This thread is also affected by the gradual change in the sport of
gliding at the holistic level. Commentators have already previously
commented on -
- the decline in 'air mindedness' across society in general
- the decline in willingness by newcomers to spend the whole day on an
airfield the way 'old timers who grew up in the post-Wright Brothers
era have been happy to do'
- the ability with self launch options to bore holes in the sky at whim
just like the power flying community can
- the traditions where it is 7% or so of the pilot population that want
to compete
- the rest just want to mess about in (aerial) boats
- the shift in emphasis upward in the performance/complexity chain of
aircraft types as being the heart of the sport emphasises a national
contest, yet leaves other categories of aircraft and event types out of
the competing sphere
- thus the contest formats (club based race day, regional/state event,
nationals) don't seem to link to one another.
Other sports have had to face similar fundamental changes.
AFL has had to underpin a deliberate grass roots AusKick program to
reinvigorate amateur club and regional competition, as they depend on
this as the incubator from which to pick talent for the state and
federal professional contests.
CAMS has seen an explosion in classes (iRACE, Oztrucks, etc.) as V8s
professional racing becomes ever more expensive and hard to enter and
has uncertainties about what manufacturers will support it in 'Car of
the Future'.
The change in gliding was first noted in decline of regional contest
events, and the rise in impulse day race from home at large clubs by
the locally based pilots.
Every sport is entitled to an elite arm. Gliding however is small in
total, and traditionally the elite arm in any sport is a small
percentage of that sport's total. Other sports such as sailing have
mass participation in other entry level classes which permits the elite
end to have its Sydney-Hobart. In gliding, it may be that the elite
component swallows up almost all the resources that other sports can
spread across their whole spectrum of activities.
The challenge is for a bit of visionary pondering - where will next
generation's top gun pilots come from, beyond those who grow from
multi-generation pilot families or where 'uncles' programs give juniors
access to equipment made available by benefactors, which underpin
'Nationals' participation.
Feeder events (regional and state contests) have traditionally had club
based pilots in club equipment as the resource base. That doesn't
appear to link to the elite end arrangements.
On 23/11/2014, at 8:41 PM, Gary Stevenson wrote (snipped) :
I for one, REALLY appreciate the effort that you (and no doubt a very
few un-named others), have put in to try and try and get this comp up
I wonder what this abysmal result says about the mind set
Anyone considering this matter, must also think about the concurrent
2014/15 SA State Comp debacle.
To my mind, there is not the slightest doubt that at the National
level, the performance of pilots competing at this level continues to
advance.
The OLC is basically about distance flying. Are there differences here
to flying State/National Competitions which are basically only about
speed flying ?
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