Contest Reporting (in "Soaring" mag)

On Monday, February 1, 2016 at 8:57:55 PM UTC-8, Bob Whelan wrote:
WARNIMG: Longish, U.S.-centric post below!!!

OK - It's winter (again, sigh) in my neck of the woods and some recent RAS
posts touching upon contests and the (over-)reporting thereof in "Soaring"
magazine, plus a kinda-sorta related post from "Soaring's" newish-editor, move
me to muse a bit, here on RAS...

Snip, snip

I fully agree. And this raises another question: How often have you written an article about one your flights?
I have to admit, I have not. Bummer!
Heinz

On 2/2/2016 12:20 PM, Heinz Gehlhaar wrote:
On Monday, February 1, 2016 at 8:57:55 PM UTC-8, Bob Whelan wrote:
WARNING: Longish, U.S.-centric post below!!!

OK - It's winter (again, sigh) in my neck of the woods and some recent
RAS posts touching upon contests and the (over-)reporting thereof in
"Soaring" magazine, plus a kinda-sorta related post from "Soaring's"
newish-editor, move me to muse a bit, here on RAS...

Snip, snip

I fully agree. And this raises another question: How often have you written
an article about one your flights? I have to admit, I have not. Bummer!
Heinz


Darned if that isn't an interesting rhetorical question! Off the top of my
head, I don't think I ever have, at least not for "Soaring" mag (only for my
club's newsletter). Shame on me. (By way of partial exculpation, do other
topics count? )

Tangentially/curiously-enough, one of the more interesting-to-me flights which
pops into mind was a 12-mile-one-way out-n-return "epic"/genuine-XC (given the
day). Upon minimal reflection, it hardly seems magazine-worthy as a "sheer
distance" tale, though it arguably might easily be as a "site tale," or
"learning experience" mini-adventure! Did it with a buddy, both of us in 15
meter ships on a day when few came out to the field, and no others braved XC.
I'm sure most of us can recall similar flights.

But to reinforce the primary point underlying my original post - which point
it's clear to me you've grasped - despite necessarily touching upon the topic
of magazine content (no criticism of content or ye Editors implicit), it did
so entirely for the purpose of encouraging any
less-than-perfectly-satisfied-with-magazine-content, fence-sitting, "Soaring"
readers, to take the authorial plunge. I imagine we'll all benefit!

Bob - snowbound - W.