John,

I think GP its totally safe in small classes. I would not do it if the class was larger than say, 10-15 gliders.

So maybe this would be a fun thing to have in the stack for a small 18 or 15 meter class at a regionals? Even in Sports you could do handicap ranges and remove the handicap allowing for level racing and first to finish wins scenario's! This was popular this weekend and nobody really cared about the handicaps. They were happy to forget them and race level, glider to glider!

Once the class gets much larger than 10 (with ranging experience levels, etc) it may create some linear level of chaos around the starting line. This might be considered higher risk or perhaps even unwise. Perhaps a longer starting line would spread out the field more?

With 10 in the air (3 classes, 2, 4 and 4) starting in 5 minute stagger (basically everyone in the same area getting ready to start, starting, etc it was very fun and manageable. Glider behaviors were VERY predictable. You know that guy/gal had to come to the line and start at some point. There was less randomness to the pilots behaviors. Once on course, it was beautiful to know that you were actually racing!

I also like the idea of Grand Prix out of a 5 mile cylinder so there are many options to exit the starting area but it all happens at one time. This might work for slightly larger classes. For example out the top?

Bottom line: It is ALOT of fun knowing that glider B is even with you (glider A) 90 minutes into the task and that you will need to find a way to get ahead if you are going to beat him RATHER THAN knowing you started behind him and all you need to do is lock on and win. I think our open starting gate (start anytime) promotes loitering around unpredictably AND encourages the classic tactic or starting last, catching and leeching even more than you think!

This GP concept could be really, really fun for pilots and the rules and scoring is incredibly easy. We did the scoring on a simple spreadsheet using winscore to quickly validate start height, turnpoints achieved and finish height. Basically elapsed time (lowest wins!).

Link to GP rules he https://sites.google.com/site/sgpflu...es-and-scoring

Best,

Sean
7T

On Wednesday, October 2, 2013 1:03:25 PM UTC-4, wrote:
The popularity of this format on r.a.s. motivated a question on the pilot opinion poll about whether you'd like to see it included in regular regional rules. I hope that people watching here will answer, and especially that the people who now have some experience with this format will chime in and add to the comments section



John Cochrane