Edited cockpit video of COMPLETE TASK at 2012 Region 4 North Contest(Mid Atlantic Soaring Association)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...rUWQhZW1mCrIZf

This video series might be interesting to some experienced pilots and to newer pilots wondering what sailplane contest flying looks like from inside the cockpit.

This flight was on Day 2, October 12, 2012. It was a single turn MAT task (2:30) from Fairfield to #9 Burnt Cabins which got us onto the ridges.

I used 2 ReplayXD 1080 cameras (small, cylindrical) for this video (www.replayxd.com). One camera is mounted over might right shoulder and the other on the top of the panel facing aft (also out to the side later in the video).

I used Apple Final Cut Pro (FCP) to a) synch the two cameras individual videos (based on audio) and then FCP multi-cam editing feature to switch the camera angles thus editing the video in to a single, real time replay of the flight featuring the most interesting camera angle at any given moment.

Once I got the hang of this process it was actually pretty easy. I can post more detail on this process if anyone is interested in learning more.

Enjoy!

Sean
F2

PS...I am working on part 8 which will be a highlight reel...the highlight reel will include the SeeYou Replay, etc.

PS2...please dont make fun of my many errors ;-)

This flight was on Day 2, October 12, 2012. *It was a single turn MAT task (2:30) from Fairfield to #9 Burnt Cabins which got us onto the ridges.


Single task MAT task, is that even a task?

On Jan 19, 5:28*pm, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
This flight was on Day 2, October 12, 2012. *It was a single turn MAT task (2:30) from Fairfield to #9 Burnt Cabins which got us onto the ridges..

Single task MAT task, is that even a task?

Correction: Single TURN MAT task, is that even a task?

PS...I am working on part 8 which will be a highlight reel...the highlight reel will include the SeeYou Replay, etc.



PS2...please dont make fun of my many errors ;-)

Sean,

Thanks for doing this. I was eating my heart out on the ground while you guys were off having fun. Tuscarora Mountain is one of the most beautiful stretches of ridge one could ever hope to fly. We''ll talk about the Burnt Cabins SW transition some time :-) (hint - circling is for wimps).

P3

On Saturday, January 19, 2013 5:29:28 PM UTC-5, Andrzej Kobus wrote:



Correction: Single TURN MAT task, is that even a task?

It is, and one I'd only use in rare situations. This was one of those. Here's the setup:

- It's mid-October in Pennsylvania. The day dies pretty reliably by around 5PM or a little later/earlier depending on how much heating we manage to get.
- A slowish-moving front is a couple of hours late clearing. Unsoarable at 12:30 and again at 1:00. Clearing is from the NW to SE.
- Your fleet consists of a mix of pilots ranging from Striedieck, Seymour, Litt, Leslie to a few guys (including your camera man) who have never flown a ridge task.
- The wind forecast is on the cusp of being too northerly for safe ridge, though the experts can certainly make it work. But, a flatland task is hopeless; the clearing is in the direction of ridge country.
- The two sniffers finally start to stick at around 1:30, though one of them is threatening to land out not long after his positive report.
- I've resorted to sending up the towplane to scout the NW quadrant (favorable report of clearing, sun, and Cu).
- The fleet is launched by around 2:15, but we're going to be running up against the end of the day if I'm not careful.

Considering this is a regionals, the mix of pilot experience, and the other variables, I decided the safest thing to do was to get the guys to the ridge and let the fast guys show the way (which appears to be exactly what F2 did). A three turn MAT was certainly an option, but what if the ridge was actually not working - do the rookies know enough to give up on the ridge and will the day support the task? An AAT with two big circles could work, but it's easy to pick the wrong ridge if you haven't flow at Mifflin before. At least the first turnpoint puts you on the best ridge in the entire task area. An AT would certainly make it so that the 5 or 6 ridge guys win the day easily, but what if the day duys early and everyone is stranded?

There's a lot going on when the CD resorts to a 1 turnpoint MAT, and in my mind safety was big part of it. I was accused by one of my clubmemebers (who was not at the contest) of recklessly endangering the guys by calling a 1 TP MAT, but IMO it was the safest and fairest alternative on a day where the weather was giving us fits across several variables. As it turned out, the results mapped pretty closely to what I would have guessed (okay, Paynter the flatland chicken overachieved) on a ridge mission, and most of the fleet flew over 180 miles. Not too shabby for October in the Northeast.

P3

Mike,

I was flying using manual navigation (goto turn point). This method gives you actual distance to the turn point. So .85 is .85.

Near the end of the task I needed to quickly program in a task from where I was to Mason Dixon and then to the finish. The need was see my final glide situation. So I programmed in a quick task.

Problem was that the task used the default 1 mile turn radius so its calculating the distance to the 1 mile radius, not the center! So when I turned thinking I was .85, I was actually 1.85!

Leo (scorer) caught this and we looked at the penalty and it was significant (100+ points I think). I was bummed but short of that mistake I knew I flew a good task albeit very conservative and cautious.

Sean
F2

P3,

You're very welcome. It was really fun to relive this great flight!

Its very easy to capture this video with the amazing camera's available today.

Sean
F2

I guess the argument would go something like this...

In an AAT (assigned area task) or especially the MAT (modified assigned task), that "point" to which you are "racing to" can (IS) be literally any turn point of choice for each competitor (especially in the case of a one turn MAT, post that turn). Each glider at that point has the freedom to do whatever it wants in terms of turn points in the time allotted. You're not racing the same track as your fellow competitors, you're basically gambling on which routing will be better and the cost of "luck" in those decisions is profound. (Yes...I fully understand that there is skill involved with selecting the best routing and weather ;-).)

In this particular task, if you look at the traces, 2 (or 3) major routes were taken by the various pilots which led them down entirely different ridges and to significantly different turn points. If the ridge had "shut down" for either of these "packs" there day would have been done from a competitive standpoint. They might have, for example, been forced to land out while the others found better conditions and fly their task easily. It just seems odd to some to have a race which attempts to objectively score two gliders that have flown entirely different routes.

The argument would continue by saying that if everyone is flying on the same track (AT or assigned task), pilot skill is more the difference (less luck with weather guessing and random area's of strong lift or weak lift making or breaking individual pilots). But if that pack on the same track is forced into a poor weather situation they all land out!

The reality of this day was that we had a fun regional contest with varying pilot skill (contest beginners to lords of the sky). Not an uncommon scenario. The weather forecast was promising but uncertain. Calling a MAT task was fairly logical (we have had several in Ionia over the years). An AAT backup task was ready to go as well. I will admit I was fairly concerned about the temptation to follow the big boys into conditions that were difficult, etc. At the end the MAT tasking allowed the top pilots to stretch their legs and left the less experience pilots vast options. It was great to be flying a task in October! Everyone had a blast. But overall I still would prefer to fly AT's whenever possible!

BTW - The CD at this contest, Eric Mann, was exceptional to be frank. Highly impressive.

Interesting to watch!
Perhaps you could enable the xcsoar nmea dump feature next time, so we can play the video and see on a PDA what you saw? That seems to me as a great way to learn.

Roel

Roel,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into that feature. Thanks again.

Sean