I am creating a presentation on OLC for our club's annual banquet. I
would like to present some material on OLC's history, but I can't seem
to find very much. I have the wikipedia entry, but it is quite
brief. I also looked around on the OLC site, but couldn't find
anything there either. Anyone out there can tell me how the OLC got
started - where the original idea came from, things like that?

TIA,

Frank( TA)

Frank ,

There was an article in S&G (Dec/Jan edition ) re the OLC Symposium in
England in October and which made mention of Reiner Rose as the
originator. This might help you perhaps if you could make contact with
him or the author of the article ( Wendy MacPhedran ). Good luck,

ZA.

The DAeC decided to have a test of an online competition in the year
1999. In the Winter 1998/98 Reiner Rose (at that time responsible for
the Breitensport (leisure sports) for the DAeC) asked me whether I could
set up such a competition from the (technical, scoring and rules part)
in the soaring season 1999. I said yes, and the work started. I wanted
to have all the rules in 10 sentences and I wanted that it would be
possible to attach something to the triangle. After long discussions
with Markus Scherdl, who was working at DLR as I did at that time, we
came up with the rules expressed in 10 sentences, which allowed for 4
legs. No IGC files were required at that time, it was a fun competion
and the pilots were trusted.

The first flight was scoured at some time in March 1999 by Christoph
Gauss from Lübeck.

After the first test year the DAeC decided to discontinue the project.
So Reiner Rose and I continued the competition as a private competition.
We allowed then also for international participation. I added the
possibility to upload the igc-file for every flight, which started the
learning by looking at the flight traces.


http://www2.onlinecontest.org/olc-d/2000/ges6wert.html

In 2001 we changed the rules, to compete against the Decentralized
competition of the DAEC. As I stilled wanted to have undeclared flights
which allowed for experimentation by the pilots, I introduced the 80%
rule, a flight was considered closed with regards to the points per
distance flown, if the task a completed for at least 80%. This made it
possible to land an airfield on the last leg, when the thermal died
earlier and still get the 2 points per kilometer, and to enjoy then a
tow back home to be back home in time for the family.

We also introduced the Bundesliga (OLC League) in 2001 which scored the
best flight the every week. But this competition was not very
interesting. We wanted something where the clubs fly every weekend of
the competition duration. We wanted that the club was to work together.

So during the Winter 2001/2002 I spent some time developing the rules
for the olc league sprint task, which as the largest distance in a 2.5
hour time window where one had to be higher at the end than at the
beginning. It took another year until the Bundesliga took relay off, and
the the best 3 flight of a club of the weekend are scored.


http://www2.onlinecontest.org/reg_pres-i.html

In 2003 we changed the rules again, to make things easier for the
pilots, as many pilots considered the rules to complex, and because the
DAeC had given up the project of a own online competition.
http://www2.onlinecontest.org/reg_pres03.html
These are the rules that are still in use today.

For the olc league the rules where changed in 2007, which changed the
computation of the height difference between start and finish.


Over the years Christian Hynek (now sis-at.streckenflug.at), Andreas
Rieck (now running online competitions for hangliders for the FAI), and
Oliver ... (for some of the BHC work) helped me to work on the scoring
software for the olc.

Jan Krüger developed the geographic background for the maps of the flights.

The first admin was Alexander ... from Bamberg, later I had to do the
work myself, until Martin Petz became the admin for the olc. Martin
developed also the validation procedures for the glider-olc, Andreas R.
did if for the hang-gliders.

Since 2004 I'm no longer in the OLC team, I had a disagreement with
Reiner Rose and it was better to leave, so I better don't write about
things after 2004.



Best Regards

Hans Trautenberg




Frank schrieb:
> I am creating a presentation on OLC for our club's annual banquet. I
> would like to present some material on OLC's history, but I can't seem
> to find very much. I have the wikipedia entry, but it is quite
> brief. I also looked around on the OLC site, but couldn't find
> anything there either. Anyone out there can tell me how the OLC got
> started - where the original idea came from, things like that?
>
> TIA,
>
> Frank( TA)

The rule change in 2003 was discussed at length at a meeting with
external advisors: I hope I remember all of them:

Hans Werner Grosse
Kai Lindenberg
Markus Scherdl
G. Marzinzig
I think someone from the Swiss Soaring Federation
I think someone from the Austrian Soaring Federation

There was a paper on this meeting in aerokurier .

hans schrieb:

> Frank schrieb:
>> I am creating a presentation on OLC for our club's annual banquet. I
>> would like to present some material on OLC's history, but I can't seem
>> to find very much. I have the wikipedia entry, but it is quite
>> brief. I also looked around on the OLC site, but couldn't find
>> anything there either. Anyone out there can tell me how the OLC got
>> started - where the original idea came from, things like that?
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>> Frank( TA)

Hans,

Thank you so much for providing such a detailed history. This will
really help liven up my presentation!

Frank(TA)