The PASCO League
What the League is all about...
The PASCO League is intended to encourage competitive cross-country flying on a less formal basis than National and Regional competitions, involving pilots at all levels of cross-country competence. It is a team based competition with teams being entered from various soaring sites in the PASCO area.
The PASCO League is an adaptation of the Inter-Club League which has been used so successfully in the U.K. Rules have been adapted slightly to allow focus on the PASCO geographical region, rather than a national League, as is done in the U.K.
The competition takes the form of weekend 'Meets' between the teams in the League. A 'meet' wlll be hosted by each of the host sites in turn throughout the season, giving pilots and crews an opportunity to visit and fly from other sites in the area. Typically, there are 5 full meets approximately one month apart, throughout the Summer season.
It is a team oriented weekend contest series bringing pilots of various levels of cross country expertise together to fly in a semi-competitive environment. It is intended to provide a supportive program for bringing pilots into cross country flying and also for developing the skills of pilots of all levels. It does this by having the competitive format of a set daily course with start and finish gate. What this means is that now every participant has a way of measuring his/her performance on a given day, and a way of comparing notes and learning from pilots who flew the same course in a different way. This dramatically increases a pilots rate of learning and this is reinforced by a strong social element in the league.
People from different clubs in a region now have a regular opportunity to fly together at different sites around the region, and the communication and support role of the regional organization is increased.
Club teams consist of 3 pilots each in a separate class; Novice, intermediate and Pundit (pundit means self appointed expert! ) The pundit is in general the experienced mentor pilot in the team, and there are maximum qualifications for each class except the pundit class, since everyone knows that anyone can be a self appointed expert!
The intention is not to give great glory to individuals, but to promote good-natured rivalry between the teams. The honours each weekend, and over the season, will go to the team ammassing the most points.
Special emphasis is put on the performance of the Novice Pilots and as well as the trophy for the winning team there is a trophy for the team with the best Novices.
The host site or club for each weekend is responsible for providing the organisation for the competition, so there is an opportunity for people to learn contest direction, task setting, start and finish line control, scoring etc...
The host site or club must undertake to provide appropriate launching facilities for each task group, although it is intended that there should be a minimum of interruption to 'normal' site flying.
The Inter Club League: A New Concept for Soaring Growth by Peter Deane and David Greenhill- Why you should start a League in YOUR region
PASCO League Handbook- Also available in German (MS Word format), courtesy of Rupert Richter-Trummer.
1998 League Scoring Spreadsheet
- For Microsoft Excel (43308 bytes)
PASCO League Status Bulletin- 21 March 2000, from Tony Gaechter (tgaechter@home.com) PASCO League Chairman.
Updated 20 March 2000, Marc Ramsey, marc@ranlog.com