At 20:18 10 January 2008, Ben wrote:
Ben wrote:

Paul Remde wrote:

Hi,

I just created my first soaring video for YouTube.
It is and time
lapse (interval recording actually) film of the process
of bringing
the gliders out to the runway, gridding up and launching.
It was
filmed at the 2007 Albert Lea MN Soaring Contest.
The contest
included the U.S. Open and 18 m Nationals and the
Region 7 Sports
Class contest. The Sports Class contest had ended
before this footage
was taken.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6l0pFIGBYtk

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

Sorry for my ignorance as a newbie who stumbled onto
this discussion,
but after watching the movie, I still can't see exactly
what the object of the glider contest is. It appears
to involve some
type of full scale board game involving moving the
gliders as game
pieces around on a
large outdoor grid of some sort, according to some
complex and arcane
rules that must
be written down somewhere, as per the references
to 'gridding'. It looks
something like chess perhaps? Are some gliders more
powerful than others
like the Queen or Bishop and can knock other less
powerful gliders off
the 'grid'? Or what actually is going on in one of
these 'soaring
contests'?


I did notice that early in the movie, some gliders
seem to line up on
one side of the large central dividing area and others
on the other side
facing them. Are those on opposing teams? But eventually
they all seemed
to end up in a jumble in the central dividing area
of the contest board.
The central dividing
area between the opposing teams of gliders seems to
be occaisionally
invaded by another faster air vehicle that looks a
lot like a small
business jet. What role do those play in the contest?


The business jets are there to keep the chess piece
movers working, as gliding contests are actually an
aerobic sport. Whenever there is a lull in the game,
the jets roll through forcing the players to move all
their pieces, which brings their heartrates back up
to acceptable aerobic workout levels. It really keeps
the players quite fit. If your really nice to some
of them, they may even let you push their pieces for
them so you can get a feel for our sport...