Well... you could... Get rid of the winches and aerotow. Use an altimeter in the tow plane to release all sailplanes at the same height. Over time, the result would in fact be a complete redesign of TD ships to maximize actual flying and thermalling characteristics (and landing) vs. launch optimized designs.
Or... retain winches, put altimeters and recording GPS units in all planes, only start the day's task when a given altitude is attained (either by descending or climbing as the case may dictate). Very easy with today's technology. If a level playing field relative to launching is the goal, there are ways to do it. Few will agree, as it probably takes thinking outside the box, rocks the status quo, or represents too radical a change in mindset to be generally accepted. JD Just for yuks... What you have now is a launch and land contest. Endless Mountain Models http://www.scalesoaring.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 7:36 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [RCSE] OVSS and Line Breaks > > "John" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >The real question is equality of launch height. If you went to a contest > and > >two of the 4 winches had 400 ft. more line you would not think it was > fair. > >I can hear the screaming now that with the longer line winches they get a > >launch height advantage. On the other hand if you buy a moldy or Kevlar > wrap > >your spar and get a 400 ft. launch advantage it ok. I guess its just > human > >nature to think that way but it sure makes no sense. > > You're right, but it seems to me that all of these types of contests are > designed to be as practical and fair as reasonably possible with the > limited > technology that we have to work with. If there was a way to accurately > measure altitude and/or speed, or to drop all the gliders from a tall > tower > at predetermined times, then the competition could be more fair, and more > interesting rules could be put into play. As it is, I tend to think of > these > contests merely as fun get-togethers. > 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. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
