US in

particular. You need to breed testosterone fueled young blood glider

pilots. How do you expect a geriatric population of pilots who discuss

how to hoist each other out of cockpits with mini cranes to kick ass

against the likes of the Supermenschen of the 4th Reich - where every

village has a glider club with cheap winch launches and hot gliders (no

Schweizer museum relics!)?

Except your racist answer doesn't exactly explain the French, British, Polish, and South African pilots, among others, who were also at the top. Although I tend to agree about the museum relics...

Kirk


--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771

I'm with Mr. Kemp in thinking the US pilots gave a very good
performance. I followed most all of them every contest day using the
SeeYou logs posted at days end (The use of Spot was basically useless
in this regard.). When you "force" the pilots to start at the same
"virtual" time, you can get a feel for the different strategies. The
overall winners flew more efficiently, maximised their energy, seemed
to wander less (shorter air travel per task distance) and, maybe too
obviously, were the most consistent.from one day to the next. Amazing
that that speeds in many cases were so close for the top 10-15
finishers. Of added interest were the sub-plots; e.g. Dick Butler
flying his new ship winning some great days; and John Seaborn missing
a start, only upon completing the task did he learn of his zero-point
day, then subsequently flew some of his best days to move up. Just to
mention a few positives.

Why haven't we had top finishers for many years? I have no clue.
Maybe it is the amount of training, ship performance, US v FAI rules.
Unless the relative paucity of youth participation in soaring is
remedied, not much else is going to matter in a few years.