Train Wreck

Mr Christner,

I was crew for P7 at the Benalla WGC and thus spent hours of every day for weeks witnessing Sean Fidler's interaction with Team members, management, crew, competitors, contest officials/staff, sponsors, members of the Benalla community, and the press. Not once did I witness anything but the most courteous, fair, and respectful behavior to all by both Sean and his crew Tiffany. They were quite a popular team among the scores of Aussie volunteers at the contest field. Additionally, 7T and Tiffany provided excellent video/social media documentation and much-needed promotion of the US Team's efforts at Benalla. Finally, 7T's phenomenal Day Win at his first Worlds was treated by him as an opportunity to share his success and to give credit to others who helped him along the way of his very successful competitive soaring career thus far.

So, Mr Christner, I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that your fears of Sean Fidler's behavior falling short of the requirements of the US Team Code of Conduct are unfounded. Team 7T did the USA proud at the 34th FAI World Gliding Championships in January.

Gina


On Friday, November 3, 2017 at 7:01:22 AM UTC+13, Kevin Christner wrote:
Dear John,

I agree we should have a discussion about this. One important issue is whether a pilot meets the requirements of the US Team Code of Conduct. I post some relevant sections below:

13.1.3 Courtesy. Courteous accessibility to visiting SSA members, sponsors, dignitaries and the Press.
13.1.4 Respect. Respect for the host organization, the facility, the rules of the airfield and the organization.
13.1.5 Treatment. Fair, considerate, courteous treatment of Team Management, Team Volunteers, and members of the public.
13.2.1 Highest Level. To maintain at all times a high standard of sportsmanship and fair play
13.2.6 Respect. Maintain an attitude of respect and politeness towards competitors both in the air and on the ground.
13.3 To Specifically Refrain From. To refrain from any behavior which might reflect unfavorably on the United States of America, the sport, the Team, its management, or which might bring any other pilot, official or the Team into disrepute

Since you voted for Sean highly, can you please certify that he has met all of these requirements?

On Friday, November 3, 2017 at 9:43:09 PM UTC-4, Josh Fletcher wrote:
Joined SSA when I was 16, 29 years ago...... I will have no more of
it... Good job SSA!

And the numbers continue to plummet.........




--
Josh Fletcher

I have to admit I'm curious as to what you have read here would make you decide to no longer be an SSA member.
A committee of SSA members, elected by SSA members, took on the task of revisiting how we select our teams going to the WGC. In doing so they went to great lengths to understand how other countries select their teams, including face to face interviews with several. Additionally they gathered insights from many current and former team members.
Out of that, a new process grew.
They followed that process and did not interject themselves into it.
One individual has chosen to make claims of "cronyism" and maybe some other malfeasance because he did not get selected to the team he wanted to be on..
This thread is a result of his being called out for his ways of communicating his unhappiness.
Maybe it would be possible for you to explain why you give up on the whole organization over this.
Respectfully
UH

I dislike most hobby organizations but I have to give the SSA credit they do a great job. Especially considering their resources. There is a lot of little things they have gotten done with the FAA over the years that add up.. Only thing I have a beef with is the group insurance membership extortion bit but all orgs that can get away with it do that.
All the racing stuff is run by the racing junkies for the racing junkies and doesn't affect the rest of us. Unless we choose to pay attention for gossip or laughs.

Thanks Hank, a good summation of what led me to make the original post.

I also agree with John Cochrane's post basically saying there is reasoning to having the new system. Those reasons are listed in the document describing it.

http://www.ssa.org/files/member/Upda...20v1.2.3. pdf

Read the whole document. Below is the just the preamble.

"US Team Committee discussions concerning the current US Team pilot selection process have raised a number of issues, including the following:

• An uncharacteristically bad National contest result (e.g. due to illness) may cause a highly qualified pilot to miss the US Team.

• Pilot skills and how they match conditions expected at WGC contest sites should be considered (e.g. a pilot with predominately flatland skills should not necessarily be selected for a contest that will emphasize mountain flying).

• Pilot personality and the way it fits with the full team can be an important factor.

For a pilot who has competed in past FAI Category 1 contests, performance in those events should be considered.

- Because success at Category 1 contests typically requires some experience in competition at that level, a pilot’s age and likely commitment to future US Team participation should be considered.

- The proliferation of IGC classes raises the possibility that a pilot who has achieved excellent results in one class might be a strong US Team member in another.

The fundamental point is that the goal of every US Team should be to obtain the best results possible at any World Gliding Championships (WGC), and the current team (old) selection process does not appear to be consistently achieving that goal. Accordingly, the US Team Committee is proposing significant changes to the process by which US Team pilots are selected."


