Analyzing US Competition Flights

On 3/14/2012 12:34 PM, Cliff Hilty wrote:
Admittedly the easiest, while not being
necessarily the fairest would be to race a one class glider and do a AST,
no thinking just fly fast!

I have to disagree with this. AST was all we had when I started flying,
and the people that beat me did a TON of thinking (or at least half a
ton - full ton generally not needed to beat me). A big feature of the
AST is everyone HAD to round the same turnpoints (and it was a point,
not an area). Also, back then, we got to choose our own launch time!

On a very good day, the race tended to be a "technical" one, with
thermal selection, effective thermalling , and lift area choices being
important. That was a great learning experience, being able to fly with
people like Moffat, Mozer, Striedieck, and many more, and try to emulate
their technical abilities.

On a difficult day, the best pilots knew when to shift gears, when to
backtrack, when to just hang out, when to stick with the gaggle, until
it was possible to get to and around the turnpoint. It was on those days
I learned the most about using soaring weather.

As we shifted to PST and later "open" tasks, it became harder to compare
the technical, weather, and strategic skills, and I gradually lost
interest as flying a contest increasingly became the same as
"opportunistic" (aka "recreational") soaring. Why go to the cost and
effort of a contest, when the flying was the same as what I did all the
time anyway?

One reason, of course, is it's fun to gather together in group for some
serious flying, even if the "race" aspect of it is much reduced, and
that's why I kept at for many years. Eventually, I decided contest
flying was interfering with my soaring, and I gave it up.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to
email me)

Eric -

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I *LIKE* that I am not limited
to a 1 mi AT circle. I don't like the idea that some guy can (semi-
randomly) go into that turnpoint and catch the only thermal of the day
that drifts through that small volume if airspace. With a bigger
cylinder, the law of averages gives me better odds of finding a
thermal that's as good as a thermal some other contestant may find in
the same area.

Of course, I've never experienced the "good old days" of racing with
picking my own start times. I've also never had a race without a
1000' finish height, or an open/pure-distance day with overnight
retrieves, or no radios or cell-phones when I land out. ;-P

Maybe I'm just a snot-nosed punk who missed the glory days of
sailplane racing (I _am_ jealous of those pics from the 70's showing
the huge grids), but I find the current system is still compelling and
VERY different from casual/OLC flying. I still have a course, I still
have time limits, and I am still trying to outsmart the weather, the
sun, and my fellow pilots.

--Noel


On Mar 14, 8:13*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:

As we shifted to PST and later "open" tasks, it became harder to compare
the technical, weather, and strategic skills, and I gradually lost
interest as flying a contest increasingly became the same as
"opportunistic" (aka "recreational") soaring. Why go to the cost and
effort of a contest, when the flying was the same as what I did all the
time anyway?