The 11 best things at the 2015 15m/Std Class Nationals at Harris Hill

On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 9:58:48 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:

The point of the rule is to make it smart to get into a decent position and GO. Messing around is far less valuable as the end of the window approaches. If you play the game and get caught in a spot where you cannot start perfectly...TOUGH! You have to take an imperfect start or you wait around for one and risk loosing significant time. This is a beautiful solution in my eyes.

Also, this is how all other true RACING sports are played, with the added exceptional freedom of a 30 minute!!! window...AN ABSOLUTE ETERNITY!


All of these are interesting ideas, and they have a lot of attraction from the comfort of the deck where I'm reading them. However, I think it would be very interesting to get feedback from a broader, more representative group of pilots (i.e. beyond R.A.S., which tends to self-select).

FWIW, consider Day 6 from the recent US Standard/15M Nationals. The day started out very strong, and the early launchers were quickly up to start height. A few of the later launchers were able to sustain but not get all of the way up. A few more relit. I received a huge amount of flak as an advisor since I reported 4kts to 6,000 feet while a few (about 25% to 30% of the fleet) were struggling.

The simple answer is "well then, the gate shouldn't have opened". OTHOH, I've seen many days where cycling near the gate means there is never a perfect time. If guys are high and they let down assuming the gate will open, then it's unfair to them if it is further delayed. Conversely, late launchers may protest that it wasn't fair. IIRC, that's one of the main reasons the grid is shuffled.

Point being, IMO the assumption that the gate opening time can be rigidly timed is good in theory and less so in practice. Our current process does put some premium on a person reading the weather and determining when a start makes sense. That's certainly a skill and one that some folks seem to possess in greater quantities than some other folks.

It is interesting to me that many of the most successful racers in our sport have tended to be lone wolf types who struck out independently as often as not. It's not clear to me after 25 years of racing whether the trend is toward more pack racing or less; I think it really depends on the site and the weather more than anything. But, I think the first order of business is to put some thought into whether pack racing is or isn't what we want. That will determine whether the "fixes" make sense. No?

P3