Hi Ross, In general, a great and considered overview of the situation, and I certainly concur with the majority of your views.
Re "Having just one big nationals" : We have just concluded the Sports Nationals at Waikerie, where the gliders in that (unlimited), class were able to use water ballast. For whatever the reason, it was conclusively demonstrated that your conclusion in the 2nd last paragraph was NOT in fact the reality of the matter. If this surprised you, let me say I too found the reality somewhat unexpected. Conditions ranged from "very strong" to "extremely weak" and yet the 15m span ships prevailed. It would appear that "pilot ability" can overcome theoretical disadvantages. Comments? Regards, Gary From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ross McLean Sent: Sunday, 2 February 2014 7:27 PM To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.' Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] The nationals: a proposal Hi Adam Firstly, congratulations on asking the hard questions. You have clearly put some thought into it and you are passionate about your sport. I will be very interested to hear/see other pilots point of view on your suggestions. My opinion differs from yours however, but nothing in this email should be construed as criticism of or disagreement with your ideas but simply as my personal point of view and I strongly encourage you to continue thinking outside the box on these ideas. As a current Standard Class Nationals competitor and former Chair of the NCC, I have grappled with a number of the points you raise and have discussed a number of the solutions you propose with both the NCC and Sports Committee members during my past tenure and so I hope to be able to clearly express an informed view for you. Just to get some perspective on how the GFA funding should be spent. First thing to say is that the GFA exists to serve the entire gliding community in Australia. It is this broad community who pay the bulk of the money that funds the GFA. Of this broad community there are a minority who choose to participate in Gliding Competitions. These competitors pay an additional levy to GFA (part of the competition fee) which goes to support the International Competitors and usually there is an additional cost to competitors to pay for enough tugs to arrive to run the comp effectively. Of this minority of gliding competitors there is quite a small group that are eligible/interested/able to compete Internationally. Of the entire GFA community there are only about ten or 12 competitors selected to compete internationally. National Gliding Competitions and International Teams Selection: The National Gliding Competitions are held each year in order to establish who are the best *competition glider pilots* in the country. These competitions have nothing at all to do with International Team Selection. Coincidentally, at the moment the ITC does however use the results from these competitions as a convenient benchmark to assist in selecting the International Teams. "Gliding in Australia is oversubscribed with competitions": Hooray!! It is no coincidence that the competition scene has grown from being almost non-existent a few short years ago, to now being almost oversubscribed (a very healthy and good situation). The introduction of handicaps and the honing of the rules to eliminate inequities and set a level playing field, along with a strong push for formal Cross Country Coaching and encouraging the Junior Gliding movement, has resulted in the current very healthy competition scene. Pair Flying at National Championships: The idea of implementing rules and processes into the National Competitions that are focussed solely on team selection or pair flying training has been discussed for many years and is not supported at all by the greater competition pilot community and rightly so. Of the 52 weeks of each year there are only two weeks that do not allow pair flying, they are the two weeks of National Competition. The competitions do not exist to serve the needs of the dozen or so elite International Competitors and nor should they. Combining Classes: The 15m Racing Class and the Open Class have long been the least well represented classes. I personally think this is a great shame and don't really understand why that is the case. When competition organisers are forced to combine 15m and Standard and 18m and Open, nobody is really happy about it. It is not a solution which will see those two classes grow in their own right. In fact quite the opposite. The 15m flapped guys don't like being whipped by unflapped LS8's as occurred at the Kingaroy MultiClass Nationals and the Open Class guys hate getting whipped by the 18m gliders, but it is the inevitable outcome when you combine these classes in Australia. There are two ways in which the current situation can be changed for the better. One is expensive and requires Australian competitors go out and buy more competitive and state of the art gliders. (Diana, ASG29-15m, EB29, Quintus etc). The second and better way is that we devise a solution that encourages more 15m flapped and Open Class gliders to turn up to a National Comp so they can have their own class. There is no shortage of 15m Flapped gliders in Australia already (88 total):- 15m Racing Class (Flapped): . 24 x ASW-20 . 20 x ASW-27 . 11 x LS-6 . 11 x 15m Ventus (A/B) . 22 x LS3 Similarly there are 32 Open Class gliders in Australia currently:- Open Class: . 3 x JS1 C . 1 x Quintus . 6 x ASH-25 . 4 x ASH-31 . 15 x Nimbus 3/4 (all types) . 