Scott,
Archie also hit the nail on the head. I've always been an advocate of bringing back Expert but never though about it being flown at the Nats. Archie's right, there are no more sites available at the Nats. The only option available that I see would be to drop Intermediate from the Nats and I'm quite certain that there are any number of Intermediate pilots who wouldn't vote for that! The only other way would be to try and squeeze Expert in somewhere which would be an absolute nightmare for the Event Director. Site 1 & 3 are already locked down with FAI and Masters. I'm frankly not sure about Site 4 because I never get over there between flying in Masters and calling for Andrew in FAI, but I suspect there's little if any room to squeeze in another class.
Verne Koester
ORIGINAL: CLRD2LAND
Arch, there are always exceptions to the rule. Chris Odom, Brett, and others are the exceptions. If we want to continually grow pattern, we need to look at the majority and not the gifted few.
Verne hit the nail on the head which is why a new class would be perfect to accomplish this. Why would anyone be against a new class? It just doesn't make sense to me. Is it change? Is it making a class smaller? Remember the gripe about Masters taking too long? It takes long because of the size not the number of maneuvers. This would be Masters fliers that aren't ready for a more difficult sequence and for those coming out of Advanced and getting ready to take Tony down....wait, I didn't say that.
I'm interested in why a new class would not be the answer.