CIVL has finally come around to my way of thinking about how to
encourage pilots

The Sport Class in the US came about when I took Tove Heaney's
idea of the floater class in Australian competition and used it to make a class
that encouraged less experienced pilots without top of the line topless gliders
to compete against pilots similarly situated. I didn't allow top competition
pilots to fly in sport class. I created a handicap system that allowed for all
type of gliders.

Sport Class has been a big success in the US. It has been adopted by Colombia,
Guatemala, and Mexico where many pilots can not afford expensive topless
gliders.

Colombia brought the idea of the Sport Class to CIVL, but CIVL wasn't interested
(until now perhaps) in my goal of encouraging newer pilots to take part in
competition. They held a Sport Class Worlds and sure enough invited the highest
ranking topless pilots to enter.

But maybe now they are changing their minds.

The main way that we discouraged top competition pilots from entering Sport
Class was to hold open and Sport Class competitions at the same time and place.
Sure we didn't allow any pilot who had been in the top twenty NTSS ranking over
the previous three years to fly in Sport Class, but really, none wanted to fly
in Sport Class when they could fly in open class.

CIVL has copied our way of doing things organizing the 2017 Women's' Worlds at
the same time and place as the World Championships. Just like we encourage less
experienced pilots to enter competition CIVL wants to encourage less experienced
women to enter competition and they are doing just the same way we do.

The top women who have made their national teams will be flying in the open
World Championship, and the women who didn't make their national teams will be
flying in the Women's (Sport Class) Worlds.

It is so refreshing when you see one of your cherished concepts adopted by an
international organization.

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Photo by Adam Bain