"Kirk Stant" wrote in message
I suggest that everybody study the rules used at the Worlds,
especially for speed tasks: Start line (1600 meters or so height, 10
km wide), no altitude limit before. 500m radius turnpoints. 1 km
finish line, no altitude limit.
Interestingly, there was apparently a lot of complaining about all the
AATs (our TATs) that were called - the pilots were getting really
tired of them and wanted to get back to real racing.
What a surprise.


No surprise that the pilots get tired of these tasks Kirk,
the scoring rules created for the AST and PST speed tasks with variable
distance are just a pain and I wonder who is responsible for them.
(see FAI SC S3 / ANNEX A). I studied these rules and it is quite a
challenge to understand how rules and scoring formulas work.
Time limits in general are just a hassle and create headache for the pilot
trying to figure out how he could optimize his flight.

Officially we have now
- RT Racing Task (classic task, fix distance for all)
- AST Speed Task - Assigned Areas (var. distance, minimum time)
- PST Speed Task - Pilot Selected (var. distance, minimum time)
- TAT Distance Task - Assigned Areas (var. distance, maximum time)
- TPT Distance Task - Pilot Selected

Well - even if you are told what kind of tasks the competition will contain,
you will not really know what you get, because 3 different possibilities
of scoring are applicable.

A. 1000-Points Scoring System: The Score is expressed in points
(the maximum available daily Score is 1000 points).
B. Kilometre Scoring System: The Score is expressed in kilometres
(the max available daily Score is equal to the best Distance of the Day)
C. Place Scoring System: The Score is expressed in places
(the maximum available Place Score for the Day is 25).
D. Or you might have local scoring rules and formulas.

Most competitions use the 1000point system - lets have a look.

RT Racing Task is the classic task with 2/3 of the max points for
speed and 1/3 for distance, if enough competitors return home.
I still like it, especially the Australian version with different
start points. (no 15min start gate time needed)
They give speed points only and if you messed up a day completely
you better land short of the home field, even if you could make it
home, because you will get more points)

AST Speed Task over Assigned Area turn points
PST Speed Task over Pilot selected turn points
- for both tasks distance is variable and a minimum time applies
- The winner points are split up 2/3 for speed and 1/3 for distance.
- Finishers get the same distance points as the pilot with the biggest
distance even if there distance is smaller!!!!
- Finishers returning home too early get the speed calculated with
the minimum time given.

In my opinion this kind of scoring is just nonsense!
If more points are given for speed than distance, every pilot will
fly the shortest distance to minimise the risk. After the experience
of the SA pre-worlds the IGC created the minimum time - what a
stupid idea!!
For variable distance speed tasks the points should be given equally
for distance and speed (50/50%). That would give the pilots a
reason to fly as far and fast as possible.
Each pilots gets points for his own flown distance and his speed.
If done so, the minimum time, which gives the pilot headache to
optimise the task, is not needed anymore.

TAT Distance Task over Assigned Areas turn points
TPT Distance Task over Pilot Selected turn points
- for both tasks a maximum time applies
- distance points are given only
- no penalty is given, if you return home too late, but only the
distance taken, flown until the max. time has been reached.

I can live with TAT. TPT is fine as long as the weather is more or
less homogeneous in the competition area.
The only problem is, that normally the task manager will give you
a task like that, if weather conditions are very unpredictable. As a
result you might in Switzerland have turn points in the mountains,
in the flat region or towards the Jura, regions with very different
weather pattern. Then it is like throwing the dice - where shall you
go? If selecting the wrong region - you are fu....ed.

Personally I do not like PST and TPT tasks. Unpredictable weather
pattern can just make it a lucky game.
I prefer tasks where pilots have to fly in a given sequence to certain
areas, and every pilot faces about the same problems.
But with the current formulas for AST and PST tasks, I will not fly
any competitions using them. It is just a crazy scoring way to compare
pilots abilities. I do not need this kind of experience. Then I prefer to
spend some nice days flying for fun and declare it in the OLC.

Chris Hostettler
Melbourne