The comp scene is healthy because it got of it's collective back side and changed.
The club class emerged as a highly competetive affair from the old sports and two seater comps, accessible to pilots with moderately priced equipment. That comp lost a few individuals along the way from the family / campfire / cameradery oriented comp to a tighly run national with international selection attached. Not desirable (the loss I mean) but inevitable I guess in a sport of individuals who only have gliding in common. The multi class developed from a cut throat comp with the introduction of handicaps and other, less obvious changes, now also accessible to older aircraft. Again a few individuals lost who thought their shiny, brand new gliders would be devalued by the appearnce of tatty old rubbish flown by common folks on a budget. Again, not desirable but equally inevitable. I just hope the comp scene was not just revived by baby boomers who came into time and money and are now living the dreams of their youth. The broader gliding scene needs to change similarily. I don't have a silver bullet solution but suspect it will take a lot of work by individuals. I don't like the way Mike is proposing at all but that is probably because I'm one of those old, poorly trained and qualified, greedy intructors drooling at thought of free flying in the back of such desirrable machines like the ASK 13. Regards - Rolf From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:01:04 +0930 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Sale of..... I am pleased that the list is fulfilling its purpose - discussion amongst people widely separated across the continent. While I fully understand the desire to offer today's capability the sport has, I am looking for insights as to how people are making the transition. Without which there may be a small sport. (GFA had aspirations of membership of about 2000 by 2010)(the comp scene suggests a sport size of 500) With the absence of a YearBook, I can't track for myself - how many gliders in the overall fleet today are <10, <20, <30 years old. On 19/08/2010, at 8:56 AM, rolf a. buelter wrote: With all due respect Emilis but what you call perfectly satisfactory hardware is considered scrap metal by others. The most modern piece of hardware on offer in the recent posts is an ASK 21, which is just a ASK 13 in fibre glass, i.e. a 40 plus year old design and actually 30 years old. No wonder clubs are not queuing up to spend their limited cash on them. It's not unhealthy at all to want something a little more of todays equipment rather than vintage. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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