Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic (was: US 2008 CompetitionFacts)

I am not a competition pilot and probably have no right to enter this
discussion. I opted out of competition years ago after reading a letter
in Soaring from Paul Bickle. He observed that if one wants to compete
seriously one must realize that the glider is expendable. For me, that
would mean treating my relatively meager resources foolishly (my glider
and my neck).

Of course one can fly hors de concourse and have some fun, but is that
really competing, or just getting in the way? The following paragraph is
a quote from below.

"Its still a pretty dangerous sport. Stay down [in] the middle and the
risk is reasonable. But the edges are sharp and the temptation to play
close to the edges is real."





At 21:28 23 January 2009, ZL wrote:
wrote:
On Jan 23, 1:46 pm, toad wrote:
I think that the decline in contest flying has NOTHING to do with the
racing rules ! And no tinkering or restraint from tinkering will
change that decline.

It is simply mirroring the decline of soaring in general.

Todd Smith
3S

You may be right, although my impression is that neither soaring in
general nor the SSA membership specifically has suffered a 14%+
decline in the past four years.



Here's some slightly different stats over previous years. The US
Competition Pilot Ranking list. Including some way back, pre-GPS, early
sports class years I found in my files. It gives the total number of
pilots that scored in an SSA sanctioned over the previous 3 years.
Smooths out some of the outlying good and bad years.

1990 - 620
1992 - 630
1995 - 550
2001 - 501
2002 - 551
2003 - 619*
2004 - 636
2005 - 636
2006 - 590
2007 - 592
2008 - 594

* The online list shows 900, hand removing obvious duplicates gives 619

Looks to me like the 20 year trend is remarkably flat. Bigger percentage

of SSA members today, but maybe not a different percentage of total
active glider pilots.

I'm sure the stats could be cooked to support any position you like. But

the sport has changed a lot since 1990. Went from suicide dive start
gate to GPS start circle. Turnpoint cameras to 1 mile GPS turn anywhere
turnpoints. From sports class scratch distance tasks, mostly assigned
tasks with a few PSTs to almost all min time TAT, rare MAT and AT. From
don't ask don't tell airspace limits to GPS checked 1000 pt penalties
for almost busting airspace limits. From carefully prepared then wadded
up in the cockpit sectionals, whiz wheel glide computers and damned
compasses to computer moving map glide computers. From no lower limit
finish gates to finish cylinders, safety finishes, and the rare 50 ft
min finish lines. The participants have changed with time, but
participation numbers have not.

I don't have the stats, but from my personal view, numbers of safety
incidents have also changed very little. Its still a pretty dangerous
sport. Stay down the middle and the risk is reasonable. But the edges
are sharp and the temptation to play close to the edges is real.

I still enjoy contests. Maybe the trade offs behind all the changes are
worth it. They all, or most of them, made sense at the time. Maybe my
memory of how it was 25 years ago is flawed as I started young. But I
feel some of the essence has been lost in the quest.

-Dave
ZL