World Gliding Championships British Team

Well done to the british team
Std Class 1st
15m Class 4th
18m class 2nd and 3rd (Steve and Phil Jones, 1st time brothers have been on the
podium?)
Open Class 4th
Not bad for a soggy little island

Nigel

No kidding!

How'd you do that?

Not bad for a soggy little island

Ya, but you guys have an unfair advantage!



The Jones Family. :-)

jw

(OscarCVox) wrote in message ...
Well done to the british team
Std Class 1st
15m Class 4th
18m class 2nd and 3rd (Steve and Phil Jones, 1st time brothers have been on the
podium?)
Open Class 4th
Not bad for a soggy little island

Nigel

Nice flying!

Us colonials need to learn a thing or two from you limeys.

Better yet, why don't you start using our bloody racing rules - that
will get Yanks on the podium in a heartbeat!

Kirk

In article , stant2
@mindspring.com says...


Us colonials need to learn a thing or two from you limeys.

Better yet, why don't you start using our bloody racing rules - that
will get Yanks on the podium in a heartbeat!

It's not the rules, it's the weather. If you want to learn to fly
really well, leave Arizona and go someplace with weak weather. When
those guys come here and fly by our rules, they still come out top. A
good pilot will win regardless of the rules. It's not an amazing
observation that it's easier for a weak weather pilot to adapt to
strong conditions than the reverse.
--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

I have never flown in a competition, I have only crewed, or been a member of
a host club or part of the organisation.

It seems to me that any country which wants their pilots to do well in
International competitions, would be sensible to use exactly the same rules
and regulations for National comps. as are currently used for International
comps.

If you do not like something in the rules, then work to get the
International rules changed rather than doing something different
Nationally.

An important part of International competition is team flying. At one time
U.K. pilots were being regularly beaten by pilots from countries who were
using effective team flying. A deliberate effort has and is being made to
coach the U.K. team, in particular in team flying, this coaching starts with
the Juniors.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.


"Kirk Stant" wrote in message
m...


(OscarCVox) wrote in message
...

Well done to the British team
Std Class 1st
15m Class 4th
18m class 2nd and 3rd (Steve and Phil Jones, 1st time brothers have been
on the podium?)
Open Class 4th
Not bad for a soggy little island

Nigel


Nice flying!

Us colonials need to learn a thing or two from you limeys.

Better yet, why don't you start using our bloody racing rules - that
will get Yanks on the podium in a heartbeat!

Kirk

Eric Greenwell wrote in message ...

It's not the rules, it's the weather. If you want to learn to fly
really well, leave Arizona and go someplace with weak weather. When
those guys come here and fly by our rules, they still come out top. A
good pilot will win regardless of the rules. It's not an amazing
observation that it's easier for a weak weather pilot to adapt to
strong conditions than the reverse.


I'm not sure I totally agree. France has great soaring weather, and
the Brits and Germans often run off to exotic locales (Spain, South
Africa, etc.) to fly in conditions everybit as good as ours can be.
On the other hand, Arizona in spring or fall can provide lots of good
weak weather training, with the additional pucker factor of no place
to landout! A pilot needs to be able to handle everything from
survival mode to warp speed. A pilot who only flies in weak weather
is going to be unbelievably slow our west in strong conditions, and a
pilot who only flies in strong conditions will be back in the bar
having a beer pretty quick in weak conditions.

The bigger problem, IMHO, is the TOTAL lack of a system in the US to
develop pilots that can compete in the Worlds succesfully. We have
great individual pilots, but no system to select and train pilots to
compete at the world level.

Until that happens, we will stay in the middle of the pack, at best.

And our rules don't help...Since they barely correlate to what the
rest of the world uses.

Kirk
66

In article , stant2
@mindspring.com says...

The bigger problem, IMHO, is the TOTAL lack of a system in the US to
develop pilots that can compete in the Worlds succesfully. We have
great individual pilots, but no system to select and train pilots to
compete at the world level.

I don't think that is a bad thing, IF our rules promote soaring in
this country. I think that should be a higher priority than selecting
and training gliders to do well at the World level.


And our rules don't help...Since they barely correlate to what the
rest of the world uses.

I'd like to hear from Team members on how much our rules interfere
with our success, because I have the impression that the only one that
has hampered us in the past is our "no team flying" rule. This rule is
scheduled to become a World rule in a few years, if I remember
correctly.
--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

On 09 Aug 2003 21:14:02 GMT, OscarCVox wrote:
Well done to the british team
Std Class 1st
15m Class 4th
18m class 2nd and 3rd (Steve and Phil Jones, 1st time brothers have been on the
podium?)
Open Class 4th
Not bad for a soggy little island

Nice :-)

However, your island isn't as little or as soggy as ours :-)

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Eric Greenwell wrote in message ...

I don't think that is a bad thing, IF our rules promote soaring in
this country. I think that should be a higher priority than selecting
and training gliders to do well at the World level.

Real big IF! Hate to say this, but soaring isn't very popular in this
country. We mainly have a lot of weekend local hackers, and a few
crazed racers. A few small programs to introduce the sport to youth,
but the emphasis is almost universally on getting a licence, not on
progressing to XC and racing. The field I fly at has a very active
soaring school, turns out lots of new glider pilots, but we have a
hard time getting any of them to join our club and fly our G-102 (GPS,
glide computer, O2, XC encouraged, 20$/hour or $500/year all you can
fly!) - they mostly seem to want to grind around in 2-33s or 1-26s
until they get bored or run out of money, then we never see them
again. I think it is because soaring is not being sold as a sport -
with the ultimate goal of being World Champion; instead it is being
sold (literally, to make money for the commecial schools) as a "cheap
way to fly" (it isn't), and a fun way to spend the afternoon floating
around the sky (which it is, to a point). As a result, when the new
glider pilot sees us "glassholes" push over and launch for a race, I
think their reaction is "Bunch of rich jerks with their expensive
toys" (which is emphatically not true - except maybe for the jerk part
- in my case) instead of "Neat, racing gliders, that's my goal!" Look
at all the bicycle riders zipping around in full-monty spandex these
days. They may not be racing, but they sure can look like Lance! And
them "10-speeds" sure aren't cheap anymore, either!

And please don't give me the "Well you have to be more approachable,
you are scaring them away, they get the cold shoulder, hold their
hands..." whine. I've heard it, and at least out here, it is total
BS. We try, but as they say, you can't push on a rope. There has to
be motivation, and for many it just isn't there. For the lucky few
who get hit by lightning and see the light (whew, big mixed metaphor
this early!), we have all the self-motivation we need.


I'd like to hear from Team members on how much our rules interfere
with our success, because I have the impression that the only one that
has hampered us in the past is our "no team flying" rule. This rule is
scheduled to become a World rule in a few years, if I remember
correctly.

Me too, if we could hear what they really think. But do you really
think they are going to bite the hand that sent them to the Worlds,
and may do it again? "Yep, we done ****ty against them furriners cause
the SSA and SRA suck! Bye, gotta go fly me a two hour TAT, I just love
them free 15 minutes!". Sounds like a line in a PEZ cartoon!

I saw where they are going to limit entries to one per class per
country, which would effectively eliminate team flying - maybe.
Cooperation across classes may still be possible. We'll have to see.

But what do I know, I'm just a lowly local and regional racer, not a
sky god.

Kirk
66