On Monday, April 29, 2013 10:30:09 AM UTC-4, Waveguru wrote:
I would like to see how many points the motorglider guys would end up scoring if their motor was rendered unavailable after launch. A friend of mine couldn't get his motor started one day, so he took an aero tow, and his flying was much different that day. It's just not the same when you know you can crank up that iron thermal an motor home any time you want. It's definitely not a level playing field.



Boggs

I was struggling at one of my first contests when a more experienced pilot suggested that if we could meet up in the start circle we could do a lead and follow so I could see how it is really done by someone that knows what they are doing. A day or so later we did meet up in the start circle and I followed him out to the first turn point (18 miles). Things went pretty well, and the trip to the next turn point went right past the airport, on the trip outbound from the first turn point I couldn't figure out what he was doing, we seemed to pass up good lift, we got lower and lower, finally ending up very near the airport, close to my quit flying and start landing height threshold. We found an exceptionally robust thermal and I abandoned the lead a follow scheme because I didn't like flying it that close to the ground before thermalling back up. (At the time I did not know he had an engine.) At dinner that night I asked him what he was thinking on that leg back from the first turn point, looking for something that would explain what looked like a very poor strategy. His response was "I thought that second leg was too slow, we were not finding any lift and I was going to fly back to the start circle, re-light myself with the engine and start over"

This led to the creation of a new rule for contest and cross country flights
NEVER FOLLOW ANYONE WITH AN ENGINE

SF