Handicap Distance Tasks

At 22:43 30 January 2016, Andy Blackburn wrote:
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


Leeching can happen on the legs between turns. The difference this time is
that the slower gliders get equal opportunity. As I fly a 27 I would
normally hang back a bit to gain an advantage by hopping the slower guys.
This tactic does not work in DHTs. The fast and slow gliders get
disconnected at the turns.

No task type is completely fair. Where is the fairness in making a Pegase
fly for 5 hours on a task completed by a JS1 in 3? If the task is well
designed all gliders will turn in the same airspace and airmass conditions.
If there is a hole to cover then the JS1 is more able to do so. In the UK
we set a showery sector when there are storms about.

Jim