Contest rules for 04

"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
...
(John Cochrane) wrote:

4) Rest In Peace the 15 minute time addition. Time to upgrade your
software, and really learn to use it so you can nail the exact finish
time.

Or (putting it differently) slower pilots who nail the exact
finish time, get more points than faster pilots who don't.
Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
navigation rally instead of a race?

Bill Daniels

In article ,
Bill Daniels wrote:

"Todd Pattist" wrote in message
.. .
(John Cochrane) wrote:

4) Rest In Peace the 15 minute time addition. Time to upgrade your
software, and really learn to use it so you can nail the exact finish
time.

Or (putting it differently) slower pilots who nail the exact
finish time, get more points than faster pilots who don't.
Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
navigation rally instead of a race?

Bill Daniels


One wonders, if the rules committee is largely unchanged from
the year before, and they come up with new changes, aren't
they saying they were too stupid to get it right the previous
year? So why would they think they'd get it right the
following year?

Wouldn't the honorable thing be to simply admit you couldn't
get it right, recuse yourself, and let in a whole new
committee that at least has a chance of coming up with
rules that are so good they might last more than a year
with no changes?

I personally think that would be best for the sport:
the rules committee remains the same until they decide
a change is needed, and at that point they go home forever
and are all replaced by new members who come up with new rules.

Eventually we'd come up with rules so good they'd never need changing,
right? ;PPPP

Mark James Boyd wrote:
Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
navigation rally instead of a race?

Bill Daniels



One wonders, if the rules committee is largely unchanged from
the year before, and they come up with new changes, aren't
they saying they were too stupid to get it right the previous
year? So why would they think they'd get it right the
following year?

If only it were that simple! Rules change for several reasons. For example:

1) new technology
2) the contestants change their minds about what they like
3) someone comes up with a new idea (often a pilot not on the committee)
4) a problem is discovered with a previous rule that wasn't discovered
in the initial, limited use

If it were just stupidity, we'd eventually get the right guys on the
committee, but my observation is changing the committee (which has
happened over the years) doesn't change the amount of complaining, but
just who is complaining.

The tasks we flew 30 and 40 years ago were dramatically different than
we fly now. Times change, people change, the rules change. It looks like
noise if you watch just the year-to-year changes, but if you look over a
period of several years, you can see significant changes related mostly
to the 4 points I listed.
--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

I am relatively new to contest flying I have been flying about 1
contest per year for the last six years mostly if 15meter and some
Sports Class Contests.

While there have been quite a few changes to the rules in the past 6
years there have really only been 3 or 4 changes that acutally affect
how I fly the contest.

1. GPS is the biggest change which has changed both the start and
finish quite a bit However the Start and Finish are an extremely small
portion of a contest flight and it is much easier that it was when
were using the Visual start finish gate. There have been (and probably
still are) a few years while we figure out the best way to utilize GPS
for the contests.

2. Only last year did the Turn points change much from the 1/4 mile to
1 mile cylinders. This makes the turnpoint easier but again is a
relatively minor change in how the flight is flown.

3. The Post Task is gone replaced with the MAT Task. I personally like
the MAT Task better and really is only a minor change

4. The Turn Area Task, The Jury is still out for me as to how well I
like this task and is acutally the biggest change is how the contest
is flown.


Still overall the contest flying is pretty much the same as it was 6
years ago. While you should be familiar with all the rules the main
points a

1. Figure out how and when to start. (keep it safe)
2. Go fast to the next Turn point (keep it safe)
3. Fly through the Turnpoint (TAT's are bit more complicated here)
(keep it safe)
4. Repeat 2&3 as necessary (keep it safe)
5. Figure out (before the flight) how to finish (keep it safe)


These are the exact same steps that I used 6 years ago to fly a
contest and it still works today. You can research the rules and and
look for ways to use them to improve your score but in the end is
usually the guy that flys the fastest that wins. Unless you finishing
in the top 10% of the Class you don't need to worry about using the
rules to your advantage anyway. You need a lot more practice learning
how to fly fast.

You will learn a lot flying a contest, even if you come if dead last
(and you probably will the 1st few times you fly one) But you might do
more x-country flying in a week than many glider pilots do all year.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL