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aeajr
477 Posts |
 Posted - 11/25/2009 : 10:26:50 AM
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FROM THE PRESIDENT – Ed Anderson
The 2009 ESL season has drawn to a close and what a great season it was. We had 16 hand launched contest days scheduled and 18 thermal duration contest days scheduled. That is one heck of an amazing schedule.
Since this was my first year as President, I was interested to know about the trend of participation we have seen over recent years. |
Edited by - aeajr on 11/25/2009 11:02:47 AM |
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aeajr
477 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2009 : 10:29:20 AM
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FROM THE PRESIDENT – Ed Anderson
The 2009 ESL season has drawn to a close and what a great season it was. We had 16 hand launched contest days scheduled and 18 thermal duration contest days scheduled. That is one heck of an amazing schedule. I have looked around at other leagues and I have not been able to find ANY that even approaches our schedule.
Since this was my first year as President, I was interested to know about the trend of participation we have seen over recent years. Are we getting more pilot participation or are we trending down? I keep hearing that interest in soaring is on the decline and that people just aren’t interested in soaring contests anymore. So I asked our score keeper, Luis Bustamante, if we kept participation records over the years, and it seems we do.
In 2009 we had 99 pilots who participated in our thermal duration contest series, not including Novices. Based on the registration reports, in terms of total pilot registrations, we had been on a steep decline from 2000 to 2005. However over the last 4 years registrations have been on an upswing. Even in this year of a tough economy our numbers are up, year over year, for the last 5 years.
In 2009 we had 77 pilots who participated in our hand launched contest series, not including Novices. For hand launch we only have 5 years of registration records. Doing the HL analysis was a little harder because, in 2009 we changed how we counted Polecat registrations. So I took Polecat out of the numbers. And what I saw is that the hand launch division is doing great! In fact, if the HL EOS contest had not been rained out, 2009 would have been the ESL’s best year in the last 5 years. I think that is an outstanding record!
Who says that interest in contest soaring is dying? It seems to be doing quite well on the East Coast of the United States.
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Best regards,
Ed Anderson
Long Island Silent Flyers
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Edited by - aeajr on 11/25/2009 11:04:06 AM |
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Soaring Competition is Alive and Well in the ESL
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