I've never understood the mindset that permits motorgliders, with
their inherent and unmeasurable advantage, to compete with unpowered
sailplanes.

Mike

Answer: Small numbers. Give me 65 gliders at every nationals, with
more begging to get in, and we can split off a motorglider class. Give
me 8 at opens, 10 at standard, and only mid-20s in 15-18, and we don't
have enough gliders to split each class in two.

At regionals: typical numbers are 7 in each class, and say 3
motorgliders in the contest. What do you do?

We're already merging FAI classes to get reasonable numbers. When was
the last time you saw an open class regional, or a regional with a
full set of classes? We don't have the gliders to split each class in
two.

I wish it were otherwise for many reasons.

John Cochrane