Lessons from Another Sport about the Elite

According to the feeback on Facebook from the UK pilots who competed at
Uvalde in 2012 the contest was a really good experience. The members of the
team had nothing but praise for the way the constest was organised, the
hospitality, and the general ambience. For us back home it was also a good
experience, I sat up until the early hours of the morning watching the
tracking and mavelling at the conditions. If you can run a worlds like that
where is the difficulty in running regional comps? You obviously have the
expertise.
Regional Comps in the UK attract pilots of all levels, some in what many
would say were uncompetetive gliders but everyone enjoys themselves,
including the guys who compete in the worlds. They have to fly in the
smaller comps to qualify for the national and international competitions.
From what I read on here you have awful difficulty with some of your rules
and I would find that very off putting, too much regulation spoils
enjoyment. We have rules over here and they are updated every year but only
things necessary for fair competition and safety are included in the rules.
From time to time there are arguments but in general everyone acccepts
them. It does help that the rules are made by the BGA competitions
committee which consists entirely of pilots who fly in competitions.

Same in Australia,
Only gliders which fly World Comps have a Kangaroo on the tail,
I owned one for some years. my new glider has no Roo even though I flew
last 2 WGCs. We leave roos on the tails after the comps, some of the owners

treasure them.
Tom



23:33 18 March 2013, Dan Marotta wrote:
Yes, that particular glider had won the World Championships in 1985. I
was

not the pilot, however, but I didn't see the need to peel off the flag.


wrote in message
...

Well, there was this asshole in Boulder who approached my partner and
I
just

to tell us that there shouldn't be a flag on the tail of our glider
unless

we'd flown in the nationals.

Dan - I always thought the US flag on the tail was to indicate the pilot

or the glider had represented the US internationally (WGC, etc.)???

In rowing, only current or former national team members shoudl row with

oars painted with the US "flag" oars.

Tim EY

Great article. I've been lucky enough to spend just a little time with some really good pilots and have always enjoyed the experience. I attended a week at Uvalde with a friend/student of mine who at that time had just gotten his private-glider cert. We were able to get involved with helping out many of the US Team pilots and they were all really friendly back to us. I don't think they realized how much fun it was for us to help them. To us it woudl be the equivalent of showing up at a NASCAR race and during the driver meet & greet having Jimmie Johnson ask you to be on his pit crew.