Does USA need a Club Class?

Gotta disagree just a bit with EY.

No problem UH - disagreement is what good debate is all about. If no
one ever shared their concerns or hopes and dreams, we would all be
poorer for it.

I just wanted to chime in with some of my thoughts as I now see how
dynamic a group of pilots has been created by the creation of the Club
Class in Europe and Australia, and I, selfishly, would like to be a
part of a community like that here in the USA.

In Sports Class, while I feel invited, I also feel like I am a little
bit of a sideshow in my 1969 Libelle. I saw someone say on this thread
that if we applied "Club Class" rules to this years entries at
Parowan, we would only have 24 Club Class ships. Unless I am seriously
confused on what a "club class" ship is, I count only 6 potential
club class type entry applications by ships of no-flaps and less than
1.03 handicap!!!

I can not help but believe that many owners of "club class" type
ships are intimidated by the field of GLIDERS at Sports Nats and at the
larger Sports Regionals, rather than the field of pilots. Forexample
look at Wayne Paul's post inthis thread. I for one have analyzed things
and can not hope to be FULLY competitive at Parowan in my Std. Libelle.


Sure I can take her and I could/would do just fine. But anyone going
racing for the national team or a national title is not content with
the expectation of doing "just fine" even before the first start
takes place. So I am going to a different ship - one with a better
(i.e. more favorable handicap for the conditions I will be flying in).
IMHO, that is not "run what you brung" but I will be doing it
because that is how the game works.

If sports class were truly "fair" then I posit that a great many
more people might be interested in "running what they brung." Maybe
I am wrong, but maybe I am right. How do we know unless we try it out?

Recent history shows that you need a
LOW performance glider to excel in the Sports Class.
Why? Because it lets the guy with a 1.0 or higher handicap pick the
sweet part of the task area while the .9 guys are forced to fly out
of
the best area to use up task time. Fly upwind/downwind as is usual
when
you have a choice and Dave Stevenson will kill you every single day
in
the KA6.

No quibbling with DS as a pilot. He is a TERRIFIC pilot and great
competitor in Sports Class.

But I do quibble with a system that lets a great pilot find an
overvalued (handicap-wise) glider, and use it to bludgeon the field of
many equally talented pilots. This was seen by many of us in Sports
Class at Lubbock in 2002. I just cannot believe that DS so completely
and thoroughly outclassed the second place competitior (E9) on pilot
skills alone.

If the handicap for the Cobra was correct, then why was the handicap
immediately and greatly devalued the next year. Dave played it
correctly from the start - he worked the rules to ensure his chance
at victory. Who knows, he probably would have won with the Cobra's
handicap of 1.16 and not 1.25. But it would have been a MUCH tighter
race that I would like to have flown in.

If the general perception is out there that this can be done, then
there may also be a perception that other ships are equally
favored/disfavored. If I am an aspiring racing pilot who has any dreams
of being competitive, then I might think better of entering a contest
where I start from behind on Day1.

This "modern" pilot seemed to do OK when moving to Club at the
Worlds.

No questioning your racing skills, UH. The better pilot, flying
whatever ship, will always tend to outclass the less good pilot. But if
your ability to purchase or obtain a relatively or perceived more
competitive ship determines who will and will not race, then all racing
pilots in this country and the pilots we send to Club Worlds out of
Sports Class are the poorer for it.


The success that Tim has had proves, in my opinion, that what we have
works.


Yes it works, but could it be better for a certain portion of our
membership that would love to race but are intimidated from
participating; That portion of our membership that we pay lipservice to
wanting to attract to racing, but do very little to encourage - the
young, the new, the old on more limited means, etc.

Yes adding another class to the mix could dilute things for contest
attendance. However, anyone who thinks running even a fully subscribed
contest is lucrative or even "economic" clearly has not run one. We
need to grow the size of our pie rather than restricting any growth to
within existing boundaries. Maybe adding another class would give
incentive to actually hold more co-hosted contests for those classes
without a dedicated national - say a Junior Nationals or a Women's
Nationals.


The sad part is that not all that many serious contenders for US Team
slots are participating at the national level. I'd estimate about 6
at
Ionia last year with a couple gone to the WGC at the time. When more
top pilots realize this is a way to the "big show",the qualitiy of
the
team will improve.

Wholeheartedly agreed. The attempt to freeze out the top pilots from
the club class team a few years ago was riduculous. The rest of the
world sends its BEST pilots to club class worlds, why shouldn't we.
But I am still not convinced we truly send our best pilots to club
class when very few "sports" class pilots venture from East to West
Coast sites in search of the team spots, but rather most comepetitors
fly Sports Class as a warm-up for "their" nationals (i.e. Std, 15m,
Open, 18m) and when it is in their back yard.

Entries at the Sports Nats is more about the popularity of the site
than other issues, in my opinion. Have Iris and Karl run the contest,
with all they do to make it fun, and it will fill up anywhere, with
somebody crying cause they aren't good enough to get in.

Absolutely True. Good, Well-run contest at "friendly" sites will
always filled up, often with very talented pilots. Sorry for the less
well ranked pilots, but that is just the way things work. It is a
Nationals after all.

We need to not mess up what we have which is a place for everybody to
fly. As Dick Johnson calls it- the entry and exit class. Run what you
brung works and handicapping anomolies are weeded out By the RC led
by
Dave Cole.

I would never advocate "messing" anything up. Keep the Sports
Class! Don't change a thing. I like taking my Libelle to Sports Class
events where I really must tototally and completely maximize my flying
and the ship to get a good finish. I get challenged and I become a
better racing pilot for the experience. Both here and in Europe, this
is one of the only places in our sport where there can be the
confluence of newbies and the top names. Other countries run Sports and
Club Class championships - often countries much smaller than ours.
Why not us?

When we get Sports to a full contest regularly with 1/2 the field
between .95 and 1.03, we should think about creating a divided class,
but not until then.

We have a bit of a chicken or the egg problem here. I may be wrong, but
when I look at a western contest site like Parowan, and see 27's,
V2's, etc., etc. it gives me pause to bringing my Libelle. I wonder
how many other pilots are in a similar situation? If all you own is a
PW-5 or a Russia, and/or you are of limited means, then that is what
you take or you do not go - assuming you want to be
"competitive". Pilots can't have the option of Club Class until
the participation is there, but we do not have the participation, in
part I beleive, because of the current system of Sports Class. What to
do?

One more point for possible discussion:

I have heard the argument that the Open Class is kept alive here in the
US in part because of the effect shuttering the class would have on big
winged glider values. If we are willing to protect such a relatively
minor portion of our pilot's turf, then why can't we add Club Class
and immediately bolster the glider values of many more club class type
ships? Aren't owners of club class ships like mine owed a little
protection of our hopes and dreams, not to mention our glider values?
Or must I be limited to buying into "real racing" only by getting a
"new" ship? The rest of the world seems to think differently from
us here in the USA. While the rest of the world is often wrong on many
things, they might just be right on this one...

Respectfully,
EY

Just my opinion.
UH- RC Chair, WGC Club team '01, '02