All Soaring Participants

On Sep 29, 2:20*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:
T8 -

As a newbie, I agree with some of the points you're trying to make;
but your tone is a little abrasive. *I think it is coming across that
way out of annoyance at the blogger in this case, but some newbies
might think you're aiming at them.

I would put it this way: *Its nice to hear from newbies and encourage
them to participate, but if they've never been in a competition then
their opinions on how contests are run or how classes are organized
should be taken with a grain of salt. *Its not that Newbies can't have
good ideas - but people with experience who have seen the processes at-
work are much more qualified to make good judgements and suggest
realistic/meaningful changes and improvements. *If someone wants to
make change, they should get involved and do it from the inside of an
organization - not try to impose change on others from the outside.

The good news about today's information-age is that even if the
newbies are excluded from the "official" SRA surveys and stuff, there
are still a bunch of ways for our feedback and ideas to be seen and
heard by competition pilots and organizers. *I've thrown out a bunch
of ideas and opinions here on RAS in the last week and not a single
SRA person has told me to sit down or shut up - so I don't feel like
I'm being EX-cluded. *I just hope that any dumb statements that I make
or stupid ideas that I propose are respectfully critiqued by those
folks, so that I learn and understand more. *:-)

Take care,

--Noel

Hi Noel,

The point, which you obviously get, is that on an individual basis the
competition community is extremely helpful and welcoming to serious
newcomers. Newcomers are, however, not welcome to start fixing things
at random, most of which are not broken. We have a rules process. It
works. I've been flying competition off and on since the days of
pilotage and cameras. Every time I come back I feel like a newbie.
Every time I've been welcomed. Never have I thought I needed to get
involved with rules making.

Indeed the sarcasm was directed to the OP, whom I hope takes it in
stride and doesn't get unduly offended.

The side issue here, of course, has to do with his advocacy for club
class and the feeling of some that he wants on the Rules Committee for
not entirely altruistic reasons. FWIW, I'd personally find a club
class nats an interesting addition to the schedule -- I do own an
ASW-20 after all -- but handicap classes are made or broken on the
handicapping system. If I found, for instance, that the rules ended
up being handicap by data-plate only and that mods were "anything
goes", I wouldn't bother. Some dude shows up with the original
Scheumann Libelle and blows us all into the weeds. I'm not familiar
with the details of Sam's LS-1f, but I am given to understand that
it's substantially modified, so you can see the obvious concern.

Best regards,

-T8