Make Sailplane Racing Great Again

You will only improve if you are honest with yourself and admit your weaknesses. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A tow rope looses 50% of its strength with a knot it in.

For those who have tasted flight, their eyes will be forever turned skyward.. And for those who have tasted the excitement of racing alongside another sailplane, they will forever want to compete. Sailplane racing is a sport in which a 16 year old can compete against an 86 year old. It is the most pure form of aviation that exists. Hot air ballooning, helicopters, power aircraft to gyrocopters, can quickly reach a state where you feel you have mastered that craft. With Soaring, it takes a lifetime, an endless pursuit of winning a challeng that is always changing with the winds.

What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?

My opinion is that the complexities of the game have become too overwhelming it takes the fun away.

Back in the old days, it was as simple as who can fly the furthest downwind.. That's simple to understand.

Technology, spot tracking, no more cameras at the points have changed our sport, but is it really for the better? Are we embracing these technological advancements to rise our sport or has it been used to demise our sport?

More than often in the past decade have we seen dismal turnouts for classes.. 12 pilots for the standard class national championship showed up! That's pathetic!

It makes me wonder, does the SSA leadership want a sold out contest? Or do they want a small turnout to reduce the competition they face? Actions speak louder than words! Or is it that this has become a good old boys club and we want to keep it small like a gentlemens hunting club.

It's shocking that a pilot can get a rating, buy a glider and finish last place in a regional contest and then with minimal qualifications qualify for a National Contest!

This alone clearly shows that what has been done to keep the sport the same size, or increase its participation levels has been a failure.

On Saturday, March 4, 2017 at 8:17:12 AM UTC-8, wrote:
You will only improve if you are honest with yourself and admit your weaknesses. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A tow rope looses 50% of its strength with a knot it in.

For those who have tasted flight, their eyes will be forever turned skyward. And for those who have tasted the excitement of racing alongside another sailplane, they will forever want to compete. Sailplane racing is a sport in which a 16 year old can compete against an 86 year old. It is the most pure form of aviation that exists. Hot air ballooning, helicopters, power aircraft to gyrocopters, can quickly reach a state where you feel you have mastered that craft. With Soaring, it takes a lifetime, an endless pursuit of winning a challeng that is always changing with the winds.

What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?

My opinion is that the complexities of the game have become too overwhelming it takes the fun away.

Back in the old days, it was as simple as who can fly the furthest downwind. That's simple to understand.

Technology, spot tracking, no more cameras at the points have changed our sport, but is it really for the better? Are we embracing these technological advancements to rise our sport or has it been used to demise our sport?

More than often in the past decade have we seen dismal turnouts for classes. 12 pilots for the standard class national championship showed up! That's pathetic!

It makes me wonder, does the SSA leadership want a sold out contest? Or do they want a small turnout to reduce the competition they face? Actions speak louder than words! Or is it that this has become a good old boys club and we want to keep it small like a gentlemens hunting club.

It's shocking that a pilot can get a rating, buy a glider and finish last place in a regional contest and then with minimal qualifications qualify for a National Contest!

This alone clearly shows that what has been done to keep the sport the same size, or increase its participation levels has been a failure.

What a load of drivel....

^^^^^^^NAYSAYER IN DENIAL^^^^^^^

If this was in fact a real problem then why are the first 2 contests on the SSA calendar SOLD OUT (over 60 pilots) with a waiting list???

Soartech,

Excellent point that 2 contests are filled up. Perhaps extreme listening should be given to what makes these races great?

But don't just stop your research there, look at the numbers from a broad sampling, not just a cherry pick of the two most popular in the entire USA.

Btw, neither of those two are a National contest. Sad.


Why does California, on of the greatest states in the Country, have a terrible turnout for racing? What gives out there? They have a dismal attendance for races. The state is so huge, and vast, and has often incredible conditions for 1,000 km flights!!!

At 16:17 04 March 2017, wrote:
You will only improve if you are honest with yourself and admit
your
weakne=
sses. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A tow rope
looses
50=
% of its strength with a knot it in.

For those who have tasted flight, their eyes will be forever turned
skyward=
.. And for those who have tasted the excitement of racing
alongside
another=
sailplane, they will forever want to compete. Sailplane racing is a
sport=
in which a 16 year old can compete against an 86 year old. It is
the
most=
pure form of aviation that exists. Hot air ballooning, helicopters,
power=
aircraft to gyrocopters, can quickly reach a state where you feel
you
have=
mastered that craft. With Soaring, it takes a lifetime, an endless
pursui=
t of winning a challeng that is always changing with the winds.

What are, in your opinion, the weakest links to sailplane racing?

