Well recent experience seems to show that handicaps can work quite well under particular conditions.
The Easter Regatta at Gawler featured a DG-1000 versus a Bergfalke 4 - the only two seaters in the regatta. The Bergy 4 won on the Saturday on handicap by a small margin. The DG-1000 pipped the Bergy 4 for second place by an even smaller margin on the Sunday on handicap. Both days had low wind (the illustrious Bergfalke outlanded on the Friday whilst valiantly trying to drive up wind on a windy day and the Monday was a no-fly day). There was some very expert task setting by Phil Ritchie (who confessed that he didn't believe in handicaps - but was seen industriously dusting down the DG-1000 prior to launch on the Sunday). Both Saturday and Sunday saw the Bergfalke and the plastic singles start and finish at about the same times. Sometimes these things work..... sometimes they don't -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matthew Gage Sent: Wednesday, 19 March 2008 8:24 AM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] -ASG29 handicaps They tried something very similar in sailing in the late 80's early 90's - it was a very expensive failure for very similar reasons. They also tried "multi-number" handicaps for different conditions - again this failed as unless you get a uniform day, they are even worse than what we have now as 60%+ of pilots will object to the conditions chosen for scoring !! On 18/03/2008, at 10:43 PM, Tim Shirley wrote: > Gary, > > Whether you disagree with the second point or not, the fact is that > at the time it was one reason given by pilots for disliking the > system. They didn't come to this opinion before they tried it, and > you might be the same :) > > Believe me, it was adequately trialled! You should have been at the > pilots meetings... > > In regard to resurrecting it, I'm afraid that the maths was > horrendous. Murray Evans held a PhD in applied maths, I think. > Also, using SeeYou scoring it would be difficult or perhaps > impossible to program, because SeeYou expects a fixed handicap. So > unless someone (not me) is prepared to write a scoring system from > scratch, then I think we can consign the idea to history. Scoring > isn't a walk in the park anyway, and layering this type of thing on > top of it will not exactly help. > > Potentially, there are simpler approaches that might work - for > example, some form of handicap adjustment based on a fixed factor > like "Strong, Average or Weak" conditions, with each glider having > effectively three different handicaps. Somehow you have to apply a > different handicap on each day. Still hard to program, but a bit > easier than all the curve fitting maths. > > I think it is easier to have a 2 week comp to even things out. > > Cheers > > Tim > _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
