Club Class / Sports Class

In April 1990, Soaring magazine published a letter I wrote
discouraging the concept of a “Sports Class Nationals” with subsequent
international team selection. I listed the many benefits of flying
Sports Class at the regional level and tried to explain how valuable
the class was for providing an opportunity to develop the skills and
judgment necessary to be a safe cross-country pilot competing
subsequently in the FAI Classes.

Although there were “Club Class” gliders participating in Sports Class
at the time (flown by outstanding pilots such as Dave Stevenson), I
saw a disparity in grouping the two concepts together – 1) pilot
development, and 2) a competition for older ships to select an
international competitor. Let the pilot trying to learn more about
competitive cross-country flying show-up in Sports Class with whatever
ship he or she wanted to fly, and let a handicap system attempt to
iron-out performance variations to provide for a more equitable and
satisfying learning environment. Select the pilot looking to compete
in international competition with an older ship through another
mechanism.

The current discussion (and SSA poll results) seems to suggest we keep
Sports Class for the development opportunities, but utilize “two
distinct score sheets” to select our Club Class international
participants. I should have thought of that 22 years ago…

PC