Forget Dying; Is Soaring Dead?

I agree with Frank...to some degree...the OLC is not
racing...

1.) You don't drive 1, 2, 3 days to a location
2.) You don't sit in the rain for 1, 2, 3, 4 days(see
most recent race results)
3.) Your parachute may not have been repacked in the
last year, heaven forebid.
4.) You may not have to shanghai a crew for a week
at some garden spot of the western US.
5.) You may not have to burn up all your vacation
time for one event.
6.) You don't get to spend years in the bottom of
the pack.

Wait a minute...this is not diatribe on anti-racing...racers
are some of the most enthusiastic of our sport, they
are the ones who the manufacturers create new gliders
for...they are to be admired for their dedication and
zeal. But there is a reason that 95% of us do not
race.

The OLC has really been able to help many of us sate
our competitive urge without the sacrifice required
of traditional racing. We can fly on good days, we
can compare our tracks to the hot pilots who also fly
on the those days...how fast interthermal, how often
stopping and for how long, where did they find the
best lift, etc, etc. We can use the OLC as the gateway
to organized racing, for those who desire that route.
And so far the OLC has resisted that all-so-prevalant
glider disease of trying to make things more complex.

So is it a substitute for racing....heck no.




At 15:18 29 August 2006, Frank Whiteley wrote:
The OLC is not a real substitute for racing, but I
would like to see a
glider type filter, just to see how others flying the
same make/model
are doing.

Frank Whiteley

HoUdini wrote:
As a pilot just getting interested in contest flying
I found posting to
OLC to be an easy next step. I wouldn't be surprised
if much of the
past newbee contest cannon fodder (like myself) is
detouring away from
the 'traditional' contest format. If newbees used
to show up just to
stretch themselves, isn't OLC a good substitute?

If this is a trend, then why should it be resisted?
Is there a way to
merge the two? Should OLC evolve into the scoring
program for all
contests/badges? Perhaps after a few years of OLC,
maybe I'll be more
interested in traditional contests...or will OLC/SeeYou
evolve in that
same period of time and keep me captive?

Every day is a contest day to me and technology change
tends to leave
the 'traditionalists' behind. My bet is OLC will
evolve faster than
traditional contests can respond to the challenge.

Folks, it's a real 'game changer'. How it will change
us, both good
and bad, is still to be seen.

LT





Eric Greenwell wrote:

For me - no. Contest flying (lets call it 'racing')
and the OLC are such
different experiences, one can not subsitute for
the other. In the air,
racing with other gliders, especially on assigned
tasks, is quite
different from flying by myself. There is also the
ground side, with all
the competitors gathered in one place at the same
time for the race,
flying the same tasks, so you have a shared experience
that you don't
get in the OLC.

While the competition aspects of the OLC are interesting,
it's not
exciting like a race, at least for me; interesting,
but not exciting. I
really like to see what others are doing and how
differet areas of the
country and the world work for soaring pilots, so
I do follow the postings.

I don't seriously compete in the OLC, but I do post
all my flights.
Serious competition would involve carefully planning
a course for each
day to best fit the OLC task rules, along the lines
of Badge and record
tasking. While I enjoy these kinds of flights, the
experience is still
very different than a race, and I don't plan my flights
to optimize my
OLC score.

So, perhaps someone that's never raced a sailplane
might think the OLC
was a substitute for racing, but I don't, and I'm
guessing most pilots
that have raced wouldn't, either.

--


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