My opinion is that the complexities of the game have become too
overwhelmin=
g it takes the fun away.

Back in the old days, it was as simple as who can fly the furthest
downwind=
.. That's simple to understand.

Technology, spot tracking, no more cameras at the points have
changed our
s=
port, but is it really for the better? Are we embracing these
technologica=
l advancements to rise our sport or has it been used to demise our
sport?

More than often in the past decade have we seen dismal turnouts
for
classes=
.. 12 pilots for the standard class national championship showed
up!
That'=
s pathetic!

It makes me wonder, does the SSA leadership want a sold out
contest? Or do
=
they want a small turnout to reduce the competition they face?
Actions
spe=
ak louder than words! Or is it that this has become a good old
boys club
a=
nd we want to keep it small like a gentlemens hunting club.

It's shocking that a pilot can get a rating, buy a glider and finish
last
p=
lace in a regional contest and then with minimal qualifications
qualify
for=
a National Contest! =20

This alone clearly shows that what has been done to keep the
sport the
same=
size, or increase its participation levels has been a failure.


As others have noted, only a small part of the USA soaring
population cares about racing. SSA membership has gone down
from 16,000 back in the 1980's to ~10,000 now, so the total
amount of people interested in racing is down as well proportionally.

Back in the 1980's there were only 3 racing classes (STD, 15m &
Open) to carry the load of anyone that wanted to race seriously.
Now, in addition to those 3 classes, we have Sports, Club, 18m,
and maybe 2-seater coming, not to mention 1-26, World, and
aerobatic contests to boot. That is why the number of contest
entrants (per class as well) is down from back in the 1980's. There
was a big drop in membership, and an explosion in different racing
classes.

On top of that, the prices of new gliders effectively doubled in US$
when they went from the German DM to the Euro, so who can afford
to buy a new competitive glider to race anymore?? That has
dropped the participation too. As the costs go up, the participation
numbers will go down.

There are a lot of tough nuts to crack here, and it doesn't all hinge
on what kind of format we use for the few of us that do race.

RO

You've said it best, there are lots of "tough nuts to crack."

I very much respect that you are not in denial. Essentially your statistics show a decline of almost 50% in soaring. That's sad.

In another 10 years, we will be lucky to even have the minimum entrants to have a race.

I get it, not everyone likes racing. People own ferrari's but don't necessarily want to race them. There's the cost of repairs from a wreck, etc. Likewise, not everyone who owns an ASG-29 wants to take a couple weeks off or a national race.

But we need to be asking those who are NOT interested in racing "Why are you not interested?"

There you will find the answers.

So, I'm not interested in racing.
Why?

Well, for me the challenge is to go out and return the furthest possible. When I'm departing from Fayence in Southern France, that means that I take off, admire the sight of the ships on the Mediterrenean Sea, go to the north east for some 300-400 km straight (you need to pass acouple of mountain passes of which the lowest is around 7500 ft, the highest about 10'000 ft), you pass at least 2 different weather zones, you do ridge soaring at 12'000 ft above glaciers, you pass the Matterhorn along the way to Central Switzerland.

And then you turn back, if all works well you start final approach about 100 miles out, passing the last low mountain pass with a clearing of 500 ft, and you'll be arriving around 8 pm, admiring the big boats out on the sea again.

So, why the hell would I spend 10 days on a competition over some dull flat lands, flying half of the days, and half of the possible time on each flying day?!

I want to fly, and I need to make sure that the few vacations I can take result in the best flying experience.

That excludes racing by definition.

TW: My thoughts exactly! I'll see you at 4000 meters at Prarayer!

F2

Tom vs. "Wilbur" capture, I think, the essence of the argument. Wilbur wants to make sailplane racing "great" (not again, because it never was) for spectators. Tom wants to make sailplane racing great for pilots. If you want a spectator sport, you need a grand prix like event, and crashes would make it even more enticing. American Ninja Sailplane Warriors. About 5 people will want to participate. If you want a participant sport, you want an event that lets pilots enjoy good flights, a nice venue, good parties, happy spouses .. and nobody really watching. There really isn't an argument here about how to get from goal to result, the argument is over goals. And, fortunately, nothing about either goal stops people from pursuing the other. So I don't know what we're fighting about. Wilbur, thanks for organizing grand prix, and good luck with it. Nothing about the existence of seniors, nephi, etc. stops you! Seniors, Nephi, Perry, etc. thanks so much to organizers for putting it on and US rules for devising a good balance between use the day fun and a reasonable race. Nothing about the existence of such events stops anyone who wants to make racing "great" again from putting on grand prixes.

John Cochrane