Most of you know, I've flown all over the world. The rest of the world simply doesn't
understand our way of TD flying and scoring.
The reality is that our tasks have evolved over the years to take into account the
tiny little postage stamp flying fields we are
required to sometimes fly from. Most pilots from other countries would laugh
histerically if they ever attended Visalia, and saw the
little clump of grass we are required to land on downwind every year. Why is it like
this? Real estate - it is at a premium, and we
are losing flying sites left and right. We're lucky to have the ones we have -
especially in Southern California.
I hate our landing tasks, and the value put on high landing points at a contest - but
that's the way it is. Our TD contests are
about what happens when the plane hits the ground - not about what happens in the air.
I think this is a shame, but there isn't
enough time in the day to hold a true thermal duration event - that Joe guy would just
run out of batteries. Every one else would
follow him around the sky. There has to be a differentiator (Is that a word?) What
will this be? Hmmm, landing?
Now, skegs - again the reality of small sites, and poor flying skills. It's very easy
for the purists to argue we don't need them.
"Sure, just learn how to land," they say. Yeah, right! If we eliminate skegs, do you
really believe that all the soaring pilots who
already have trouble hitting the spot with skegs are going to go out and practice now?
No, they won't. They're flying for fun. What
you've just created is making an unsafe pilot and situation MORE unsafe. Things happen
in contests that don't normally happen during
fun flying. Everybody wants those landing points, and they're sure as heck not going
to come up short. So, they're carrying energy -
LOTS of it. Oops, there goes my shins, your shins, and alot of leading edges.
Our landing tape - Is it absurd? Probably. But it doesn't really matter. As long as
everyone is landing on the same tape, it's
plenty fair. It's actually more fair than the FAI tapes. I like 1 point increments as
opposed to 5 point increments. FAI tapes - You
could drop 5 points by simply being out 1/2". We're going to a contest in Phoenix this
weekend where it will be scored at 1 point
per inch away from the nail. Averaging 85's will win this contest. Maybe even 80's. I
do hope the purists leave their skegs at
home, and bring a lot planes! ;-) Or at least EPP LE's.
So, how do we make contests more fair in the states? I don't have the answer to that.
I do have a few ideas:
1. Eliminate sandbagging - called flight order. Give a guy 3 minutes(Or a specified
amount of time - field layout dependent) after
he's called to hook up to the winch. One of my pet peaves is the guys who fly on ham
bands to eliminate freq. conflicts, and sit on
the pin awaiting the lift cycles. This is an unfair advantage, and more importantly,
is just a pussy move.
2. When capable - try holding a man on man contest. Takes less time than you'd think.
You don't have to wait for each flight group
to land prior to launching the next group. Can be accomplished with a little planning.
Can also be done with only 2 - 3 winches, not
optimum, but can be done.
3. Make the flight times challenging - this 3, 5, 7 crap is boring. Our planes have
gotten so efficient, and the tasks haven't kept
up. Who cares if nobody makes their times? It's called Thermal Duration, isn't it?
Shouldn't the guy who flies the longest get the
win?
4. Make the landing tasks fair - no huge landing bonus equalling 1/3 or even 1/2 of
the flight time for hitting a postage stamp.
That 1/2" in or out thing makes me crazy. Measure the darn things. Huge in or out
doesn't make a contest more fair, it makes the
contest more dependent on your TIMER'S thumb.
Do I think skegs should be banned? No. I do believe they make things more safe for the
majority of skill levels out there. Besides,
the biggest skeg is really the nose. You eliminate skegs, people will DORK for the win.
Daryl - sorry to get on my soapbox - Perkins
Mike Stump wrote:
Klaus,
unlike F3B J, the landing zones in the USA are much smaller... the US TD
landing circle deducts 1 point from 100 for every 4 inches away from
center... what would still be 100 pts on an FAI tape could be 90 or even 89
on a US circle (task L-4)..
our runway landing is a strip 2-3" wide for 100 pts with 1 pt. deducted for
every inch away from the runway center zone...
there is a difference regardless of the amount of control one has properly
learned..
At 09:11 AM 2/1/00 +1100, you wrote:
What are you saying here jerry? Don't go half shares with you in a full
size sailplane or don't go in the tandem seat with you :)
We don't use skegs in Australia. It is up to the pilots to learn to fly
their sailplanes properly and compensate for the landings. Are skegs
allowed in the world champs F3J/F3B? Don't think so.
Klaus Weiss
Australia
