On Monday, July 28, 2014 4:33:09 PM UTC-5, John Cochrane wrote:
Why I prefer time-limited tasks -- MAT, long MAT, TAT -- to assigned tasks:



AST's are great tests of tactical skill. Start gate timing, watching the gaggle, start late, catch them...but not too late; pass one gaggle, get on top maybe jump to the next one...or maybe just sit on top of your gaggle and coast home. Time limited tasks are better tests of pilot skill, reading the weather and the terrain. I prefer to focus on those skills.



Time and landouts. If there is a spread in pilot skills, CDs will assign much shorter tasks so the slow guys can get home. That means fast guys fly less, maybe a lot less. Tasks are already too short.



Land 'em out, you say. Back to the good old days when the target was 70% completion and often a lot less. Indeed, the only thing that breaks up the gaggle and gets people to actually start is fear of the end of the day.



Now think hard about racing with routine 30% handouts. (Sean, since you seem to have time for data collection, get the number of land outs at nationals in your sample. I'm willing to bet it's way less than 30%). This means a dedicated crew is a necessity. Or a motor. There is a reason Europe is full of motor gliders.



How many pilots are really going to go take their gliding vacations racing, if racing means lots of high traffic gaggle flying, shorter flights, lots and lots of land outs, needing a crew or a motor? How many new pilots are going to stick with it if they land out day after day after day?



Not for me.



But, as others have pointed out, this is not about rules. It's about CDs. It would be a very good idea at the safety meeting for a CD to poll the pilots about how much they want pure AST, long MAT, MAT, or TAT. And, specifically, in less than perfect weather. When there are storms, blue holes, cirrus, etc., y'all really want to be sent to specific airports?



John Cochrane

Right on John. If the weather would've been just a touch bluer or the task just a bit larger, the AST called for the 2014 Club Class would've been a mass landout. As it was, somewhere around half of the Modern Class landed out on their AST, which I think was 40 miles longer than Clubs. As it was, at least the younger half of the Club Class that I had supper with that night seemed to really enjoy the task, probably mostly because hardly any of us had ever flown one. I know it was my first time after flying only Sports Class Regionals and the 1-26 Championships. I couldn't help thinking though that we were not far from a mass landout and showing the "dark side" of the AST.

I for one fly with a crew and don't mind landing out (i'm really good at it actually!) but I think most competitors would tire of that quickly. Maybe having more AST's would inspire more pilots to fly with a crew instead of driving them away from contests.