I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.

How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.

Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.

For others as well as myself I'm sure.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 11:20:34 AM UTC-7, Mike N. wrote:
> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>
> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
>
> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>
> For others as well as myself I'm sure.

Big FAI triangle, and "OLC slut" at the end if it was an undercall.
Then the chicks and paparazzi won't leave you alone.
Think of the sponsorships!
Like someone did for a laugh a few years ago in Germany, upload flights as flown in a Grunau Baby!
Jim

Go for the creative challenge. "Gimme an 'O'!"

https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?flightId=1203531327

Still waiting on the "L" and the "C" :-).
T8

While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.

So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?

Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 3:32:00 PM UTC-4, Mike N. wrote:
> While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.
>
> So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?
>
> Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.

Best way would be to buy a back seat ride in an Arcus, let the seasoned veteran do all the flying and then upload the flight as your score. I do believe that someone described this as the Shill ride.

Try flying FAI badge flights.Â* Have an observer and get your badges!

On 10/24/2019 1:31 PM, Mike N. wrote:
> While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.
>
> So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?
>
> Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.

--
Dan, 5J

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 1:32:00 PM UTC-6, Mike N. wrote:
> While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.
>
> So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?
>
> Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.

Hi Mike,

From a mediocre pilot-

Have fun learning.

To me OLC is free form soaring. Follow the cloud streets if they are there, while maximizing your allowed legs. Fly with more experienced pilots once in a while, if they are willing. Pay attention to time circling and speed between thermals while flying and when critiquing your flights. Note which clouds are forming or dissipating go for the ones forming. Windward sides under a cloud streets are often the best track to cruise. The weather is constantly changing-pay attention to the changes. To close your triangle you must land back at your takeoff point.

Mike

"4"

Try FAI badge flights.Â* Have an official observer and get your badges!

On 10/24/2019 1:31 PM, Mike N. wrote:
> While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.
>
> So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?
>
> Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.

--
Dan, 5J

Hey Mike,

Most of the task optimization for OLC is site and weather specific, so any answer will only address a few general points.

To maximize OLC points, you need to understand the scoring formula.

For Distance, it optimizes your six longest legs (in sequence). So if you're planning a flight on the ground or in the air, just realize you have up to six turnpoints to work with and try to plan the course that will get as much distance as possible.

If you complete a FAI triangle within the flight, it will give you a small bonus. To get the bonus, you have to remember to close the triangle. This ones is easy to mess up... you tow to a thermal several miles away from the airport, do your flight and then make a final glide back home... forgetting that you need to get to your release point to close the final leg. Your final fix also needs to be within 1000 meters altitude of your starting fix.

For OLC League, it will score your fastest 2.5 hour portion of your flight. It optimizes this over 4 legs. (You can't just yo-yo back and forth up a 5 mile cloud street for 2.5 hours...)

That's really all about it. If you want more detail on the rules, see https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/cms.html?url=rules_overview

Good luck and have fun.

All the best,
Daniel

Dan, Mike, Martin,and Daniel.

Thanks, actual useful data.

I appreciate the information.

Mike

Weather was mentioned as a factor in scoring

I'll be flying in Florida as often as weather allows all winter.
We don't get thermals high AGL often, but we do have days where the lift is almost everywhere.

Just wondering how that factors?

I'll go read the articles mentioned.

I am going to make some badge attempts as well, height goals likely being more difficult to obtain here

Looking at past years high scoring flights will probably be helpful then talk to those pilots. Might be hard to get a monster size triangle in Florida but yo-yo flights might be better.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 1:20:34 PM UTC-5, Mike N. wrote:
> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>
> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
>
> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>
> For others as well as myself I'm sure.

As an SSA member, you can run searches of archived Soaring Mag articles on the OLC (the search engine is fine, but the results displayed are not so easy to navigate, IME). For example, Bill Hill started a series of OLC related articles in 2016.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 2:47:58 PM UTC-5, Bob Youngblood wrote:
> On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 3:32:00 PM UTC-4, Mike N. wrote:
> > While funny, neither of these replies are helpful.
> >
> > So do I just wander around as best I can or are there actually any strategies?
> >
> > Yes, I get triangle, no I'm not looking for OLC groupies, I'm really interested in pushing and enhancing my limited skills by perhaps pushing some goal orient flights.
>
> Best way would be to buy a back seat ride in an Arcus, let the seasoned veteran do all the flying and then upload the flight as your score. I do believe that someone described this as the Shill ride.

If that's what defines an OLC cheater, then mea culpa. When I fly the back seat of my friend's Arcus, he logs the flight into OLC via either his acct or mine, depending on who did the majority of flying. Didn't realize you had to fly the front seat and own the glider to make the logs legit. .....and the last time I tried to pick up a woman at a bar using my OLC bragging points, it cost me a lot of green and my wife still didn't want to go home with me!

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>
> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
>
> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>
> For others as well as myself I'm sure.


Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though, because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 9:48:00 PM UTC-4, Duster wrote:
> On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 1:20:34 PM UTC-5, Mike N. wrote:
> > I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> >
> > How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
> >
> > Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> >
> > For others as well as myself I'm sure.
>
> As an SSA member, you can run searches of archived Soaring Mag articles on the OLC (the search engine is fine, but the results displayed are not so easy to navigate, IME). For example, Bill Hill started a series of OLC related articles in 2016.

Great idea, I will do that. Thanks

On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> > I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> >
> > How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
> >
> > Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> >
> > For others as well as myself I'm sure.
>
>
> Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though, because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.

Also a good idea I will follow up on.

On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 8:17:21 AM UTC-5, Mike N. wrote:
> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> > On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> > > I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> > >
> > > How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
> > >
> > > Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> > >
> > > For others as well as myself I'm sure.
> >
> >
> > Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though, because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.
>
> Also a good idea I will follow up on.

On the Condor contest front, US Nightly Soaring flies at 9pm EST every day except Monday. On Monday, there is Monday Night Soaring at 7pm and 10pm.

Winter is coming... time to get the joysticks out.

All the best,
Daniel

On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 8:59:25 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 8:17:21 AM UTC-5, Mike N. wrote:
> > On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> > > On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> > > > I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> > > >
> > > > How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
> > > >
> > > > Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> > > >
> > > > For others as well as myself I'm sure.
> > >
> > >
> > > Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though, because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.
> >
> > Also a good idea I will follow up on.
>
> On the Condor contest front, US Nightly Soaring flies at 9pm EST every day except Monday. On Monday, there is Monday Night Soaring at 7pm and 10pm.
>
> Winter is coming... time to get the joysticks out.
>
> All the best,
> Daniel

Look at the flight in your region for OLC Champion for the last few years. Study the winner's and runner up's posted 6 flights to see where they went, how fast, what time of year and their circling percentage. Call them up and have they tell you what's important to get a high score IN YOUR REGION. Turn in all of your flights. Start early and decisively even under a low basis. Watch the sky, call other clubs on the radio while you are up to get their conditions. Fly long legs without deviations, course changes cost you time. Decide to turn for home when you can still safely do so. Try to minimize your circling percentage, this will make you faster (Speed OLC) and allow for longer distance flights.
Have fun...
Herb, J7

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 1:20:34 PM UTC-5, Mike N. wrote:
> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>
> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
>
> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>
> For others as well as myself I'm sure.

From OLC, you can download anyone's log into flight review software such as Naviter's SeeYou in 2D or 3D (free version available https://www.naviter.com/products/seeyou/). With SeeYou one is able to study a bunch of statistics on the flight and compare it with any other flight you choose over the same route (e.g., #thermals [right v. left handed and efficiency of each], L/D, etc. One can also merge and replay 2 or more flights from different start times/dates for comparison. Great tools.

On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 2:20:34 PM UTC-4, Mike N. wrote:
> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>
> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
>
> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>
> For others as well as myself I'm sure.

Hi Mike, Daniel's comments are best. We're having a Cross Country Camp at Caesar Creek Soaring Club next August. If you can't make it, let me know and maybe you can log in to our contest every night at 7 pm. Do you fly in the regular contest around the world?

On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 6:17:21 AM UTC-7, Mike N. wrote:
> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> > On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> > > I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> > >
> > > How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others, or just working in OLC flying in general.
> > >
> > > Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> > >
> > > For others as well as myself I'm sure.
> >
> >
> > Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though, because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.
>
> Also a good idea I will follow up on.

Mike,

If you want to score high on OLC, and I mean that you are regularly placing in the top 10 and winning some days, you have to go to a site that will support these kind of flights. In the US, that means Ely, NV and Moriarity, NM (TX can be good later in the season). And in Ely you will need a motorglider as there no longer is an operator providing tows (some have arranged for private tows, but this is limited). Just go back and see on OLC where the top flights are being flown. Then, you will have to be prepared to do long flights (7-10 hours), both physically and mentally. And you will have to prepare each day with a very thorough weather analysis. Finally, you just have to do it, trying and, sometimes, failing.
BTW, you will also have to be patient, willing to wait days or weeks for the optimal weather to appear.

Tom

2G wrote on 10/28/2019 11:19 PM:
> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 6:17:21 AM UTC-7, Mike N. wrote:
>> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
>>> On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
>>>> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
>>>>
>>>> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others,
>>>> or just working in OLC flying in general.
>>>>
>>>> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
>>>>
>>>> For others as well as myself I'm sure.
>>>
>>>
>>> Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in
>>> online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be
>>> in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though,
>>> because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.
>>
>> Also a good idea I will follow up on.
>
> Mike,
>
> If you want to score high on OLC, and I mean that you are regularly placing in
> the top 10 and winning some days, you have to go to a site that will support
> these kind of flights. In the US, that means Ely, NV and Moriarity, NM (TX can
> be good later in the season). And in Ely you will need a motorglider as there
> no longer is an operator providing tows (some have arranged for private tows,
> but this is limited). Just go back and see on OLC where the top flights are
> being flown. Then, you will have to be prepared to do long flights (7-10
> hours), both physically and mentally. And you will have to prepare each day
> with a very thorough weather analysis. Finally, you just have to do it, trying
> and, sometimes, failing. BTW, you will also have to be patient, willing to wait
> days or weeks for the optimal weather to appear.

