WGC Uvalde: US Team... What Happened????

I guess if you want to have one of your pilots be World Champion (or at
least stand somewhere on the podium) and are disappointed that with home
advantage it wasn't achieved, you can either shrug you shoulders and say
'all the other pilots were even better', or look for some structural reason
why.

The argument, 'we have a small glider pilot population density, and are
geographically isolated', doesn't stack up when you see how pilots from
South Africa and New Zealand perform.

Regularly flying with a different set of rules is (IMHO) a much more
plausible reason. A Worlds is a learning environment - but not if you
expect to win.

Encouraging a proper Club Class (limited handicap range) is one step
towards getting a wider range of pilots interested in a serious top-level
comp., at affordable cost (if any form of soaring can be categorised as
affordable). And educate your CDs into task setting that causes pilots to
develop the kind of tactical thinking that wins FAI rules competitions.
The US MAT is a cop-out. In UK we manage to use FAI rules in weather that
is just as demanding, without mass landouts except on the days when no sane
pilot would rig if it weren't for the fact some sadistic CD has called
'launch the grid' (I confess, it has been me in the past, but I have also
been a victim)..

And changing tasks in the air is insanity.