One component of the proposed changes in the NTSS competition system brought forth by the Competition Workgroup under the direction of the USHPA Competition Committee Chairman is the "warm body" provision that supposedly would give more validity to meets based on the number of participants, and less weight to the "quality" of participants, as measured by their previous (from the year before) NTSS ranking. While there are many objectionable provisions in the Competition Workgroup's proposals and a general disdain for the secrecy and non inclusive nature of the process, it is this proposal that has raised the most difficulty and divisions among meet organizers.

The "warm body" provision was originally going to be adopted for the 2009 competition season at the Spring USHPA BOD meeting, but there was substantial opposition from members, competition pilots, Steve Kroop and Rob Sporrer. It was defeated at that meeting. It is back again for the fall USHPA BOD meeting in mid November.

On one side of the provision stand Lisa Tate, organizer of the King Mountain meet (and USHPA President), Mike Haley, organizer of the Rat Race and other national-level USHPA sanctioned paragliding competitions (and USHPA Competition Committee Chairman), and Riss Estes (member of the USHPA Executive Committee), heard to be interested in organizing paragliding competitions if the Competition Workgroup proposals pass. On the other side, Steve Kroop (a Region 10 director), organizer (with Jamie Shelden) of the Flytec meets, David Glover, organizer of the 2007 Worlds, and the Big Spring meets, Jamie Shelden organizer of the Flytec meets and the Santa Cruz Flats Race. All these meet organizers will be at the fall USHPA BOD meeting.

On one side three powerful members of the USHPA governing clique. On the other, one regional director and others unassociated with the USHPA other than as members.

I have written about the "warm body" provisions in the Competition Workgroup proposals previously here and here. You can see the original proposals here.

Lisa, Mike and Riss argue for their "warm body" provisions as follows:

(a) The overall validity of USHPA competitions increases, addressing the problem of quality competitive events receiving less than full validity.

(b) Meet organizers contributing to the pilot community by organizing well-attended events are rewarded with higher validity, which in turn induces higher ranked pilots to attend, which in turn augments the success of the organizers’ efforts.

(c) Top pilots in search of a spot on the US team have incentive to attend events once considered secondary, creating an environment where aspiring pilots can learn from those more skilled.

(d) The validity system is more inclusive, factoring in the skills and value of attending pilots who happen not to have a national ranking.

(e) Pilot skill remains the dominant variable in determining meet validity.

(f) The best US pilots will continue to represent the US in world events.

I demonstrated earlier that applying their warm body formula to a previous meet in Big Spring made small changes to the validity of the meet and did not support the favorable opinions that this crew has of the value and significance of their provisions. Because their proposal didn't make any significant differences, as far as I could tell with one small test, I remain agnostic about it.

I, and all the meet organizers and competitions pilots agree with the goal, bringing more pilots to competition meets. We question whether these provisions will go any where toward meeting that goal.

Apparently the Competition Workgroup has an actual comparison of the two systems (or three systems) done over two years' worth of competition data, but so far they have been unwilling to share the results of that analysis. Without sharing it BOD members would be buying a pig in a poke if they vote to implement the proposals.

Steve Kroop and David Glover have argued against any changes to the NTSS validity formula. The principal that they stand behind is that the quality of the competition should determine the value of the competition. You have to beat the valued quality pilots to get NTSS points, not the warm bodies.

Now there is a chicken and egg aspect to this. You don't get points that you bring to the competition (until a year later) unless you go first to a NTSS USHPA sanctioned competition. If a meet (say the King Mountain meet) attracts a lot of pilots, who are (let us say for the sake of argument) good pilots, but pilots who have not attended USHPA sanctioned competitions (because they are on the east coast or in Texas, or because they require towing endorsements, or because they are races and not open distance formats, or because it is too costly in time and money to go to them), then the King Mountain meet isn't worth much no matter how good the pilots are (which pisses off Lisa and the pilots who attend the King Mountain meet thinking that the "élites" are dissing them).

Of course, when I was the USHPA Competition Committee Chairman we recognized this problem and gave USHPA sanctioned competitions our own "warm body" points, 300 points minimum for any USHPA sanctioned competition. In fact, you didn't have to have any bodies at all to get the 300 points, but it was put in there to assist and support meet organizers in trying to attract pilots to their competitions. It has succeeded in that. Since that time I have recommended increasing that value all the way up to 600 points.

Apparently the current "warm body" provisions aren't enough for the meet organizers on one side of this debate. They think (I think mistakenly) that if things were changed in a way that they find congenial, it will improve attendance at their meets. I have heard third hand that this is a very big issue of Mike (and Gale) as they want their paragliding meets to be financially successful (and believe that some of the top pilots are not coming to their meets reducing their validity and attractiveness). I have also heard third hand that Riss Estes is very interested in getting the Competition Workgroup proposals passed so that he can feel that it is a better deal for him if he wants to put on a meet. Lisa has been fighting this battle since 1984, and I don't need to go into all this now about why she favors these changes.

Now let me state clearly that I completely support supporting meet organizers. In fact, I have made many proposals about how we can do just that. And yes I believe that "warm body" provisions are a portion of that support (and as I said above, we have already included them in the existing system). I have also made proposals (adopting proposals from the paraglider pilots) for increasing the value of points that a broader range of pilots bring to the competitions. I have also stated that I really don't have a problem with the Competition Workgroup's proposals in this area. In that sense I am in the middle on this issue.

Steve and Jamie have not had a problem getting full attendance and full validity for their meets. Perhaps they feel, unlike Mike, that they are getting as many pilots as they can handle. Perhaps because they are limited by their towing resources, and safety concerns, that they don't need any more help getting pilots to attend their competitions, so that they can be free to push for the quality provisions and against the "warm body" count.

I, as a competition pilot, would like to see more attendance at these meets, and at the East Coast Championship, the Big Spring Nationals, and the Santa Cruz Flats Race. I favor provisions that will actually help meet organizers attract more pilots. I have stated these provisions and I will state in the future additional actions that I would like to see the USHPA and meet organizers take.

My goal is to see 100 hang glider pilots at each USHPA sanctioned competition. I want to know how from a list of things that we could do to support competition and support meet organizers how each of those things is going to help us reach that goal.

I believe that fiddling with the NTSS system is a weak sister when it comes to moving toward my goal. I don't have anything against the proposed changes to the valuation, but I have not much in favor of them either.

One thing that my calculations do not take into account is the fact that the Lisa, Mike, Riss proposal does not count the quality of foreign pilots coming to fly in the US meets or their quality in foreign competitions. The Florida meets attract a number of high quality foreign pilots which is why they are high value meets. This would go away under the LMR proposal. That, and the fact that only one foreign meet over two years could be counted toward your ranking.