I asked Fabiano about how Sport Class was defined in Brazil when I
noted that there were 31 Sport Class pilots at Andradas and that for the most
part they were flying topless gliders. He did a little research and came up with
the answer.

http://www.abvl.com.br/compes/competicao-20/

Fabiano Nahoum <<marusco>>
writes:

First of all it is the pilot's choice to sign up for either class.
This is solely based on how one feels about their ability to complete the Open
Class tasks. However, the top 25 pilots on the Open Ranking are not allowed to
sign up for Sport Class. Not even if they decide to fly a low performance
glider.

In case there are less than 10 pilots signed up for Sport Class there will be no
Sport Class comp and all pilots are going to be grouped in Open Class.

In any case, to join a competition, Open or Sport, the pilot must be at least
Level III (which is pretty much the same proficiency level as expected in the
USHPA Level III).

The Sport Class will only be allowed to launch AFTER the Open Class is already
in the air.

There will be different tasks for the classes. Originally the task committee
could come up with any easier task for the Sport Class, but in Andradas they
came to a different resolution that appears will be the norm from now on, it
works like this: the Sport Class tasks are exactly the same as the Open Class
tasks, except that the Waypoint radiuses are 5 Km instead of 400 meters.

The reasoning behind this is to allow the pilots in Sport Class to follow the
Open class, taking advantage of other gliders as thermal markers, so, as they
are nearing the 5km radius of a particular waypoint, it is very likely that they
will be watching Open class going to and from that waypoint, so they get a
little help and also they tend to be retrieved along the same routes, which
makes for a safer situation, where everybody is more or less together.

In Sport Class early start cylinder crossing is allowed but it is also penalized
1 point per early second, limited to 2 minutes. More than 2 minutes and the task
will be zeroed. (Open class pilots are not allowed to cross the line early at
all! They get zero if they do so.)

The Sport Class is not part of the Brazilian ranking. There will be a Sport
Class ranking though, and the goal is to promote the 2 top Sport Class pilots to
the Open Class. If a pilot places 1st or 2nd in Sport Class in one year, he will
be prevented to participate in Sport Class in the upcoming year.

Open Class and Sport Class each get 50% of the total prize money available for a
competition. Just as an illustration, if total prize money is 5 thousand Reais,
each category will get 2.5 thousand. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd places will be awarded
1,200 / 800 / 500 respectively.

Although it is mostly intended for intermediate gliders, there is NO RESTRICTION
on using a topless, and NO HANDICAPS, for doing so. Although that is clearly
unfair, no one is complaining, the excitement on the Sport Class pilots was
contagious, and it seems they couldn't care less about this disadvantage. I
think this will likely change sometime in the future, when we come up with some
fair standard for handicapping different types of gliders.

Most pilots flying topless gliders in Sport Class in Andradas were early Open
Class pilots who were out of the sport for a while and wanted to get a taste of
competition before moving back into Open Class. That's clearly unfair for the
Sport Class pilots, because not only were these pilots on better gliders, they
had already seen competition. But again, no one was complaining. I'd risk saying
that the younger pilots flying Sport gliders were actually motivated to try and
beat the more experienced pilots in better gliders!

I don't know exactly the reason for the growth and success of Sport Class, but
it seems to be working. As I noticed in Andradas they were very motivated, loved
the tasks and were all smiles. It was very positive to see this! Maybe there's
some motivation in the prize money, which is the same as Open Class.