Handicap Distance Tasks

I have been following the arguments about Flarm as well as US task setting
with interest. I do not wish to confuse the picture further but I do want
to point out that Handicap Distance Tasks solve many of the complaints
about standard assigned tasks (including leeching).

With HDTs we recognise the glider's handicap in the task, not in the
scoring. This means that every pilot can fly at the same time of day, in
the same air, for roughly the same time on task.

We have been using HDTs successfully in UK rated competition for two
seasons with great pilot feedback. It needs a bit of software for task
setting and if you want to use See You to score them, there is a second bit
of software that prepares the evidence for this.

Following requests from a couple of US clubs, I have put a lot of effort
into modifying this software to be used with the US handicap system, US
Miles, SSA distance calculation rules, and scoring formulae. I would be
delighted if more of you guys gave it a look.

handicaptask.uk or pm me for more information.

Jim

ps: If you want to modify your own scoring software, I can tell you how.

Jim:
I passed your earlier (UK specific) software to the US competition Committee. Requested that they take a look. They did and rejected it pretty sumararily, though I was not at all clear why. I am a techno-illiterate so that may not be surprising. But their reaction was.
You might try approaching John Godfrey, current chair of the Competition Committee directly and see if you can get any better response, especially now you have Americanized the program.
Howard


On Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 8:45:06 AM UTC-7, Jim White wrote:
I have been following the arguments about Flarm as well as US task setting
with interest. I do not wish to confuse the picture further but I do want
to point out that Handicap Distance Tasks solve many of the complaints
about standard assigned tasks (including leeching).

With HDTs we recognise the glider's handicap in the task, not in the
scoring. This means that every pilot can fly at the same time of day, in
the same air, for roughly the same time on task.

We have been using HDTs successfully in UK rated competition for two
seasons with great pilot feedback. It needs a bit of software for task
setting and if you want to use See You to score them, there is a second bit
of software that prepares the evidence for this.

Following requests from a couple of US clubs, I have put a lot of effort
into modifying this software to be used with the US handicap system, US
Miles, SSA distance calculation rules, and scoring formulae. I would be
delighted if more of you guys gave it a look.

handicaptask.uk or pm me for more information.

Jim

ps: If you want to modify your own scoring software, I can tell you how.

Great idea. Simple and easy and Fun.

Your handicap task would be a great innovation for US sports class (handicaps from 126 to Concordia). I imagine that the USRC did not like the idea that all pilots essentially had their own un-timed, assigned task (with greater lateral variability as you go down in handicap) in which no extra distance could be added (not timed). Also, the work is complete and it's ready to go! No complex scoring equations are required. We can't have this kind of simplicity in the US! ;-)

I prefer non handicap classes (I think we all do) but this new task would definitely make handicap flying (or club flights as you mention) MUCH more fun and interesting.

I wish you success and thank you for the great effort you (and likely many others) have put into developing this cool new task. Very impressive. I will try it at my flying site in the spring.

Sean Fidler

We tried similar idea 5 years ago in GrandPrix-style contest, where traditional handicapping is not possible. I made simple formula for calculating turnpoint barrel radius for individual competitors:

R = D / 2N * ( 1 - k/k0 ) + 0,5 * k/k0

R is radius
D task length
N number of turnpoints
k0 handicap of the best glider participating
k your handicap
All distance units kilometers.

It works well enough if angle between legs is large, out-and-return legs being optimal.

At 06:41 28 January 2016, krasw wrote:
We tried similar idea 5 years ago in GrandPrix-style contest, where
traditional handicapping is not possible. I made simple formula for
calculating turnpoint barrel radius for individual competitors:

R = D / 2N * ( 1 - k/k0 ) + 0,5 * k/k0

R is radius
D task length
N number of turnpoints
k0 handicap of the best glider participating
k your handicap
All distance units kilometers.

It works well enough if angle between legs is large, out-and-return legs
being optimal.

This is where we started but the present system is somewhat more refined.
In the UK we use windicapping which skews towards low handicap gliders as
the wind strength increases.

We also realised that the shortest way around the task is not to go
directly towards the centre of the barrel, nor to the point where the
bisector intersects the barrel circumference.

So we measure the shortest (handicapped or windicapped)path around task for
each barrel size step and compare to the reference task length * handicap
(/handicap in US). This iterative process arrives at the barrel size that
best fits the desired task length for each handicap flying.