3 ASW-22 Having just one Big Nationals: The only people that need more than 2 weeks a year to compete are those that compete in more than one national competition. This is again back to the minority ruling the majority. Not required. The vast majority of Club Class competitors only compete at Club Class. There is a small minority who fly ASW-20 or similar machines that also compete in Multi Class. No-one else can do it. Sports Class is an Australian anachronism, (that we all love!!) but is not really a valid competition and is even worse now that it is ballasted. That is, a JS1-C or an ASG-29 fully ballasted will eat everything else alive no matter how you handicap them, so it is now more just for fun than anything else really. The extra stretch in the logistics required to run a competition with 80 or more competitors is quite significant. Talk to any recent Comps Director and organising committee and listen to their responses. Thanks for reading this far. Cheers, ROSS ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Adam Woolley Sent: Sunday, 2 February 2014 10:44 AM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: [Aus-soaring] The nationals: a proposal G'day All, What do you think of the below? Keen to hear from those who aren't going for team selection, would you still turn up to the team selection years (or to the nationals that allowed pair flying every other year)? Also from non-comp pilots, how would you feel about the GFA spending money on the tug ferry fees? & from people who are generally in the organisation of comps, would this be better or worse for you or your club? What are other advantages & disadvantages that I've forgotten about? Or points I've made, but over looked or got incorrect? Other? Cheers, WPP As you're all aware, gliding in Australia is oversubscribed with competitions, as well as the team selection process being far to onerous. I have a simple solution to all this. At the recent Waikerie Club & Sports Class Nationals, it was seen that it's easily possible & safe to task wet & dry gliders together - using start lines. I propose that we hold one nationals every biannual year, which will house all classes - except 20m class. Run using the GFA national rules as it is now. I propose we combine STD & 15m class together & run a '15m performance' class, then award the highest placed STD & Racing class glider/pilot as the national champion - for history sake. Why run it as a combined class? It's not as much fun flying against 7 other competitors, when you could be challenging yourself against 30 plus others! The same could be said for 18m & Open Class, combine them (as they often are) as an 'Open' Class. The only difference here, the 18m gliders/pilots would have to declare what class they were going for the national champion title in. Alternatively, have the 18m & Open Class separate - & only combine them should the Open entries be not enough to make its own class outright. Again though, is competing against 7 other gliders that much fun? Club would be run as it is now. Simple. How many competitors would this attract at a site? Probably 80-90 odd gliders. That's crazy I hear you say. Not really, in years gone past they used to get those numbers (& more!) & managed. Gliding is shrinking. The only clubs that are running nationals now are big clubs, & are all at sites where they can handle such numbers. So the site isn't the issue. The tugs are an issue. Or are they? Simple solution. If GFA want to see their sport & population grow, they'll put their money where their mouth is! Pay at least 2/3's of the tug ferry costs for the competitors. Done. It'd be no different to what it is now in SA where we have to pay large tug levies. This idea/proposal. Run it every biannual year, with every other year running as a team selection competition, let's call it the 'open' comp for now. This 'Open' comp would be run exactly as the nationals is, except 'pair' flying would be allowed. Note! I didn't say team flying, team flying to me could result with multiple gliders flying around in a 6 ship gaggle every day to improve their chances of winning. So only pairs would be allowed, teams would be extremely frowned upon. Note! If & when a solo pilot wins the 'Open' comp - they'd still be eligible to make the team. Though I'll leave the team selection guidelines to the ITC in this proposal. Would the people still turn up to this 'Open' comp if they're not interested in team selection? I think so. As it's still an organised 2wk gliding event to go flying with their mates. Maybe more would turn up than normal, as they'd be able to fly alongside their 'pair' flying mate - & not get shot down as they would now! Alternatively. Run a nationals every year, however only every other year will be used for selection - & this particular year, 'pair' flying would be allowed. Easy. Why leave 20m class out? We want this class to grow. It wouldn't grow as fast as it could if it were included at the nats/open comp. Just run it at a State champs every year, with only the team selection year as the one that counts. Advantages of having only one big 2wk competition a year... * It's only 2wks out of your precious 4wks a year annual leave. * Only one lot of organisation people get put out every year. Clubs & the organisation less likely to get burnt out. * State comps, regattas & coaching events will grow: as people will have an extra 2wks a year to spend how ever they choose. * If you're only after team selection, then in the 'off' years, the pilot could go to the European Gliding Championships, or other European nationals to get vital experience in helping AUS become a world leader in gliding. * More people in towns. Greater support from councils. Greater chance of major sponsorship (GFA should pay for a dedicated sponsorship & advertiser of the event - leaving this up to clubs is never going to work, as it hasn't up to now. Ultimately we don't know what we're doing, & we just don't have the man power or time to do it now). Greater exposure for gliding in general. * Potentially attract more international competitors due to the amount of numbers & likely better competition in each class. Which as a result will make our pilots better. We could advertise it like the 'World Cup' that the paragliders have. Advertisers & media can spin up & promote it! * God forbid, pilots could spend their other 2wks a year having a regular holiday with their family or friends!! Disadvantages... * It's a risk to try it, due unknown amount of competitors that would turn up. I think, what we're doing now isn't working (for AUS international results), why not try something new! WA State comps saw great success with numbers growing once they combined into one big class (Don Woodward said he 'raced' one other competitor in 15m class one year before they changed the format, that's definitely no fun!). * Tugs. This can be fixed if GFA put their hand into their pockets to help their/our sport grow. Regards, Adam Woolley _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: <http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring> http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
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