FAI (IGC) rules for US Club Class Nationals - Petition

On Monday, February 25, 2013 7:58:37 AM UTC-6, wrote:
So Club Class advocates have 2 years to prove the rules committee Club Class concept out? That is a a pretty short leash on development, isn't it? Especially given the World Class Experiment of many, many years. I'll continue to work to prove the concept, but my commitment to the "process" is considerably dimmed by what has happened.



And on the incessant demand that proponents of Club Class, or IGC rules, or whatever, "get off their asses" and "seek out waivers" to prove out concepts, etc., it sure seems like even if we do all that, if it conflicts with the longstanding and closely held beliefs of member(s) of the RC, then it will just about go nowhere in the long-term. That's just how it appears. And appearances speak volumes...



Thanks for the continued chance to prove out Club Class, but I am disappointed in how it has been presented to the advocates of Club Class here in the US.



Sincerely,

Tim McAllister EY

Tim:

My suggestion for waivers was only about IGC rules, not about club class. I hope you agree that dropping some as-yet unwritten mixture of US and IGC rules on a nationals two months from now is not a good idea, and this proposal for a whole new rule book (in any class) really does need to be tried once at a regionals.

Club did indeed prove itself with moderate success at regionals (10-15 pilots, not 20-30), and that's why there is a club section of sports nationals. It has everything club advocates asked for, except one thing: if a guy shows up to the sports nationals with a sparrowhawk, we are not going to make him go home, nor will we make him fly the same task in a class that has nothing less than an ASW27 in it.

When we crafted this compromise, we did not realize what a terrible burden it would be to ask clubbies to share the sky with one or two such gliders.

If we can get decent turnout at Mifflin, and organizers willing to put on such a contest, I do not think a separate club class nationals, with US rules and US team list, will take that long. The only thing holding it back is concern that not enough gliders will show up.

On this end, it seems like a moving goal post, and a constant stream of demands for instant action. "Nationals now" it started. No, we have to try it at regionals first, like everything else. We crafted a nationals, that rather cleverly (I thought) addressed the longstanding problem, i.e if we create club, we write all the lower performance gliders out of US competition. The response? "We must have IGC club class list, and IGC rules! We must have it now, without trying it at regionals!" Nobody said anything about that -- dissatisfaction with the US team list or the need for IGC rules -- the first time around, and nobody said a word about it on the fall opinion poll.

If we have a separate US club class with US rules and US team list, will this stop? Or will the goal posts move again?

John Cochrane