Our software will cope with start lines of any length, variable barrels,
acute and oblique turns, checkpoints, angled finish lines and finish
rings.

It then prints a handy briefing document for the pilots.

If you put a task into the calculator then export it into SeeYou you will
see what I mean.

Jim

It's a very interesting idea. A couple of questions.

What are the implications for leeching and does the handicapping account for the fact that this likely makes it easier for lower handicap gliders to hang back a bit and use higher performance gliders as markers throughout the task.

In uniform weather this seems fine, but what about tasks where flying farther requires the higher performance gliders to face blue holes, thunderstorms, getting off convergence lines and the like.

These were questions that were asked of me when I asked some experienced pilots about it and I had no experience from which to provide an answer.

9B

On Thursday, 28 January 2016 19:15:10 UTC+2, Jim White wrote:

This is where we started but the present system is somewhat more refined.
In the UK we use windicapping which skews towards low handicap gliders as
the wind strength increases.

We also realised that the shortest way around the task is not to go
directly towards the centre of the barrel, nor to the point where the
bisector intersects the barrel circumference.

So we measure the shortest (handicapped or windicapped)path around task for
each barrel size step and compare to the reference task length * handicap
(/handicap in US). This iterative process arrives at the barrel size that
best fits the desired task length for each handicap flying.

Our software will cope with start lines of any length, variable barrels,
acute and oblique turns, checkpoints, angled finish lines and finish
rings.

It then prints a handy briefing document for the pilots.

If you put a task into the calculator then export it into SeeYou you will
see what I mean.

Jim

Interesting. I remember flying GP task with my simple cylinder formula with several other gliders participating. During a short (GP tasks are short usually) task I remember seeing my turnpoint radius of few kilometers while best gliders went for 0,5 km cylinder (for 3% handicap difference you will see extra radius of 3% of the leg length, which is not much). Difference was quite small, nothing that would change the game tactics. You basically got a chance to catch up the better gliders at every turnpoint. I still maintain that this is best used with GP tasks: regatta starts and simple scoring. Otherwise AAT does much of the same.

On Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 10:45:06 AM UTC-5, Jim White wrote:
I have been following the arguments about Flarm as well as US task setting
with interest. I do not wish to confuse the picture further but I do want
to point out that Handicap Distance Tasks solve many of the complaints
about standard assigned tasks (including leeching).

With HDTs we recognise the glider's handicap in the task, not in the
scoring. This means that every pilot can fly at the same time of day, in
the same air, for roughly the same time on task.

We have been using HDTs successfully in UK rated competition for two
seasons with great pilot feedback. It needs a bit of software for task
setting and if you want to use See You to score them, there is a second bit
of software that prepares the evidence for this.

Following requests from a couple of US clubs, I have put a lot of effort
into modifying this software to be used with the US handicap system, US
Miles, SSA distance calculation rules, and scoring formulae. I would be
delighted if more of you guys gave it a look.

handicaptask.uk or pm me for more information.

Jim

ps: If you want to modify your own scoring software, I can tell you how.

Any USA Regional contest organizer who would like to try this task format should request a waiver from the US Contest Committee. Typically these types of experiments are encouraged, with the requirement that feedback be carefully collected.

The US Rules Committee would use this data as the first step in any consideration of adding it to the extant task types.

John Godfrey (QT), Rules Committee Chair.

On Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 10:45:06 AM UTC-5, Jim White wrote:
I have been following the arguments about Flarm as well as US task setting
with interest. I do not wish to confuse the picture further but I do want
to point out that Handicap Distance Tasks solve many of the complaints
about standard assigned tasks (including leeching).

With HDTs we recognise the glider's handicap in the task, not in the
scoring. This means that every pilot can fly at the same time of day, in
the same air, for roughly the same time on task.

We have been using HDTs successfully in UK rated competition for two
seasons with great pilot feedback. It needs a bit of software for task
setting and if you want to use See You to score them, there is a second bit
of software that prepares the evidence for this.

Following requests from a couple of US clubs, I have put a lot of effort
into modifying this software to be used with the US handicap system, US
Miles, SSA distance calculation rules, and scoring formulae. I would be
delighted if more of you guys gave it a look.

handicaptask.uk or pm me for more information.

Jim

ps: If you want to modify your own scoring software, I can tell you how.

Additionally, pilots who would like to see this task tried in their regional should lobby their contest organizer.

