What are the goals for competition of the 2005 USHPA Strategic plan? They can be found here: http://ozreport.com/12.238#1.

In short the goal is to increase participation in competition (and fly-ins) as a means of promoting a sense of shared community among hang glider pilots and thereby increase the USHPA pilot retention rate. Increased participation means more pilots going to competitions and more competitions for them to go to.

It is not a goal of the USHPA strategic plan to increase the skill level of the pilots who make the US National team, or increase the chances of the US National team winning the World Championship.

But, it is the primary goal (there is a secondary goal) of the existing National Team Selection System (NTTS), to choose the best pilots to represent the US at the World Championship.

But something strange happened when the Competition Workgroup went about suggesting changes to the competition system. They focused almost exclusively on changing the one part of the system that is dedicated to choosing the best pilots for the US National team. They apparently didn't look hard enough at all the things that they could have done to encourage competition beyond changes to the NTSS. This has lead to a great deal of confusion.

Some pilots apparently feel that the NTTS discourages wide participation in competition. Others feel that top pilots manipulate the system to their benefit and the disbenefit of the broad majority of pilots. In contrast, others feel that the NTTS could be made stronger to make sure that it chooses the strongest team, irrespective of its affect on the perception that the "average" pilot has about it. That at the very least it should not be "watered down" or "warm bodied."

Some feel that for the pilots chosen by the NTSS to be considered as the "best" pilots for the US National team, there has to be some means of guaranteeing equal participation in all the meets that could possibly count for one's ranking. That is, the obstacles of time and distance need to be overcome so that everyone with the request skills is there at the meets going head to head. (Maybe someone could win the lottery and become the USHPA competition benefactor.)

Some feel that only certain types of meets are valid indicators of pilot skills (apparently open distance, bonus points to favored LZ's, not timed, handicapped, at mountain sites in strong winds). These same pilots seem to feel that competition against foreign pilots should not be counted whether in the US or overseas. The Competition Workgroup apparently agrees with them.

Other pilots feel that the overseas competition is much stronger than US competition and as they have the time and means they want to compete against the best.

All pilots feel that it would be great to have more Regional competitions (and make it a requirement to do well at them to get to go to the Nationals). Unfortunately they don't say how we are going to encourage meet organizers to put on Regional meets and how the meet organizer for the Nationals is going to afford to put it on with the now reduced participation (which seems to be the opposite of what we want). There is also no recognition of the problem of the vast differences in population and participation amongst the various Regions.

Also, there is no recognition that this is not just a US problem, but is true of all countries. Over twenty years ago or so the regional competitions were dropped in all the countries that had any hang glider pilots. There weren't enough pilots and interest to hold Regionals any more. It wasn't something about the US pilots or the USHGA, or conflicts between Regions that caused the Regional competition system to collapse in the US.

So what if we want to achieve both goals: Encourage wider participation in US competitions and choose the best US National team (again, this is not part of the USHPA strategic plan)?

I would suggest that we focus on those elements outside the NTSS that encourage participation and that we change the NTSS to better ensure that we select the best team (see yesterday's article). But at the same time we have to deal with the perception that the NTSS interferes with participation in competition generally.