Might as well put in my two cents, which is worth the same two cents as everyone else's two cents. Compared to many of you, with decades of experience, I am a relative newbie to RC flying ( 5 years ) and soaring ( 4 1/2 years ) I probably flew my first club contest 4 years ago and my first Eastern Soaring League contest 3 years ago.
I think that Ben makes some good arguments for an expanded HLG/DLG presence at the NATs. As a member of a soaring club I observe that DLG soaring has been growing fast among club members. When I started, 5 years ago, there were a couple of guys throwing the older design HLGs, but they were rare to be seen on the field. Their HLGs were more for their "off field" flying. Today it is hard to make a visit to the field on the weekend when there are not DLGs soaring toward the heavens. And they are usually the same guys who are launching winched planes. DLG has just become an extension of their flying enjoyment. Our club has even changed our field layout and operational rules to make room for the DLG crowd, a crowd that I joined last year. I am still a "big plane" guy, but the attraction of the convenience and the intimacy of DLGs grows stronger. And the lack of extra equipment is a big plus. The Eastern Soaring League now has a separate series of DLG contests with an ever growing number of participants. We will have an ESL HLG contest at our field this weekend. We are no Polecat, with all the pageantry, but we have 25 pilots registered. I don't have national statistics or a world view of the DLG community, but from within my own limited view, it would seem that the DLG community has reached the point were a two day contest would be merited at the NATs. I do believe that there would be greater participation if the event were two days. As Ben suggests, I think it would rival some of the other categories for participation. Of course there is always the challenge of fitting in new events into the schedule. Do you extend the NATs or do you shrink some other event? RES participation really grew this year. Some say it is the emergence of the "modern" RES designs. Others say it was due to a change in contest schedule and sequence. But that is for others to figure out. BTW, I have never been to the NATs or any contest in Europe. The Eastern Soaring League contest series has been the limit of my "big contest" experience. But I am thinking I am ready for the NATs, perhaps next year, time and finances permitting. I think Ben made some good points. Ed Anderson A contest soaring newbie > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > Subject: [RCSE] An argument for handlaunch. > > From: Ben Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Date: Tue, July 29, 2008 7:15 pm > > To: soaring@airage.com, LASS Soaring List > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > So y'all have probably heard my whining about the lack of 2 days of > > handlaunch at the NATS, so let me pitch you my argument for it and for > > better attention paid to handlaunch by soaring in general. This is the > > product of a number of discussions I've had with a number of people > > involved with soaring at different levels over the past couple of years, > > so here goes: +++++++ I deleted the rest for brevity ++++++++++++ Ed ) RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