John Godfrey (QT)

Additionally, pilots who would like to see this task tried in their
regional should lobby their contest organizer.

John Godfrey (QT)


I have followed the very animated and often inspired
correspondence on this subject and I think I can tell my story now,
which can also be called history since an idea of many years ago
grew to factual reality.

In the year 1995 I imagined a task constituted by a short circuit to
be repeated three times, with simultaneous start of groups of
gliders, scored according to the arriving position, so that the first
is first and the second is second etc. independent from elapsed
time. The task was tailored to the gliderport of Crazy Creek because
I judged that location as favorable to this kind of contests. At the
time I discussed the CRAGAR (Crazy Creek Airport Gliding Air Races)
task with other glider pilots but the idea did not make it into
practical application.

In following years I adapted the same concept to Truckee and tried
to have more following but apart a couple of trials with a few other
glider pilots, not much was done until 2005. In that year I finally
was able to organize the first TAGAR (Truckee Airport Gliding Air
Race). It was a quadrilateral to be repeated three times for a total
length of 128 SM. Simultaneous race start crossing the airport
runway, scored by the automobile Formula 1 Grand Prix system, 25
points for the first, 18 for the second etc. without consideration of
the time on course. The last leg was shortened or extended
according to the glider handicap. At the end of the season I read
about the first Sailplane Grand Prix competition and I was comforted
that the were other pilots thinking the same way I was. From then
we run one or two TAGARs per year and slowly the original concept
evolved.

In 2011 I learned about a one-day race held annually by the Arizona
Soaring association (ASA) that consisted also in a race start, but
O&R and with gliders divided in two or three groups, each group
turning at a different distances from the turnpoint according to the
handicap assigned to that group. I was inflamed by the concept and
decided to do the same but added fairness by giving a different
radius per each glider according to its own handicap. I already had
the Great Circle formula I was using for my record attempts and I
created a spreadsheet with the different pilots handicapped
according to their glider.

In 2013 per suggestions of the participants I added handicaps for
the pilots, with 1 percentage point added to the pilot handicap per
each contest win. From that year on we held four races per year, of
which three O&R that I called Grand Prix, and one that was the
original quadrilateral that I called Classic and was run at the end of
the soaring season.

As of today between these two types of contest we have held 27
TAGAR racing days. Both contest types are well liked, the Grand Prix
because it is a cross country flight, and the Classic because it is a
close race inside the Truckee Valley and some pilots like the fact
that they stay close to the airport. I often considered doing a Grand
Prix contest that was not just an O&R but could be a triangle or a
quadrilateral.

In 2014 I came to know about Jim White’s program that would do
just that. I contacted Jim immediately and we began to try and
adapt his program to US parameters. However after two years of
tentative to harmonize the British and American different handicap
systems, the solution was for Jim to modify substantially his
program by including American parameters, a work finished just a
few weeks ago. One feature I like in Jim’s program is the fact
that it can be scored using the SeeYou Competition program.

All the above says that there is no one that would like to try the
HandicapTask more than I do. No need of lobbying!

I saw in these e-mails the good disposition of John Good to go
ahead and try this concept in an actual competition and Andy
Blackburn’s interest as well, and this is what I think can be done: I
will definitely use Jim’s program in two and possibly three of this
year’s Grand Prix. Regarding making an entire contest based on the
program, I cannot do it this year because the Truckee contest is
advertised as an SSA Regional and this is what pilots expect, but we
can certainly consider doing the entire contest based on the
HandicapTask for next year.

- In that case, can we still call it a Regional? The Contest Committee
may give an opinion on that. Or, still regarding next year:

- The HandicapTask may be considered just a different type of task
and be selected by the CD at his choice as it would be a TAT or MAT
or others. In this case, we have to find a scoring system that
addresses the difference between one score based on speed, and
another based on distance - not easy to do but one can try.

- For this year, I can propose to the pilots of the Regional if they
would like to forfeit one day of the Regional competition (we have a
6-day contest) and try the HandicapTask. I would assign the
HandicapTask on the first contest day or perhaps on the second but
not on the last half of the contest or else it would be disruptive of
the overall contest development. Of course if just one pilot votes no,
we cannot do it.

- Also for this year, I can - after asking for the pilots consent –
assign the HandicapTask on the second practice day (we have two
practice days).

This is what I think at this point, comments are welcome

Sergio