Small Club XC contest format & rules

The "Northern Illinois Soaring Championships" NISC has worked well for the
regional soaring sites of the Chicagoland Glider Council for many years. See
this website for details.

http://aerotow.evl.uic.edu/nisc/

Curt Lewis - 95
Genesis 2

The basic structure of the Northern Illinois contest is
straightforward. Every task is a PST with a 1 hour minimum. There is a
bonus for longer flights. The low minimum is designed to make it
accessible to club gliders and beginners. More experienced pilots tend
to set and fly longer tasks. Communication is encouraged and groups of
pilots of similar skill tend to set tasks and fly together.

Pilots can start from any airport in Northern Illinois and use any
airport on the sectional as a turnpoint. We have a database on John
Leibacher's website. There's a mandatory 500 foot 1 mile out finish
for speed points, of course.

Turn in your trace and the scorer (me) tallys it all up. (Cameras
welcome too; time on the honor system.) Any day that 3 pilots complete
a task is a contest day. Your total score is the best 8 days in the
season. Herb Kilian (J7) won last year against some determined
opposition.

This has worked very well. Every single flight most of us make is now
done in a contest environment. It's especially good in getting us
going on weak days, where otherwise you might not even go cross
country. Lots of experience on weak days really helps in "real"
contests.

This year we're contemplating a number of changes to make it more
attractive to new pilots. We might have a "pro" and "beginner" class,
we might have two contests, early and late season, and we might move
to a handicap system, in which the winner is the one who does best
against his handicap. Pilots in Northern Illinois should come to the
Feb 10 Chicago Glider Council meeting to discuss these ideas and the
contest in general.

The contest was originated by Rudy Kunda, who just passed away, and
Neal Ridenour. We owe them many thanks for starting a great thing.

John Cochrane BB
(scorer)