At 06:27 PM 18/03/2008, you wrote:
>Gary,
>
>The person concerned was Murray Evans. The two reasons why it failed were
>
>1. No one could agree on the polar curves of the gliders. There was
>endless argument about which polars to use, since at the time there
>were a number of choices, and then of course the question of
>straight vs circling polars, etc etc.
>
>2. Pilots did not like the fact that they did not know the relative
>handicaps during the race. The effect of this was that they could
>not race tactically - it was not possible to know whether they were
>ahead or behind, or whether to push hard or fly conservatively.
>
>3. It quickly became obvious that the polar curve was only one
>aspect of glider performance, and that many other factors - some
>even less measurable than a polar - contributed to the success or
>otherwise of a particular glider under competition conditions.
>
>The idea proved very unpopular and lasted 2 seasons at most, in the
>early 1980's. It was only ever used in Open Class at Nationals.
>
>Cheers
>
>Tim
>
Horsham week used to use the TSA/Hal Lattimore handicap system which
worked like that.
Mike
Borgelt Instruments - manufacturers of quality soaring instruments
phone Int'l + 61 746 355784
fax Int'l + 61 746 358796
cellphone Int'l + 61 428 355784
Int'l + 61 429 355784
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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