On Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 8:05:56 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Let's go back in time to August 4th 2010. The sport of soaring lost a well respected man named Chris O'Callaghan. It was the 4th fatal sailplane accident in 4 weeks. This was a wake up call to many pilots operating without Flarm or Parachutes. Chris was flying on the return leg of a task when he collided head on with another sailplane traveling opposite direction to the final turnpoint.

What can we learn from history to avoid repeating it?

Can the tasks be a contributing factor to set up pilots for a collision?

Let's look at the task for August 4th 2010 in Uvalde.
1. Start North
2. Callaghan
3. UnoMasPc
4. Leakey
5. Batesville
6. Finish

For those of you unfamiliar with these turnpoints, Leakey is due north of Uvalde and Batesville is almost due south. That means that from the Leaky turnpoint to the Batesville turnpoint you are racing head on with gliders flying opposite direction from Batesville to the Finish. On a good day, you are traveling around 100 mph (85-90 knots true airspeed) which is a closure rate of 200 mph. You are racing between the same cumulus clouds, essentially on the same path, and same altitude (lift band).

Don't you remember from private pilot 101 that collision courses between aircraft are extremely hard to identify because there is no relative movement in your vision?

So what's the point? Tasks that are called which have pilots racing in opposite direction of each other should be avoided.

During a MAT race, there is a MAJOR threat of this happening because there is NO organized route for the task! It's just a bunch of gliders traveling in random directions as fast as they possibly can go. As cockpits become more technologically advanced with Flarm, GPS Maps, Thermal centering devices, etc, cockpit distractions have reached an ALL TIME HIGH.

If you have ever flown in a large contest you know first hand the dangers that exist when pilots are gaggling around the start cylinder. Many pilots will fly out of the way by many miles just to avoid this issue until they are ready to start and then return through the cylinder.

Out on course with a MAT the threat level is high for a mid air to happen.. Take a look at Chris O'callaghans accident and tell me if this can't happen again with a similar scenario with a poorly designed task or an MAT.

And tell everyone again....why exactly are we doing MAT's???

Human's cause accidents, incidents. Also, it's really easy to find anyone these days. Hint, you been busted.

Several mid airs with AT.

Uvalde 2008
Uvalde
Saturday, August 09, 2008

Official
15 Meter Class Day 4

Task: Assigned
ID Name Distance(Miles) Radius
58 GPS Start E 0.00 5.0
46 Pinto Creek 44.72
42 Medina LkDam 137.14
13 Cotulla 213.53
56 FINISH GATE 275.02

Heading to first TP. Between a V2 and Genesis 2. The V2 flew back to Uvalde and the Genesis 2 pilot bailed out. He did have back injury's from the hard landing. I was their.

32nd FAI World Gliding Championships-Uvalde, Texas USA
August 17, 2012 ·
News update: A midair collision between two 15-Meter class gliders happened at around 15:30, about 30 km southwest of Uvalde.
Loius Bourderlique of France (glider FB) was able to fly back to Uvalde and land safely. Peter Hartmann of Austria (glider PC) bailed out and rode his parachute to a good landing. He was picked up by helicopter, returned to the Uvalde airfield, then taken to a local hospital for precautionary checks..
Ken Sorenson - Championship Director
Friday, 17 August 2012 16:37

Task for Meter 15 on 17 August 2012, Task cancelled

Task version: 1
Turnpoint Distance Direction Observation zone
04 Start C 8.97 km 293.1° Line 10.00 km (Radius 5.00 km)
25 Nash Rc 35.92 km 132.2° Cylinder R=0.50 km
31 Crystal C 51.35 km 235.2° Cylinder R=0.50 km
16 ChalkBlff 76.00 km 347.2° Cylinder R=0.50 km
59 CmmnchCvs 93.98 km 38.6° Cylinder R=0.50 km
48 Devine 107.25 km 156.5° Cylinder R=0.50 km
76 ElJardnRc 122.92 km 196.0° Cylinder R=0.50 km
01 FINISH 130.98 km 340.6° Cylinder R=3.00 km
Total: 618.41 km

The above was a AT. I do not support zero turn MAT's. Nor 1 turn or 2 turn with say a 3 hr. window as I feel they are not fair or equal for all. But multiple, say 10 turn MAT's are good as it allows the slower guys to get home. As a CD I have called these multiple 10 turn MAT's. Some said it was their best day they ever had. Many disliked the old POST task's when called. But much better than the old downwind dash for sure, which might be the root cause for contest decline.
Most, if not all, CD's (and their advisers) are aware of "angles" when calling TP's. I have been hammered by some entrants when the inbound/ outbound angle is around 30 degrees.

Best. Tom #711.