new Soaring article

On May 13, 11:03*am, John Cochrane
wrote:

As I see it, the other viable option is to form a handicapped class
for all gliders below club class performance. If the "13.5" class
could include, say, the KA6 and ASK21, then everyone would have a
place to compete. If we have a club class and a 13.5 meter class, the
KA6, ASK21, etc. have nowhere to go. But there is always a tradeoff
between participation and purity, so owners of these gliders have to
think about what they'd like.

This is basically what the Arizona Soaring Association has been doing
in it's local contest series for many years. "Classes" are based on
handicapped glider performance AND pilot skill, with the A class for
the serious racers in basically FAI-class gliders, the B class for
less experieced pilots or lower performance gliders (think Club
class), and if needed, a C class for 1-26s, 2-33s, PW-5s, etc. Tasks
are set accordingly, with B being perhaps 80% of the A task, and C
again 80% of the B class, or whatever is reasonable for the gliders
competing.

This has worked great for longer than I have been racing!

And a feature is that if you win the B class races for the year, you
automatically have to move up to A class!

Kirk
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