On Friday, March 16, 2012 9:01:08 AM UTC-4, John Carlyle wrote:
So, Dan, you’re essentially using OLC as a poor-man’s SeeYou. That makes sense, and it’s a good use of a free service (and certainly not lazy).. Other folks have told me offline that they use OLC to find good soaring sites to visit and to download flights from areas they intend to fly at.

But OLC bills itself as a Contest, and that’s still the thing I don’t get. OLC, as I said previously, is so biased towards great sites, pilots who fly a lot, and pilots who choose less challenging flights that it’s a mug's game. I don't see how people can view this as fun.

-John

On Thursday, March 15, 2012 10:16:23 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
Well, since you asked a specific question - for me it's simply being able to
look at my flight at the end of the day and having a closer idea of how far
I flew without having to measure on a map. Call me lazy, but after 39 years
of drawing lines, measuring angles, etc., I like the convenience. It's also
fun to compare flights with friends who flew the same day and area with me.


"John Carlyle" wrote in message
news:23447273.4338.1331754963686.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@vbtf26....
Seriously, what does the OLC offer that people find attractive? I’m trying
to understand, but I just don’t get it.

If one looks at worldwide or countrywide daily results, they see that the
score sheet is dominated by long, fast flights out of well-known soaring
meccas. Flights from ordinary sites are noticeable for being in the bottom
half of the daily score sheet. Nothing fun in that result…

At a single club, if several guys go out together to do an XC task that is
long enough to involve several air masses, someone who simply rides back and
forth along a single cloud street over the club as long as he can might beat
them on the club OLC score sheet. Nothing fun there, either…

Again at a single club, at the end of the year it’s common to see that the
pilot who is at the top of the score sheet was able to fly several times a
week and has posted longer and faster flights than other pilots who could
only fly once a week or once every other week. Again, nothing fun there…

Because of observations like these, pilots at my club don’t take the OLC
seriously. They’ll post their flights to OLC only if it’s easy or if they
think of it. Now that OLC doesn’t allow the use of Cambridge loggers, and
have removed the ability to post a flight to OLC from SeeYou, I think that a
lot of our pilots won’t bother to post their flights on OLC anymore.

Is there something about OLC that we’re missing?

-John

It's pretty much self evident that OLC is fun for a lot of people. It is great for our sport because it gets people out flying cross country and gives them a challange that fits them.
One of the neat things about our sport is the wide variety of ways people can participate in a huge range of equipment. Few other sports do this in my view.
I get a bit crazy(UH crazy?) when I read a lot of stuff on RAS that seems to simply be dumping on what the other guy likes.
OLC is different than organized single competition. They each serve a substantial group of folks because of their different characters. You can't make them the same and shouldn't, nor should the success of either be some example of why the other has to change.
I have friends that do both. I have friends that do OLC and have no interest in organized contests, and others just the opposite.
RAS needs a more constructive topic than havein 2 factions dumping on each other.
Rant over
UH