Chuck, I have refrained from entering this thread, however I have to getinto it now. I placed very high in the 1975 Soar Nats at the college in Lockport, and the events were really not any more challenging then than now. We practiced by launching as high as we could and get as high as possible in 1 minute, then do a 1 minute precision. Nowadays, getting down is even easier, and if we had the planes of today, flying would have been a cake walk.
After over 25 years of flying, I have yet to see any of the TD contests won by flying rather than landing. Man-on-man events, as well as triathalon, do as Daryl says, require you to get the top TD flight score in order to "qualify" for a landing, that is have a landing count. The closest thing to real flying events for gliders have been the DLG contests with 10 man groups and many flights which require you to think on your feet, Slope combat, and man-on-man slope racing as per the old RCM Trophy races. None of this whip stuff like F3F timed events where the pilots are afraid to mix it up and go heads to head on the slope. You don't see Formula 1 or Grand Prix cars doing only timed events so they don't hurt there pretty mega-buck cars do you? No, I have to take the extreme. Going to Visalia or some of the bigger contest that are just 7 or 8 minute timed events are more a social gathering, perhaps let's say a social gathering for some of us.. The problem is to have any real meaningful event you have to have people to run them. If you can get rid of the people required to run the event, the more competition you can have. A prime example of this is the IHLGF contest put on by the TPG. A great event and extremely great contest. Pilots are responsible for being in the air when they must be, have timers ready, know how to score, know how to fly the events, and it ends in 10 minutes. They fly over 10 rounds each day per pilot, with over 75 pilots entered and flying. There are no refly issues, no winch problems, just real fierce and friendly flying. You make decsions on the fly. Do you come down and relaunch for more time? Do you even launch again. How is the air. So many things to keep track of. For slope racing, until you have played chicken down the backstretch, until you have loaded you plane up to it's max weight, and until you have pulled 60 mph+ pylon turns 20 feet from the slope you never know how nerve testing flying can be. Slope combat is also one of those easy to score events. You hit eachother, you fly or crash, and hit points are totalled. I know you do not have has big a slope they have on the west coast, but it is very intense. So what would I recommend. Here is what I have been trying to figure out. I have tried to figure out how to have the telemetry in the plane tell the pilot where the plane is the area. Imagine this. You have a TD plane which has a tube, not unlike the ballast tube used in an Icon or related planes. This tube is approximately 1" in diameter, perhaps 4-6" in length. This is a standard tube, much like the pilot used in Free Flight Cargo type events. Now in side this tube is placed a cylinder. The cylinder is interchangeable and there are 15 of these to use. Inside the cylinder there is electronics that tell you when you pass an invisible plane in the air, just like in F3B type events. Crossing the plane sets off a bell, stops or starts a clock, etc, and all the data is collected by computer telemetry. What have we done. We have gotten rid of the people required to run F3B type events. We have gotten rid of missed flags, and all the other realted junks and arguing points. What does the pilot do. He opens his canopy, slides in the telemetry, identifies with his assistant/caller the identifying noise or light indicator indicatiung crossing the line, steps up to the winch and launches. The tasks can now be distance, speed, or whatever you can think of in combination. Perhaps something like F5D events. Getting rid of the people, permits more performance events, or combinations there-of to be run. If you are going to have something like triathalon, you have to make the task sufficiently difficult that it is not a Max event, rather a performance event. We don't see full size doing duration. We see speed, distance, and thermaling that are a combination of decision making tasks. TD is not a decision making task any longer. The planes are too good. The good pilots will always be the top pilots. If anybody was in a contest with Daryl, Joe, Gavin, Mike, etc, you know darn well that these guys are going to get their times. How do I know? Well, when you are flying in lift, and look at the other pilots flying in the same thermal as you are and see one plane thermaling inverted, and the plane is a green Icon, you know it is Joe and he is going up. Each year I go to Visalia and fly RES. Why, because it is enjoyable. I am by the way flying a Cirrus like I did at the Soar Nats. Just like everyone has said, it all gets down to a precision flight. Whether it be at the end of a 2 minute flight, or a 10 minute flight, it is still a precesion flight. Practice precision because that is what counts. Duration is is a mute point, it is for qualifying for precesion. This thermaling task stuff is just nonsense. It might have been OK 25-30 years ago when planes were not as exotic as they are now, but nowadays the composite planes go up so easily in the hands of an experienced pilot that it is nonsense. One thing that has always bothered me at these big contests is how badly people fly these high performance ships. I cringe. Thermals, Chris Adams LSF 348 Lvl V (#8) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Anderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2002 12:12 PM Subject: [RCSE] Triathalon > Properly run Triathalon is the best pure thermal soaring event we have > available today. It is far superior to the 6 minute zoom and dive used at > so many contest. It actually requires planning, soaring, and landing > skills. Modern super strength models and grossly overpowered winches have > made it a less challenging event but cutting back on the achievable launch > altitude would put some of the challenge back. > > Perhaps a little history about Triathalon would help some of the newer > flyers understand what was intended. After all, I was there. In fact, I > like to think I helped to invent it. Frank Deis invented the event back in > 1975 and I was the critic who kept telling him it would never work. How > wrong I was!. > > Triathalon evolved from the tasks used in the 1975 SOAR Nats. The SOAR > Nats was the first really large soaring contest. Nine rounds were flown > over a three day period. After 8 rounds were completed, each contestant > was required to have flown four rounds of 10 minute duration and four > rounds of 2 minute precision. The 9th round was optional and the > contestant could refly any of his earlier roundst. > > The contestant had to call which task he was flying in the first minute of > flight. This presented some interesting challenges. All too often, the > wing bobble at one minute turned out to be a gust instead of a thermal > while no indication of lift before the 1 minute time limit turned out to be > a thermal in the landing pattern . Many of us liked the challenge of Ten > and Two but the event was not suitable for the standard one or two day > contest. Frank Deis came up with a similar event suitable for a one or two > day contest. Triathalon was the result. > > Frank decided that an event that was 60% soaring, 20% landing, and 20% > judgment was a good compromise. Frank combined the 10 minute duration task > with the precision score and landing score from the 2 minute precision > task. Precision and landing scores were doubled which gave 600 points for > duration, 200 points for landing, and 200 points for precision. > > Triathalon was also designed for the models and winches used in 1975. Most > of the winches used back then used a 12 volt motor and 6 volt battery, > opposite from the way we do it today. Most of us flew the Aquila, Cirrus, > Grand Espirit, Challenger, Olympic 99, and similar models with weak wings. > Still air times from a good launch from a 300 meter setup usually ran about > 5 minutes so you had to find lift to get a max. > > If 5 or more rounds were flown, everyone usually had to make at least one > decision to land short of 10 minutes. Some found it difficult to sacrifice > a little altitude in order to insure a good precision bonus and leave > enough altitude for a good landing. A wrong decision about when to land > was called being Triathaloned. > > It could still be a good event if the turnaround was moved back so that a > typical modern composite sailplane could not launch high enough to get more > than about 5 minutes without finding lift. > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off.
