Andy,

To clarify a point, it is not a Euro AST but rather
an international AST as it comes from Annex A, which
defines the rules for World Gliding Championships.

With regard to the terminology the following acronyms
relate to task types in Annex A….

AAT – Assigned Area Task, of which there are two types;

AST - Area Speed Task
ADT – Area Distance Task

Annex A also provides for POST speed tasks and POST
distance tasks as well as traditional racing tasks.
The organisers must choose 2 of the five task types
available and stipulate which task types they intend
to use prior to the start of the competition. For
the two competitions that have been held since the
introduction of Annex A the organisers have elected
to use traditional racing tasks and ASTs. Each of
the task types must be used for at least one third
of set tasks. This all sounds a bit strange but when
you read Annex A it is apparent that the document provides
for a “menu” of rules from which the organisers can
choose depending on the dynamics of the site the competition
is being run from.

In my opinion, the AST has some merit for “fun” comps
but has no place at a World level event (refer to
my earlier posting for my reasons). However, the ADT
and the two POST task types are just a joke. Thankfully,
the organisers have (to date) recognised this and elected
not to use these tasks.

There are considerable differences between the Annex
A AST and the US TAT. I described the main points
of difference in my earlier posting. If you would
like further clarification I would suggest reading
Annex A (which is a pretty boring thing to do).

Cheers,

Ben.




At 23:06 02 September 2003, Kilo Charlie wrote:
Ben and Marcel...thank you for your responses. It
is great to get input
from pilots that have flown at the Worlds and know
the way things worked (or
didn't work) there.

It seemed to me that pilots in the last 3 world contests
were being asked to
fly exceptionally long days with respect to the conditions
each day. I
admit to not following each day closely so my perception
could be wrong.
The point of this 'new' task (it is much like other
new and old tasks at
least in the US) is to force pilots to fly during less
than optimal times of
the day or conditions. Currently the way tasking is
set in the US we are on
task for the minimum time only (or close to it) and
flying when it might be
weak is discouraged by the rules. Maybe the worlds
tasking is simply a
function of calling very long tasks in terms of time
or distance and the way
to narrow the gap is for us in the US to just call
longer times.

Re the 'AST' that was confusing Andy....in the US the
official designation
for what the FAI rules call a 'racing task' is what
we term an 'assigned
task' but used to be known as an 'assigned speed task'
aka AST. It looks
like what Ben is calling an AST is what we call a TAT
or in the FAI lingo
Speed Task with Assigned Areas. Is that correct Ben?
For those that may
not have had a look go to the following link to view
the FAI World rules:
http://www.fai.org/sporting_code/sc3.asp

There are lots of pilots here in the US that would
prefer having only racing
tasks as well but actually the TAT has been accepted
better than some
thought it would be. There are lots of arguements
both ways here but no
doubt that the TAT introduces a bit more luck/chance
but also may test pilot
skills that may not be tested in the racing task such
as ability to select
the best routes. Even more so for the Speed Task-Pilot
Selected or what we
call the MAT here in the US.

In my opinion it is good to have ongoing discussions
and debates re the
rules whether at the international or local level.
Thanks again for your
comments.

Casey