US team silence

Mak had help from the Australian team, particularly Matthew Scutter in 2016. I presume they also were cooperating on at least the final day in 2018 based on their start and finish times.

I got the following response to a similar post on another forum from Aus team members Allan Barnes.
G.Dales statement is most interesting



There's a dichotomy between selecting the winner of the Nationals (rightly an individual honour) and selecting the best team pilots for the Worlds. With the current formulaic selection process, we only have the Nationals to select from. So we are selecting on ability to fly well independently, where for the Worlds, what we need to select on is ability to stick with busy gaggles and resist the impulse to do your own thing. I love team flying at international comps - there is no better fun than flying with a partner and having two sets of eyes and two brains to improve decision making. Jim and I have worked really well here at Ostrow. There is no question that it improves outcomes if done properly. But for that you need discipline and commitment, and practice.

Adam has been playing the gaggle game at this comp and doing a fantastic job of it. If you religiously stay with a gaggle of top pilots and have a glider that can keep up with them, then you are almost guaranteed a good result, even without a team partner. The rest of the gaggle becomes your de-facto team. It is hard for us as Australian pilots, brought up with the idea that leaching is despicable, to embrace this approach. But there is no shame at it at the Worlds. If you are not doing it, you are at the very bottom of the points table, almost every day.

As G Dale said to me this competition: We're not here to show that we're better pilots than the rest. We're here to get more points than the rest. And like it or not, that's not the same thing.

Whether you agree with it or not, that's the reality of flying at a Worlds.

I'm not suggesting that we start selecting team pilots on a subjective basis or by committee vote. Every Nationals pilot needs to know that if they perform well enough they will be on the team. But I do think that there's scope for selecting the first pilot in each class by results, and the second pilot in the class based on who would work best with that first pilot.

As for pair flying in a Nationals, it remains against the rules and that's fine. The true problem is enforcement and proof of pre-arranged intent. A pilot may legitimately decide that their best tactic is to hook up with a top pilot pre-start and shadow them around the whole task, every day. Perfect training for the Worlds, in fact. If the pilot does that off their own bat then it's not team flying. But if the two pilots discuss and agree beforehand then it is. How do you distinguish the two cases from track logs alone? You can't.

I've heard the opinion that if a rule is not enforceable then it shouldn't be in the rulebook. I disagree. The rules describe how we want the competition to be conducted. We don't want cloud flying, we can't enforce it, but it's still in the rules. If someone cloud flies, and they end up winning the day, then they will know it's a hollow victory, and many of their competitors will at least suspect as much. If this forms a pattern of behaviour then their reputation and respect will rapidly diminish.

So back to Worlds selection. My proposal would be this: Keep the Nationals as an individual event. Select the top pilot based on results. And select their partner based on who would be most likely to add value to the team effort. The pilot selected on results would make a case for who should be their partner, and this would normally be accepted by the Sports Committee unless they considered it inappropriate. This system still guarantees a place to any pilot who makes the grade, but gives flexibility to ensure that we don't send a team who has never had a chance to practice together, or are fundamentally incompatible.

It's a thrill and a privilege to fly for Australia at a Worlds, and it's something I think every comp pilot should aspire to. Right now it's 4:30am and raining, but I'm still pleased to be here!

At 03:26 23 July 2018, Charlie Quebec wrote:

There's a dichotomy between selecting the winner of the Nationals
(rightly an individual honour) and selecting the best team pilots for
the Worlds. With the current formulaic selection process, we only
have the Nationals to select from. So we are selecting on ability to
fly well independently, where for the Worlds, what we need to select
on is ability to stick with busy gaggles and resist the impulse to do
your own thing. I love team flying at international comps - there is
no better fun than flying with a partner and having two sets of eyes
and two brains to improve decision making. Jim and I have worked
really well here at Ostrow. There is no question that it improves
outcomes if done properly. But for that you need discipline and
commitment, and practice.

Adam has been playing the gaggle game at this comp and doing a
fantastic job of it. If you religiously stay with a gaggle of top pilots
and have a glider that can keep up with them, then you are almost
guaranteed a good result, even without a team partner. The rest of
the gaggle becomes your de-facto team. It is hard for us as
Australian pilots, brought up with the idea that leaching is
despicable, to embrace this approach. But there is no shame at it at
the Worlds. If you are not doing it, you are at the very bottom of the
points table, almost every day.

As G Dale said to me this competition: We're not here to show that
we're better pilots than the rest. We're here to get more points than
the rest. And like it or not, that's not the same thing.

Whether you agree with it or not, that's the reality of flying at a
Worlds.

CQ,

That is exactly the point I was trying to make about the USA team
too. The reality of a WGC is that if you want to do well, you have to
possess an excellent gaggle flying skill set to put in your toolbox
to use as required - and it will be required on multiple occasions.
The current USA rules and thought process are to defuse gaggle
flying due to safety issues, and that's fine, but we have to be aware
that it may be detrimental to choosing a team that will finish well at
the WGC. The SSA charter says that the purpose of a Nationals is to
determine a National Champion. It doesn't say that the purpose is
to pick members of a team to represent the USA at a WGC. A
National Champion may be a great "lone eagle" pilot, but a lousy
gaggle flyer, so that pilot's WGC chances are greatly diminished right
from the start.

RO

Perhaps you need to run a seperate selection process, where say nationals top ten flyoff as teams.

“Tour de France� ala gliding. After reading the info provided here, it seems the competition is to find the best pilot performing many things OTHER than maximizing
the converting of energy mother nature provides to speed across the ground, aka Sailplane Racing. Interfacing with that energy engine and watching what others can do is what draws me to the sport. I am grateful to those who advance the science over the years and marvel at what we do.
WGC has its draw on many, but leaves doubt in my mine as who is the best individual racer. The complexity shadows the talent.
Thanks for the posts.
R

You really have to wonder what skills WGC's are really testing, and
whether its worth the expense of participating these days. The modern
form of 'competition' at world level seems to have lost something - and
should it be a 'team' game or an 'individual' game?

At 11:12 23 July 2018, Paul T wrote:
You really have to wonder what skills WGC's are really testing, and
whether its worth the expense of participating these days. The
modern
form of 'competition' at world level seems to have lost something -
and
should it be a 'team' game or an 'individual' game?

That is really a topic deserving a thread of its own. This thread was
about why US teams have not done well. Your questions need to be
discussed on a world wide basis, and not just related to the US team's
performance. Good luck in getting the FAI to totally ditch what they
have been doing for years, but the discussion has to start somewhere.

As a side note, there were quite a few US pilots who qualified higher
than some of the eventual team members who went to the Poland
WGC. There were a number of very good pilots who declined the
opportunity to go for various reasons.

RO