IGC 13.5m class discussion

Perseverative behaviour.

We created the World class at 13.5m - stuffed the introduction up.
Can't easily stop, because then we have to admit to the world, and the
world class glider's owners that this was a mistake.

So - hope is our strategy - we will open the world class up to other
gliders, and call it the 13.5m class and somehow that will have people
clamouring to compete in them.

The illogic is only exceeded by the predictability of the consequences.

Scarce resourses will be allocated to a class that has three major
disadvantages out of the block:
It will cost as much or more to compete in the class than in Club, or
even in Standards with an older glider.
For the entry level pilot there is already club class / sports class
that is cheaper, and handicapped. And the gliders are great for weekend
flying too.
Anyone who is seriously competitive is going to be drawn to the highest
performance they can afford.

If anyone can see some major advantage to having yet another class let
me know. Frankly it is getting ridiculous. If we carry on like this
there is still a chance I can be world champion in some class.

There used to be "THE WORLDS" one class , one champion. I buy that three
or maybe at a stretch four classes make sense. But no more.
In south Africa we race "18m & Open" , 15m and Club classes. You could
add a two seater class if you wanted to - so make it four - but the 15m
class is getting pretty thin because the Club class is more competitive
and more fun with its handicaps.

In our generally strong conditions the open class gliders actually seem
to be at a disadvantage to the 18m ships that can get to higher
wingloading. Used to be 15m wingspan was open, we are still flying that
way here. It still works.

Ever more classes just dilutes effort, and competition.

Cheers
Bruce

On 2011/01/27 7:10 PM, John Cochrane wrote:
If the objective is to create a venue for a bunch of existing gliders
to race, handicapping seems the only way to go. Club class works that
way. So if the point is to have a race for PW5s, Russias, Silents,
etc. to race, the only viable answer is to create a low-performance
"club lite" class. Club class works great with roughly handicaps 1.0
- 0.9 (US) or 1.0 - 1.1 (Europe). So "below 1.0" is the natural way to
go. If the point is to give existing gliders a place to race, there
isn't much point to a wingspan limitation either.

If the objective is to create a class for completely new yet-to-be
designed gliders, then the natural structure is a class without
handicaps and with simple rules. If they want to do this, I favor
water ballast, so that empty wingloadings and stall speeds can be
low.

But why on earth do that? The absolutely last thing we need is a new
class for gliders that absolutely nobody is building or clamoring to
fly! Do some market research before starting a class! At least for 18m
the gliders came first and the class later.

Judging from the price and performance difference between 15 m and
18m, an optimized 13.5 m glider is going to cost only about $10,000
less than a 15 m glider (except they may substitute to exotic
materials to save weight), and deliver 40:1 performance at relatively
high wingloading. Does anyone want to fly such a thing?

John Cochrane

--
Bruce Greeff
T59D #1771 & Std Cirrus #57