A Starting Point

I've been thinking about this for a long time. Many US contest pilots have.

What are the problems with the US contest scene - Numbers are declining, particularly on the West Coast due significantly I think, to the popularity of OLC flying. Nothing wrong with OLC - dont get me wrong - but it just doesn't prepare pilots for contest flying in challenging conditions. On the west coast where we have strong weather, this encourages weekend warrior OLC  flights racking up impressive distances and speeds and a false sense of competitiveness with pilots from the rest of the world. Big flights need Big Weather. End of story.

Whats to blame for contest popularity dwindling? Pilots who fly contests really love the format, (even if they dont always do well) but there are many barriers to entry. First and foremost they take up a lot of vacation and nearly as important, contests are too far for people to drive. Our great country is - well- just too big,  and not known for generous amounts of vacation.

When we do get to the contests pilots want the best possible weather as the risk of points lost due to outlanding on weak days can ruin their whole contest. So we dont fly in tough enough conditions. We dont get out enough to learn different terrain styles and techniques due to the distances involved, and generally we dont go abroad to train in international contest environments.Almost all US pilots first experience at international competition is if and when they make the US team.

This is not a recipe for success, particularly at the international level. And we really havent done much to change our infrastructure to meet the demands made of our pilots on the international stage. However the time has come to do something and not hope that the problem will somehow fix itself . Doing the same thing time after time and expecting different results... heard that one before?

The following article was co-authored by John Cochrane and myself when we realized we were thinking very similar thoughts about possible solutions.

Our plan is to test out some of the ideas, particularly with pilot ranking and selection criteria, against a historical database of US contest results.

Check out the document, and let us know your hopes, concerns, and (constructive) feedback!!