ORIGINAL: rcpattern
Matt,
I know you are a fairly proficient Advanced pilot, and maybe that is part of the reason it seems boring. I agree that the patterns now are somewhat easier than they should be, but its not the sequence committee's fault entirely. The rules by which they have to play by are rather stringent, and they probably need looked at. The planes, and equipment continue to improve, but the restrictions on the sequences have not changed. I know those guys work their butts off, as I have been a past member of the sequence committee. It is not easy. There are things in both new sequences that I think could be improved, but that will always be the case. Overall, I don't think these new sequences are an issue.
I think the bigger issue is that we need a significant change to the Sportsman pattern. Actually, not a change, but go back to a mid 1990's sequence and leave it alone forever. The idea of Sportsman is to introduce new people to pattern, and it should be done in a way that doesn't require a high end pattern plane. I see no reason to ever change the Sporstman pattern. If you can't be competitive with a .40 size sport plane, then there is something wrong with the pattern.
Arch
I would like to suggest one other possibility. Leave Sportsman as a regular class in itself and introduce a new class called "Clubman" or "Novice" or whatever you might like it to be. I would make it a completely non turnaround pattern. This way any local guy could pick up any old plane with little to no practice and fly it and have fun. Make it say 10 maneuvers. We could use the last pre-turnaround Novice pattern or something pretty similar.