[aus-soaring] Club/Sports Class Nationals

[Tom Gilbert]

It is proposed to hold the next Club/Sports Class National Championships at Temora in NSW commencing 30 Dec until 10 Jan 2002.  A lot of discussion has taken place before arriving at this proposal.  It is not set in concrete yet but barring major dissention from prospective entrants it will be in the near future.  Reasons for this proposal are: 1.  The last Nats were held at Benalla at a time (late Nov/early Dec) when a lot of pilots chose not to enter.  The Benalla people did a fine job but must have been very dissapointed to get 23 gliders total when we could have expected 40+.  We do not need to repeat that mistake.  The next Nats has to be in the right time of the year at a popular site. 2.  Temora is a reliable and popular soaring site that has hosted the Nats twice before.  Ask anyone who attended in the past and they will sing the praises of Temora.  The local Club is small but enthusiastic and they actually WANT to have us. 3.  For many years we have held our Nats in the second half of January... last season being an exception.  This coming season the FAI Nats have asked for that time slot so that the Australian pilots competing is the Worlds in South Africa can get home in time to compete.  I believe this to be a reasonable request and that we should accommodate them.  We might ask for a similar favour in the future. So that is the plan.  If there are any pilots out there who might have attended the Club/Sports Nats and now feel put out, please say so either privately to me or on this mailing list. I realise that this forum does not reach all the interested parties so I ask those of you who do suscribe to pass on this information. Actually, New Year at Temora sound like a great gliding get together!   Tom Gilbert National Club/Sports Class Convenor