*SIGH*

I'm going to have to finish the half-written article I've had for SOARING magazine for a long time.

I understand a lot of you _think_ the AT/AST is a better "race" - but its way way way more complicated than that. Here are a couple of highlights:

1) You're racing not in 3 dimensions, but in _4_ dimensions; you have to deal with the passage of time. Thermals are of limited duration so you have small inscrutable windows of time (which cannot be accurately forecasted 1-2 hours in advance when you go through the start-gate) whereupon thermals will be lined up with a direct course to your 1-mile turnpoint. Anyone who happens to hit those thermals at that moment gets a BIG advantage over anyone who has to deviate more than 10-20 degrees off-course to find a thermal in the same area when they fly through (possibly just a few minutes later).

By contrast, a well-called** TAT with limited cylinder sizes allows for thermal variations over the course of the day and doesn't penalize pilots nearly as harshly if they come through an area and just happen to time it so that they have to make a slightly larger deviation in course than "the other guy". The TAT judges the pilot more-closely on the speed he/she achieved over the ground they actually flew, and with the conditions they actually flew through at the time.

Additionally a TAT can provide a safety-margin around dangerous terrain, areas known for OD, or turnpoints that otherwise couldn't ever be used due to some local condition or effect. The AT/AST provides zero flexibility for any of these situations.

2) You really screw people with lower L/D if there isn't regularly-spaced lift. Blue-holes or large gaps between thermal/ridge/wave areas have a disproportionate effect on lower L/D ships in an AT/AST. That's because they give the pilot only two choices - both unappealing: either a probable landout or a long deviation around the area (for which they pay a huge penalty in an AT/AST). With a TAT or MAT, the pilot can fly a different course-line - deviating around the problem area - and still get credit for much of that distance. They are rewarded for making a good and safe decision, and are judged more-closely on the speed they actually fly through the air.

There are many more items I could raise; but fundamentally you need to understand what skills the AT/AST is measuring and what skills the TAT measures.. Each have their drawbacks and caveats, and which one you think is "better" should be based on what they really judge, not what you _think_ they do or which one makes you feel nostalgic, or warm & fuzzy, or speedy.

--Noel

**NOTE: There are a lot of poorly called TATs, which I think give people the impression that the task format itself is bad. News-flash: AT/ASTs can be mis-called, too! A TAT should provide cylinder sizes that are just large enough to either:
1) Accommodate the mix of gliders in a handicapped class with a wide variance in L/D (i.e. 10-15 mile cylinders), or
2) Accommodate small-scale fluctuations in thermal distribution throughout the day (i.e. 5-10 mile cylinders).
I completely agree that TATs with 20-30 mile cylinders are indicative of poor task-calling and perhaps a CD who wants "fun" more than he/she wants a "race". But if that's the case, get upset at the CD and _not_ the task format!

RANT: Soaring Contests are not like yacht racing. STOP WITH THAT COMPARISON.. Yacht racing has what we call "Grand Prix" starts. Yacht racing also has wind that tends to blow across a reasonable part of the course at the same time. Thermals are much smaller in size and duration. In sailing, its more important to jockey for position to cover your opponent and put them at a positional disadvantage so they get less wind; you cannot consistently position yourself to lessen the effect of thermals on your opponents... short of crowding them out of the thermal cores via dangerous maneuvering that will get you banned from contests. Oh, and when two yachts jockeying for position bump, it doesn't usually kill people or destroy the vessels and threaten folks on the ground (like a midair does). They may have some passing similarities; but they are very different animals: one deals with horizontal wind and a 2-dimensional water-surface, while the other deals with horizontal _and_ convective air currents and a 3-dimensional field.