1000km flights

On Thursday, January 4, 2018 at 9:11:54 PM UTC, wrote:
Thanks for posting that Kawa interview. Competition dynamics has definitely changed since the days of Moffat and Reichman. Kawa would be considered a pussy if he had to race here during the late 70's lol. Its apparent he prefers short and fast tasks. Those type tasks may play to his particular skill set. In my opinion, that only "tests" one aspect of cross country competative flying. Another aspect is the ability to make critical decisions over an extended period of time and interaction with changing wx conditions along course. Those two aspects only start to come out during longer tasks as well as multiple days of longer tasks.

A decision needs to be made whether competition soaring is meant to be a test of "sprinting" ability or a test of "marathon" ability. Hopefully it will be somewhere in between, but lets not jettison the "marathon" aspects (both mentally and physically) of competative soaring.

We are talking about glider *racing*. The maximum difference between emphasis on "sprinting" and a "marathoning" in FAI (non-GP) glider racing is around a factor of 2. In atheletics it is from 10 seconds to around 2.5 hours and requires entirely different athletes. It is laughable to argue, simply because his experience indicates to him that oversetting task lengths leads to poorer *racing", that the man who is undoubtedly the most prepared, determined and obsessively competitive glider racer to have appeared would fail if the tasks were a bit longer .

W dniu czwartek, 4 stycznia 2018 22:45:06 UTC+1 użytkownik Paul T napisał:
At 21:11 04 January 2018, wrote:
Thanks for posting that Kawa interview. Competition dynamics has
definitely=
changed since the days of Moffat and Reichman. Kawa would be
considered a
=
pussy if he had to race here during the late 70's lol. Its apparent
he
pref=
ers short and fast tasks. Those type tasks may play to his
particular
skill=
set. In my opinion, that only "tests" one aspect of cross country
competat=
ive flying. Another aspect is the ability to make critical decisions
over
a=
n extended period of time and interaction with changing wx
conditions
along=
course. Those two aspects only start to come out during longer
tasks as
we=
ll as multiple days of longer tasks.

A decision needs to be made whether competition soaring is
meant to be a
t=
est of "sprinting" ability or a test of "marathon" ability. Hopefully it
wi=
ll be somewhere in between, but lets not jettison the "marathon"
aspects
(b=
oth mentally and physically) of competative soaring.


Are you aware of Kawa's 'non -competitive' exploratory flights - in
the Himalaya and Caucauses and other parts of the world ? i.e.
https://www.alexander-schleicher.de/...wa-fliegt-800-
km-in-der-ukraine/#more-35574.




It would be interesting to see today's pilots in action without electronics devices. I think that S.Kawa advantage would be even greater ;-)

You put ten pilots into a contest involving 7 or more consecutive days of 4+ hour tasks, and throw in a land out or two, and you see it requires a much different skill set ( both mentally and physically) than what we have today.

As for longer distance tasks, its a function of increased performance . A 250 mile task set in the 70's-80's is equivalent to a 320 mile task in todays machines.

All I am saying is todays racing is a much different style of competition than the last generations. Todays contests "test" a different skill set. But to say that multiple "long" tasks are "dangerous" and we better keep things shorter for safety sake, is to me, actually defining modern racing. This sentiment goes along with disallowing low high speed finishes, and the preference for tasks with variability in turnpoint penetration/selection.

All these changes have changed racing. Is it better than the "old days"? Not necessarily. Is is worse than the old days? Not necessarily. Is it safer than the old days? Possibly, but is safety what racing is about? Not necessarily. Racing is racing, and safety when all the rules have been emplaced, is still a matter of personal responsibility. Don't tell me that a guy flying a machine with a sustainer doesn't take more chances in a race than a guy flying a conventional machine. Is he safe doing it? Not necessarily.

Hurculean advancements in performance, electronics, and changes in competition pilot mindsets have changed the sport. Which direction it ultimately goes is still up in the air, along with its survival.

On Friday, January 5, 2018 at 7:05:18 AM UTC-6, wrote:
You put ten pilots into a contest involving 7 or more consecutive days of 4+ hour tasks, and throw in a land out or two, and you see it requires a much different skill set ( both mentally and physically) than what we have today.

As for longer distance tasks, its a function of increased performance . A 250 mile task set in the 70's-80's is equivalent to a 320 mile task in todays machines.

All I am saying is todays racing is a much different style of competition than the last generations. Todays contests "test" a different skill set. But to say that multiple "long" tasks are "dangerous" and we better keep things shorter for safety sake, is to me, actually defining modern racing. This sentiment goes along with disallowing low high speed finishes, and the preference for tasks with variability in turnpoint penetration/selection.

All these changes have changed racing. Is it better than the "old days"? Not necessarily. Is is worse than the old days? Not necessarily. Is it safer than the old days? Possibly, but is safety what racing is about? Not necessarily. Racing is racing, and safety when all the rules have been emplaced, is still a matter of personal responsibility. Don't tell me that a guy flying a machine with a sustainer doesn't take more chances in a race than a guy flying a conventional machine. Is he safe doing it? Not necessarily.

Hurculean advancements in performance, electronics, and changes in competition pilot mindsets have changed the sport. Which direction it ultimately goes is still up in the air, along with its survival.

Many of us have already read this article by Karol Staryszak. An important contribution to the discussion about the 'racing-safety' relationship:

http://soaring.eu/?p=20949

Hi Tom, thanks for that post. I had read it before but it's been awhile and this one I feel is good to re-read yearly specially before a contest or a personal goal flight.

Excellent and sad.
Excellent on the points and point of view.
Sad in the reason for the writeup and knowing (personally) people that have been hurt.......or worse while flying.

Thank you for the link.

Yes Charlie thats truth

On Monday, 1 January 2018 23:15:07 UTC+2, Paul T wrote:
I think the 2005? Open Europeans in Rayskala Finland had a 1000 k
task with about 17 finishers - all thermal of course! :-) .

Correct, that was the one and only 1000K task in EGC/WGC level competition. Briefing was announced to be early in the morning and I think they were launching right after 10. Some 15m class pilots were furious because they got only 850K task.

If tasks were set to the maximum every day then Sebastian would win by more, based on my observation of him relative to other pilots over the last four WGC and a couple of GPs.
Here in Australia we have an ageing pilot group, (like USA) and a rash of accidents in the over 75 group unfortunately.
Tom
....

6 January 2018 - another huge day for 1000km flights. I am seeing 41 on OLC so far. Some may still be added by pilots who only get online later and there are perhaps some too done by pilots who are not on OLC. More of a mix of venues - with the longest distances for the day being flown from Potchefstroom in South Africa - the home of Jonker Sailplanes.