2014 US Modern and US Club Class Nationals - Assigned Task calledtoday! FANTASTIC!

On Thursday, July 24, 2014 12:41:42 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
Hank I deleted my post to fix spelling errors. Below is the post fixed as best I could. Basically the same as you responded too. Thanks by the way!



I fully understand that in our reality (less pilots, not wanting to land out, etc) that TATs are here to stay. I'm just arguing for us to try harder and to do a bit more AT's at Nationals (and clean them up). Everybody wants to have fun and I get it. I know I am a little radical at times. But I think there is a case to consider stepping them up a little but more. I think it will help us all grow together a bit more as glider pilots!



Sincerely,



Sean



Hank,



Clearly you don't like the Assigned Task much based on your very exciting, enthusiastic description of it. ;-) Geeze.



I see Assigned Tasking as the best thing that sailplane racing has to offer. In my experience, Assigned Tasks are far, far more fun and rewarding at all levels. They also are far too rare in the US. I'll stand on the podium for a second and explain my reasoning...



GAGGLES: In regards to gaggles, even if the group starts together (not AT ALL exclusive to Assigned Tasks by the way), eventually the gaggle will break up. Usually along the first leg. The great thing about Assigned Tasks is that pilots actually know how they are doing relative to other competitors. In an Assigned Task you are actually racing your competitors. In a Turn Area Task you are basically flying cross country together (sorta?). In a Turn Area Task you have to wait to see your score hours after you land. This is all you have in a Turn Area to understand what it all meant while you were flying at different times and on vastly different lines that your "competitors."



Flying together during the Assigned Task is not a bad thing (for me at least). It's a great thing! I love it. It's called racing! Faster pilots will naturally pull ahead, slower will fall behind and so on. The learning experience that occurs during these rare (US) assigned tasks is extreme and highly valuable. I have learned 10x more about cross country glider flight during Assigned Tasks vs. Area Tasks. At the same time, I am having 10x more fun! Again as the gaggle thins out along the task there is actual meaning to that pecking order that forms (see above). If you catch up to someone a little, you have gained. How fun!!!



I would argue that gaggles may be less likely in Assigned Tasks that Assigned Area Tasks. Unlike wide Turn Area Tasks, trailing pilots cannot "cut the corner" and catch up to the gaggle in every turn area like you can in Turn Area Task. This ability to "cut the corner" actually allows the gaggles to reform again and again during Turn Area Tasks. I actually saw this happen often at Perry this spring.



In an Assigned Task trailers can only cut out a maximum of 2 miles to catch back up to the gaggle. Furthermore the leaders can (if they wish) simply turn early and eliminate the chance of trailers catching back up to them. They are only giving up 2 miles of distance.



Speaking of this, we should remove area concept from Assigned Tasks "Area's." Assigned Tasks should be about pure speed around a simple set track. AT's should not involve the ticky, tacky practice of deciding whether or not to add 2 miles of extra distance. That is a waste of time and defeats the purpose of a pure race. It also reintroduces the need for complex scoring programs and waiting around for hours to see your score. Assigned Tasks are desirable because they are simple, pure races around a set track. You only decision should be ensuring that you are inside the turn area. Assigned Tasks need not be complex in any way. In addition, gaggles would break up even more than they do naturally.



TURN AREA TASKS ARE MORE A GAME OF CHANCE (LUCK): In general, the whole reason Turn Area Tasks were introduced was to reduce landouts in classes with broad handicap ranges, broad skill ranges and when difficult or unpredictable weather conditions (chance of thunderstorms, etc) were present. The Turn Area task is, by definition, a compromise and a softening of the difficulty of the Assigned Task. For example, in a Turn Area Task, there is rarely any requirement for the pilot to achieve any particular point that may be less than perfect. TAT people will complain, "what if that Assigned Turn doesn't look good?" "What if the perfect cumulus cloud is not gleaming above the Assigned Turn?" They say, "I don't want to be forced to go somewhere I don't want to go..." Turn Area Tasks are fundamentally less challenging than having to fly to a particular point and solve the puzzle if the conditions are not ideal! Pilots who never fly Assigned Tasks never learn to handle these situations.



Wide radius Turn Area Tasks provide pilots a tremendous amount of choice and freedom. TAT competitors enjoy the ability to constantly take vastly different routes. In a 20 mile radius Turn Area for example, two pilots can easily be 30+ miles in terms of where they finally choose to turn. Both pilots might have been equally good at reading the clouds as they chose their path. But once they get there you are relying on your guess being better than theirs. That is not the high quality experience, especially when the conditions are good. Turn Area Tasks become a weather guessing game. Weather by definition is far from an exact science (especially on a micro scale). Choosing the best path in a Turn Area Task is often a guess and sometimes a crapshoot, let's be honest.



THE IMPORTANCE OF TIME MANAGEMENT AND EXPENSIVE, COMPLEX GLIDE COMPUTERS IN TURN AREA TASKS: Unlike an Assigned Task which has no time limit, Turn Area Task (and MODIFIED Assigned Area Tasks!) are almost completely focused on the pilots ability to effectively managing minimum time (or in the case of the Modified Assigned Area Task, to manage the complex process of adding on additional turn points AND manage time). Accurately estimating this "time decision" and returning to the finish efficiently during and Turn Area Task is extremely difficult thing to do consistently well and therefore a massive variable. A mistake in this KEY decision (and frankly the decision of where to turn in all the wide Turn Area's) can make or break your score for that day even if you flew perfectly up until that moment. Turn Area Task always result in pilots essentially "guessing" when to turn in each Turn Area. The last turn area and that all-important decision on when to turn back for home is usually many miles away. Most pilots therefore compromise and aim to finish 10-15 minutes over (a huge loss in average speed). That is unless you spend 5k on a top of the line glide computer!



This time estimation problem with Turn Area Tasks resulted in greatly increased reliance on expensive, complex glide computers (often the single most expensive item in the glider (around $5000 USD). The Glide Computer market has become a source of great competition among the various instrument manufacturers as they develop better features, brighter screens, better software, etc. It is a clear competitive advantage to own (and have the time to master) an expensive full featured Glide Computer when time based Turn Area Task contests are almost exclusive these days! A reliance on complex glider computers is an obstacle to new pilots becoming competitive.



I could go on and on...but I will stop here for now.



Sean

Sean, well written...

About the time they started to do away with assigned task is about the time I dropped out of competition soaring. Sure I tried a couple of contest with the newer task structure but it wasn't really a race IMHO, more like a social gathering and data analysis. I found yacht racing more gratifying since everyone was on the same race course, dealing with essentially the same weather. Sure you'll have your leeches and gaggles with assigned task but the purpose of a national contest is to select a team for the worlds. In the old days, the top 10(category 1 pilots)would vote for who they thought would best represent the US and the leeches would never make the team anyway.

Barry

On Thursday, July 24, 2014 2:36:55 PM UTC-4, wrote:
About the time they started to do away with assigned task is about the time I dropped out of competition soaring. Sure I tried a couple of contest with the newer task structure but it wasn't really a race IMHO, more like a social gathering and data analysis. I found yacht racing more gratifying since everyone was on the same race course, dealing with essentially the same weather. Sure you'll have your leeches and gaggles with assigned task but the purpose of a national contest is to select a team for the worlds. In the old days, the top 10(category 1 pilots)would vote for who they thought would best represent the US and the leeches would never make the team anyway.

Sounds like you were competing a good while ago.
Maybe you remember the nationals won by a pilot that never had to find a thermal for the whole contest.
The ultimate execution of tactical AT flying.
UH