On Sat, 21 Mar 2020 07:14:21 -0700, uneekcowgirl wrote:

So Martin, as a totally “model” ignorant observer lol, question, the key
is all about getting minsink rate the absolute lowest possible
irregardless of l/d?

Spot on!

Flying a competition consists of making a previously announced number of
flights during the day. Each flight is timed from when its launched until
it lands. The winner is the person with the highest total flight time.

Simple!

Modifiers:
To avoid losing models, there is a predetermined maximum scoring time for
each flight. All models carry a 'dethermaliser', universally called a
'd/t'. This is typically a timer that, then it trips, moves the entire
tailplane to a 45 degree 'up elevator' angle. This stalls the model and
keeps it stalled so it descends vertically relative to the air: its
normal gliding sink speed will be around 0.3 m/s but after the d/t has
popped its descent rate will be in the 4-5 m/s range, which is usually
enough to drop it out of even a strong thermal.

The 'max' flight time gives the possibility of, on a good day, having
several people who have all maxed out, i.e. flew for the maximum time in
all flights. This is sorted out with a flyoff involving just the flyers
with full scores, held in the evening when both wind and lift should be
weaker. In a small competition this is a single unlimited duration
flight, timed to the ground.

Internationals and World Championship events are a little different.
Theese fly 7 rounds during the day, each being a 50-60 minute period
during which every competitor makes one flight. Its usual to have several
people maxing out, so flyoff rounds are flown in the evening the
determine the winner. These are flown in much shorter rounds, typically
20 minutes each, and with the max time going up, starting from 5 minutes
and increasing by 2 minutes for each successive flyoff. If there are
still several flyers with full scores when it gets too dark to fly, a
final 10 minute round is flown at dawn the next day.



--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org