Florida Grand Prix

The Brits have a different approach for club use of the grand prix approach.. Accommodates gliders of different handicaps but retains the horse race start and the first past the post winner. They do it by varying the diameter of the beer can from the turn point.
As I understand it, the lower the handicap the glider has a larger beer can (ie, less distance to fly) than a higher handicap glider. The latest news from the Brit developer is that SeeYou now has adapted its software to cope with such an event.
I believe that the Brit software was offered to Florida, but not used.

On Tuesday, October 1, 2013 1:14:16 PM UTC-6, WB wrote:
Huge thanks to the folks at Seminole Lake Gliderport and to Andy McQuigg

for conceiving of and hosting the first Florida Grand Prix. The wet

weather relented on Sunday and we got a beautiful blue sky full of cu's

and a well-called task to match. I won't recount the race or results.

That's for the organizers. I will say that the GP format worked well and

was tremendous fun to fly. I have no problem with the conventional

glider race format, but the GP does make for a very enjoyable and

satisfying change. Everyone starting together and flying in the same air

is great. There is less incentive for leeching in the GP. One can't win

by following, at some point you have to physically get out ahead of your

competitors. We had a max start height and a minimum finish height, so

no safety issues there. The only safety issue I saw was my own stupidity

regarding the start. I noodled around and ended up a couple of miles on

the wrong side of the line too close to the gate opening time for my

class. Scooting back to the line, I was not thinking about the class

that was just starting so I was head-on to them. Really dumb on my part.

The start line is not very wide, so it would have been much smarter to

have flown around the end. No rules needed, just remind everyone to stay

out from in front of the start line.



WB



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

The forecast for this weekends Florida Sailplane Grand Prix could definitely be alot worse ;-)!

http://www.weather.com/weather/weeke...+USFL0372:1:US

Friday - 80, Mix of sun and clouds, chance of shower
Saturday - 83, Partly sunny
Sunday - 81, Partly sunny

At least we will be warm!

Sean
7T

QUICK REPORT: We had a very nice sunny Florida weekend (80's) with a frontal passage late in the day (5pm) Saturday. A few storms were fairly "exciting" but the weather came and went within an hour. We flew both Friday and Sunday in soft but enjoyable conditions.

Friday had ample clouds but ended up with a high overcast layer that shut us down very quickly. Sunday we enjoyed 1-2 knots up to 2500 and one thermal up to 3k! TA and 7T managed to get within shouting distance of the 2nd (final) turnpoint (Tex Merrit) today but failed to make it.

Even though we did not complete our task, we found today to be outstanding weak weather flying practice and we had a ball. 15-18 gliders where on the grid today! Everyone launched and there was only one land-out (who was aero-towed out within 10 minutes). It was great to see the turnout and GREAT to get out of the cold.

February's GP event is going to be "by far" the largest. Many regular winter pilots will already be at Seminole and ready to fly. We could have between 25-30 glider flying in 3 handicap range classes. Come join us!

Info he https://sites.google.com/site/sgpflusa/

Sean

On Monday, January 6, 2014 4:42:27 PM UTC-5, Sean F (F2) wrote:
The forecast for this weekends Florida Sailplane Grand Prix could definitely be alot worse ;-)!



http://www.weather.com/weather/weeke...+USFL0372:1:US



Friday - 80, Mix of sun and clouds, chance of shower

Saturday - 83, Partly sunny

Sunday - 81, Partly sunny



At least we will be warm!



Sean

7T