For those of you who have been following the bitterness and now belligerence on 7T's website along with this thread, I must restate that I think this whole push to fly SP's or exclusively AT's at our contests is about following the herd around the course. This favors some people's skill set, real racing as it is termed, but I have my doubts it best determines who is the best glider pilot. Admittedly though, it is good prep for the WGC.

I can adapt to the new age of FLARM markers where you can see the location of all the contestants pre-start and the longitudinal axis of the glider and the course line are coincident. In fact, preceding this year's 15m nat'l (3 AT's) we had a US Team camp where we talked about the best way to compete doing it. (Thanks to those volunteers who hosted us). AT's are fun to some extent but let's continue to have some balance in tasking, please. (I need to change my FLARM tag to zzz.)

I still welcome the chance to spread out the field in a TAT or a MAT and there are still TAT's called at the WGC's. There will be more in the future.

And for God' sake let's go flying at our Nationals when the cloud bases are lowish or conditions are less than ideal. This way we can have meaningful results at our Nationals that translate to WGC.

Serious stuff...For laughs I have included this snapshot of Day 1 at the 2014 15m National at Montegue, a place where I had never flown before. A most beautiful flight (not top scoring by any means). A most enjoyable contest! Thanks to those volunteers who put it on! I'll remember it always.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10W...ZVw3dha60JySPN


XC

https://youtu.be/9rro7I1AO10

On Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 10:20:39 AM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
https://youtu.be/9rro7I1AO10

You just can't quit the name calling, can you.... One look at the title, naw, I've got better things to do.

best,
Evan Ludeman / T8

The train wreck continues at www.seanfidler.com.

This is what I said in the original post:

"I can only guess at why others didn’t rank him well in the 18m class. I ranked him low in the 15m because he doesn't do well in a TAT or a MAT task. If he doesn’t have markers around him he tends not to do so well. MAT task aside, there are still quite a few TAT tasks at the WGC and pilot needs to be able to perform if they find themselves separated from the lead gaggle. On top of all that he doesn't work well with others and is an internet troll. Sorry, but we all know it to be true."

It was just my personal opinion after seeing his predictable scoresheet tumbles when a MAT or TAT was called. Even more predictable was the later outcry on RAS that these tasks were horrible...

I think I ranked him 3rd or 4th out of 9 possible in 15m. Must have touched a nerve.


XC

#internetbullyingnotjustforteenagegirlsanymore
#stillstampingfeetovergettingpickedlastforkickball
#whyaretherenospacesbetweenthesewords
#matsandtatsarefunforsomenotforothers
#ifyouthinkthesearerealyourenuttierthan7T

You guys may be mistaking behind-the-keyboard crazy Sean for the pilot. Sean loves the idea of racing assigned tasks and grand prix, and rather pointedly says so. I haven't seen any particular lack of originality and willingness to strike out on the own in the air. If anything, the opposite, Sean goes where others fear to tread. Just because he doesn't think contests should call tats (which WGC also do, increasingly) does not mean he's any worse at flying them. Not every opinion in this sport is self-interested

John Cochrane

I watched Sean's youtube video.

Professionally presented and analyzed, and proves his point with data.

I fail to see any evidence of a "train wreck" there....and he DID win the entire contest.

If I may add, Sean's performance at Benella was impressive (at one point he was in second place overall and had a day win as I recall?), and he was receiving accolades right here on ras the whole time while doing it.

Sean F has as much enthusiasm for the sport of glider racing as perhaps the next six of us combined. One way to interpret his over-the-top keyboard behavior is that he cares so much about the sport than he can't figure out how to balance in some nice behavior with his buds online. Annoying, yes; but, so what.

He should get a pass for bad keyboard behavior if he wins races and has good in person behavior as is the accounts that we hear repeatedly. I believe that at voting time, some others didn't give him that pass when they placed their votes. When holding a grudge for having been ****ing off once or twice, it's just not possible to avoid contriving a logical seeming explanation. And therein lies one of several major faults in the use of non-objective team selection standards.

What all of this means is that despite the hard work and good intentions of the US team committee, they have accomplished exactly the opposite of what they set out to accomplish. And we are all worse for the wear.

No, we should not allow a few more years of this to see how it works out as some have suggested.




On Sunday, November 5, 2017 at 7:24:07 PM UTC-7, Bojack J4 wrote:
I watched Sean's youtube video.

Professionally presented and analyzed, and proves his point with data.

I fail to see any evidence of a "train wreck" there....and he DID win the entire contest.

If I may add, Sean's performance at Benella was impressive (at one point he was in second place overall and had a day win as I recall?), and he was receiving accolades right here on ras the whole time while doing it.