15 M Time Management Nationals

I flew in the 15M Nationals at Hobbs. Interestingly it was the first
contest that I flew the TAT task. I like it! I understand the 15
minute rule but don't like it and think it should go away. The time
management doesn't seem all that hard to me. Go as far as you can
into the first cylinders and then for the last cylinder set your goal
as the finish point and just watch your distance compared to the time
left. I turned the first day near Andrews at 58 miles out with 30
minutes left and finished about 2 minutes early. On day 8 with Kenna
and Wink as the turns, I went 68 miles from finish with 30 minutes
left and made it back two minutes over. Pretty amazing when you think
about it. (But I digress) It all seems to a matter of judgement about
what the weather is doing and how fast you think you can fly. But
that is always the case that you have to make judgements. I do like a
finish gate and feel that it is safer than a cylinder. As you are
finishing you can hear others calling 4 miles and knowing your own
location it is much easier to look for others as everyone approaches
the finish line from generally the same direction.

David Martin
ASW 27 BV

In article ,
says...
I do like a
finish gate and feel that it is safer than a cylinder. As you are
finishing you can hear others calling 4 miles and knowing your own
location it is much easier to look for others as everyone approaches
the finish line from generally the same direction.

My experience with start gates and finish cylinders is this feature
applies to both of them. Gliders usually finish from the same
direction when the last turnpoint is the same, as it is for an
assigned speed task. For the MAT task (or a Regional were the classes
often have different tasks), they might be finishing for any
direction, depending on what turnpoint the individual pilots used
last. At Ephrata, we deal with this by calling in at 4 miles out AND
announcing the direction we are coming from.

The finish cylinder seems safer to me in the situation where gliders
are finishing from different directions; for example, if they are
finishing in opposite directions, they finish two miles apart (1 mile
radius finish cylinder), and then slow down and (at Ephrata, anyway)
switch to the airport frequency, so they can do a normal pattern and
landing.
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Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

(David Martin) wrote in message . com...
I flew in the 15M Nationals at Hobbs. Interestingly it was the first
contest that I flew the TAT task. I like it! I understand the 15
minute rule but don't like it and think it should go away.

I'll second that! The rule seems intended to fix something that
doesn't need fixing; the desire to finish close to minimum time. If
they want us to fly longer just make the task longer! Why call a task
and, essentially, say: "Here's your task, but we really don't want you
to do that, we want you to do this...". Its all these wacky rules that
turn newcomers off to competition flying.

In article ,
says...
(David Martin) wrote in message . com...
I flew in the 15M Nationals at Hobbs. Interestingly it was the first
contest that I flew the TAT task. I like it! I understand the 15
minute rule but don't like it and think it should go away.

I'll second that! The rule seems intended to fix something that
doesn't need fixing; the desire to finish close to minimum time. If
they want us to fly longer just make the task longer! Why call a task
and, essentially, say: "Here's your task, but we really don't want you
to do that, we want you to do this...".

The 15 minute rule isn't about flying longer - that's an issue to
discuss with your competition director. You'd have to have tasks a The
rule is about increasing the importance of the cross-country part of
the flight relative to "final glide" part of the flight.

Its all these wacky rules that
turn newcomers off to competition flying.

Actually, it appears to be the experienced pilots that are getting
confused and upset, not the newcomers. If you are new to the sport,
you tend accept what's there, because you don't know any different.

Some of the pilots I've talked to that are becoming interested in
racing seem more concerned about the safety aspects, rather than the
rule details. For this reason, I think rules that enhance safety and
the perception of safety (actual safety should have the priority, of
course) are important to promoting contests.

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Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)