Handicap Distance Tasks

BB,

Please excuse spelling errors as I type this reply out quickly on my cell phone between meetings. The subject of the TAT task makes my skin crawl.

Let me start by saying I think that you're a very smart guy and mean well. You also do great things for the sport of soaring! But when it comes to tasking philosophy, we stand far, far apart. Please don't take this too seriously...

Your question about "extra distance" shows me that you entirely miss the point of the Handicap Distance Task. I'm shocked and amazed when I read such questions and comments. It's as if you USRC guys are sometimes writing from an entirely different dimension. Somehow you find reasons to continue the anti racing task crusade (even though racing tasks are down to under 3% in the USA and only a few pesky pockets or resistance remain!). Even a newly proposed handicap racing task gets your attention (already struck down by the USRC!) and suffers from your instinct to look at ways to pervert it. This is incredibly irritating.

Extra distance? No! No, no, no, NO! For the love of all things special, NOOOOOOO! That is the whole purpose of the Handicap Distance Task (HDR). It's intended to be a real racing experience for the handicap gliding environment.

Uh oh. Did I just hear the muffled sounds of heads violently exploding in the distance? I said the word "racing" on a US glider forum, big mistake,................boom!

http://youtu.be/B_Lnz64vXB8

The HDR task calculates a simple set distance (around common assigned turn points) for each gliders handicap. It intentionally does not provide aloof freedoms for each pilot to further decide what they want to do when they reach the turn. This is because that freedom would completely kills the idea of "racing" and creates a new, non-racing sport entirely (see OLC, US tasking).

The whole point of the HDR task is simplicity and fair, even, SIMPLE racing between a range of different gliders. This is not intended to be an OLC or TAT task John. In fact, The HDR is an effort to get away from not racing (more heads exploding off in the American countryside distance....)

If your head is still intact, please try and stay with me here.

The HDR is (intentionally) NOT a timed task. The idea is for all competitors to get to the closest point in their "ring" as fast as possible and turn towards the next assigned point. No watches or countdown timers. No scoring formulas. No weather gambles (well, as few as possible). Fly the task as fast as you can. The shortest time wins the RACE. A Ventus 2cxm could race fairly against a LS1 with this task. How great is that. No, wait a minute, you want to add more variables.

Yes, lower performance gliders with larger diameter turn points may have more lateral range to work with. Depending on how it goes, I may define narrowed segments (pie shapes) to limit that lateral range for the low handicap gliders in Ionia (for example). Simple to do. An improvement I think. Better yet would be a series of one km turn points on the task leg radial. Also simple to code up.

Back to the pain of TATs - Turn area tasks are depressing tasks because they allow far too much choice in A) what side of the turn cylinder to guess, gamble, put your chips on (and that is a significant part of the results) and B) how far to go into various turn areas (this also significantly effects results). The average US "turn area" in our TAT tasks is 40 miles! That's 1257 square miles!

The (timed) TAT is, simply put, is not a race. Not even close. It's a timed, distance, weather gamble game in a loosely defined area. The TAT task allows pilots to choose between thousands of optional square miles to fly over and turn to the next area over. It is free form by design (lightly constrained) and fundamentally completely different for each competitor, for each segment of the day (early starters, late starters...). The weather variability is also enormous over these ranges.

Some call the TAT a test of skill. The truth is that there is usually significant luck involved in the results. The options and variables available to a pilot between A) widely different start times and B) three 20 mile radius (for example) turn areas are absolutely ENORMOUS. This huge variability results in low quality, almost subjective competition results, especially at the beginner levels.

The TAT is also WILDLY over called in the USA (65-70% of our current total task).

Here is the sniff test: If glider pilots on a TAT are able to reach both sides, and varying depths, of 3 turn cylinders (areas) THEN an ASSIGNED TASK would have worked out perfectly for this given content day! When you look at the IGC traces of most US tasks (over the past 5 years) you will see that that test fails the vast majority of the time! I would say 75% of hand. I'm happy to back that up but, better yet, go look for yourself.

Again, The TAT is a COMPROMISE TASK developed for dealing with less than perfect weather forecasts or wide handicap or skill range. It is intended to reduce land outs when weather is unpredictable and give competitors a chance to finish. It is not the ideal form of a competition because LUCK is a major, major element of its results. The area task allows gliders to (somehow, via formulas, rules, etc) "compete???" on an entirely different geography and at entirely different times. Does this sound like a race to you? It's a huge compromise at best. Watered down. Muted. Boring. Annoying. A weather gamble task. I propose that we should only be calling TATs when we must. It should not be our, by far, most common task.

I don't care who you are. I don't care if you are Mother F. Nature. Nobody can predict the weather well enough to consistently succeed at a TAT. The statistics of the task alone prove this. Weather, on the scale of cross country gliding, is just to random and dynamic. This is why non contest pilots like OLC. They have a hard time completing tasks they call for themselves and get frustrated. Why, weather is impossible to predict. OLC allows for this weather problem and "kinda" results in some measurable form of accomplishment (distance), albeit usually at a different location, different time of day and over an entirely different quadrant of a clubs flying area.. Golf clap to you....! You won!?

So to those who say they want a "weather test," give me a break. An assigned task is a far better weather test because decisions are exponentially more critical as you must get back to the same exact same points to complete each assigned leg. Weather decisions are force CONSOLIDATED on every leg of an assigned task. Just because two gliders are not fifty miles apart in the same "turn-area" does not mean that there are not weather implications. It's quite the opposite.

I stand amazingly opposed to the idea of extra distance being a good thing. It's THE WORST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF SOARING. Awful.

Here is to the hope of the handicap distance task catching on, despite the constant opposition to simple, non-complex, pure racing tasks in the United States.

Sean Fidler