What Is Wrong With OLC?

Sean's comments denigrating the value or significance of OLC logged flights is not surprising, considering his repeated statements that seem to imply that anyone who does not fly "Real" competition, as defined by him, is somehow deficient in intellect and/or soaring skill.

Hate to tell you, Sean, but only about 2% of soaring pilots worldwide enter gliding competitions. Most of us (the "other" 98%) just don't get off on the cutthroat gaggles, scheduled grid times, crappy weather (but are still forced to fly), obnoxious personalities (few, but always annoying), cost and general inconvenience of entering a soaring contest.

The OLC is mostly a neat way to see your flight in comparison to the other pilots who flew from your home site on the same day. Much can be learned by seeing their flight trace and comparing it to what you did. Maybe you can learn something about technique at the home 'drome.

Plus, you can pull up details about amazing flights made in other locations worldwide. Before the OLC, we were completely ignorant of a 1,000 km flight made in Australia, Namibia, Morocco or anywhere else. There is a vast amount of information available to determine the best season and potential for thousands of flying sites worldwide. Also names of pilots you might want to contact for advice.

The OLC does, however, limit the amount of embellishment that used to be such a large part of "hangar flying." To quote a great Arizona Soaring Association T-Shirt, "If it isn't on the OLC, it didn't happen."