2019 SSA Contest Rules Pilot Opinion Poll Now Open

It came to my attention that I should clarify that my earlier comments apply only to what happens after the 2020 season. For those of you who don’t read the minutes from the Rules Committee meetings or missed the announcements, here is the plan laid out last November.

2019
Make adjustments to US Rules to add FAI-like AT turn cylinders and finish configuration.
Develop and begin execution of plans for 2020 contest trials and longer-term transition – rules, local procedures, training and change management, handicaps (esp Sports Class), PRL and UST implications, systems integration with SSA.org, SoaringSpot, FAI ranking, financial implications.

2020
Run 3-4 trial contests (including 2 Nationals) under a US rule system based on FAI – contests should be of sufficient size to reach a significant proportion of the pilot community, particularly the most active pilots
Collect detailed pilot feedback and input from trials

2021
Roll-out of “final� rules and systems, infrastructure, training, fees, etc. based on trial system plus adjustments based on learnings/pilot feedback/refinement.

We have made some tweaks to the plan as we have progressed and discovered constraints or important considerations but it’s still basically the direction we are headed.

I’ll also apologize for some ill-chosen adjectives in my prior post.. I meant no disrespect. Changes this substantial can be wrenching and require careful planning and vetting which require open dialog and communication, but without personal invective. I crossed my own line and I’m sorry about that.

Andy Blackburn
9B

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 12:59:46 PM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
It came to my attention that I should clarify that my earlier comments apply only to what happens after the 2020 season. For those of you who don’t read the minutes from the Rules Committee meetings or missed the announcements, here is the plan laid out last November.

2019
Make adjustments to US Rules to add FAI-like AT turn cylinders and finish configuration.
Develop and begin execution of plans for 2020 contest trials and longer-term transition – rules, local procedures, training and change management, handicaps (esp Sports Class), PRL and UST implications, systems integration with SSA.org, SoaringSpot, FAI ranking, financial implications.

2020
Run 3-4 trial contests (including 2 Nationals) under a US rule system based on FAI – contests should be of sufficient size to reach a significant proportion of the pilot community, particularly the most active pilots
Collect detailed pilot feedback and input from trials

2021
Roll-out of “final� rules and systems, infrastructure, training, fees, etc. based on trial system plus adjustments based on learnings/pilot feedback/refinement.

We have made some tweaks to the plan as we have progressed and discovered constraints or important considerations but it’s still basically the direction we are headed.

I’ll also apologize for some ill-chosen adjectives in my prior post. I meant no disrespect. Changes this substantial can be wrenching and require careful planning and vetting which require open dialog and communication, but without personal invective. I crossed my own line and I’m sorry about that.

Andy Blackburn
9B

Andy, could you give us a status in regards to meeting the 2019 goals?

I'm all for going to FAI rules to help the top guys, provided we keep a 'run what ya brung' class with appropriate tasking for everyone that flies old junk. I imagine the 1-26 Nationals will keep doing what they do regardless. Possible/reasonable to go FAI for Nationals and the usual for Regionals?

On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 4:06:42 PM UTC-4, wrote:
I'm all for going to FAI rules to help the top guys, provided we keep a 'run what ya brung' class with appropriate tasking for everyone that flies old junk. I imagine the 1-26 Nationals will keep doing what they do regardless. Possible/reasonable to go FAI for Nationals and the usual for Regionals?

It ain't that simple. "FAI rules" are quite broad.

For instance, we could run contests with the US scoring proposal, a start ring, a finish ring, no ground control, no team flying, it would be "all FAI, all the time", yet it would be completely different from wgc. Of course, my basic point is *any* us contest is going to be fundamentally different from wgc in ways much more significant than rules.

I -think- I support Andy's basic approach of adopting the FAI rules, adding in e.g. the safety finish and other bits that have super majority US support, *provided* we use the US scoring proposal instead of the idiotic (sorry....) existing FAI scoring formulae. Devil's in the details I suppose...

Evan Ludeman "T8"

I like that concept of going full FAI for nationals and retaining the present system for regionals

Great question.

We made the change on finish penalty for 2019 but backed off the smaller AT cylinder because of concerns that it might have created conflict or confusion to make it a different size from MAT 1-mile cylinders (also concern that not all flight computers could accept 0.5 miles). In addition, we weren’t comfortable making MAT cylinders that small because, unlike ATs where everyone is approaching all the turns from the same direction, pilots can approach MATs from any direction once you get to the pilot option portion of the task. we have no reports of problems with the finish penalty but we are still collecting data.

For 2020 we are on track to meet the commitment to have multiple contests run with FAI task types and scoring. We need to decide which contests and what scoring formula. It is my understanding that use of legacy FAI scoring would require adjustments in calculating PRL scores because the points spread for speed is different so a straight average would make the 2020 contests count twice as much asvprior years - roughly. If we use the US alternate scoring that is now in the FAI rulebook this would not be necessary as the speed point spread (if I read the rule correctly) is the same as US rules. It would also be helpful to the FAI who is encouraging use of the new scoring formula, plus the formula is designed to reduce the incentive to gaggle. It’s sort of a “money where our mouth is� approach to use it since we proposed it. We aren’t polling on it this year so if you have a view please let us know. The downside of using it is we’d might have to change formula at some point in the future if the FAI doesn’t adopt it as the default. I don’t see this as a big deal as it’s not a giant change from what US pilots are used to already, but others may have different views. The link to the rule was posted in a separate thread. No final decision has been made.

Thanks to the efforts of Guy Byars, Rick Sheppe and John Godfrey (among others) FAI tasks and scoring are available in WinScore so we can run and score the contest trials described in the plan. This has been tested by re-scoring multiple WGC contest days and at the 2019 Uvalde Invitational contest. On that front we are good to go.

We have not decided yet how to collect feedback. Needless to say the annual poll is available but it has been suggested and we may elect to do something more real-time and discussion-oriented. I think it would also be useful to have discussion groups at as many contests as possible next year regardless of which rules they are flying under to get input as the poll captures less than half of eligible pilots even in a high response year. We particularly lack input from occasional Regional pilots. We don’t want to surprise people So it’s as much a communication exercise as a feedback one.

We are open to suggestions how to make sure this is done in the most controlled and constructive way with minimum potential for mistakes or misunderstandings. That applies to pilots as well as organizers.

All the best,

Andy Blackburn
Chair, SSA Contest Rules Committee
9B

Minor correction. When I say adjustment in calculating PRL score I’m referring to the multi-year score calculation that is part of the UST process. Looking in to how scoring changes might affect UST calculations is part of the fall agenda so we can minimize creating problems for UST Committee.

Andy