The areas Tom lists are good for doing well the USA (I would add the Allegheny
ridges), but if you want to do well in the world, you also need to fly in the
southern hemisphere, and include places like Namibia and the Andes. Obviously,
doing that is hugely expensive and time consuming! There are alternatives, if you
want to improve your abilities, and not just score well on distance tasks:

1) Since the OLC makes it easy to pick the area in which you want to compete,
anywhere from a single airport to the world, you can challenge yourself
meaningfully with much less time and money than going to all those places.

2) You can also choose to compete in the speed tasks and skip the physically
grueling distance flights.


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorgliders/publications/download-the-guide-1

On Tuesday, October 29, 2019 at 10:57:55 AM UTC-7, Eric Greenwell wrote:
> 2G wrote on 10/28/2019 11:19 PM:
> > On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 6:17:21 AM UTC-7, Mike N. wrote:
> >> On Friday, October 25, 2019 at 4:00:39 AM UTC-4, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
> >>> On Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 8:20:34 PM UTC+2, Mike N. wrote:
> >>>> I am looking for articles / videos on how to compete well on OLC.
> >>>>
> >>>> How to get the best scoring, What type of tasks are better than others,
> >>>> or just working in OLC flying in general.
> >>>>
> >>>> Any links to articles or videos, or whatever would be useful.
> >>>>
> >>>> For others as well as myself I'm sure.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Get Condor and spend the winter practising against the best pilots in
> >>> online competitions. If you can get into the top ten doing that you'll be
> >>> in great shape for next season. You may have to fly at odd times though,
> >>> because the best pilots are flying in EU time zone.
> >>
> >> Also a good idea I will follow up on.
> >
> > Mike,
> >
> > If you want to score high on OLC, and I mean that you are regularly placing in
> > the top 10 and winning some days, you have to go to a site that will support
> > these kind of flights. In the US, that means Ely, NV and Moriarity, NM (TX can
> > be good later in the season). And in Ely you will need a motorglider as there
> > no longer is an operator providing tows (some have arranged for private tows,
> > but this is limited). Just go back and see on OLC where the top flights are
> > being flown. Then, you will have to be prepared to do long flights (7-10
> > hours), both physically and mentally. And you will have to prepare each day
> > with a very thorough weather analysis. Finally, you just have to do it, trying
> > and, sometimes, failing. BTW, you will also have to be patient, willing to wait
> > days or weeks for the optimal weather to appear.
>
> The areas Tom lists are good for doing well the USA (I would add the Allegheny
> ridges), but if you want to do well in the world, you also need to fly in the
> southern hemisphere, and include places like Namibia and the Andes. Obviously,
> doing that is hugely expensive and time consuming! There are alternatives, if you
> want to improve your abilities, and not just score well on distance tasks:
>
> 1) Since the OLC makes it easy to pick the area in which you want to compete,
> anywhere from a single airport to the world, you can challenge yourself
> meaningfully with much less time and money than going to all those places..
>
> 2) You can also choose to compete in the speed tasks and skip the physically
> grueling distance flights.
>
>
> --
> Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
> - "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
> https://sites.google.com/site/motorgliders/publications/download-the-guide-1

You can place high on, and even win, OLC by flying at the right places in the US at the right times. The major obstacle is that long distance flights in the US have been made on the Sierra Nevadas by instrument-rated pilots. Getting an instrument rating is probably easier and cheaper than the logistics of flying in Argentina (you can't drive to Argentina!). And you can always do nearly as good flights VFR on the Sierras.

Tom

I’ve never thought of flying IFR in a glider. You’re just talking to get above 18,000 right. Hmm I am instrument rated...

I just entered the Belgian Condor contest.

I am looking for the other U.S. contest on condor-club.eu and am not seeing them.

I did recently fly a mountain / OLC camp in Logan UT. I would certainly love to fly more soaring camps. As time and travel allows. I am not yet retired so have to plan vacation time appropriately.

On Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 2:08:16 PM UTC-4, Mike N. wrote:
> I just entered the Belgian Condor contest.
>
> I am looking for the other U.S. contest on condor-club.eu and am not seeing them.
>
> I did recently fly a mountain / OLC camp in Logan UT. I would certainly love to fly more soaring camps. As time and travel allows. I am not yet retired so have to plan vacation time appropriately.

Check out gliderracing.com for US Nightly Soaring and Monday Night Soaring.

All the best,
Daniel

BTW, the URL (http://www.condorsoaring.com/serverlist.php) listed in the Nightly Soaring section of gliderracing.com is broken since the release of Condor2. The correct URL to get to the list of servers hosting multiplayer contests is now http://www.condorsoaring.com/serverlist/ (No .php extension on the end).

RS

On Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 1:14:44 PM UTC-5, wrote:
> On Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 2:08:16 PM UTC-4, Mike N. wrote:
> > I just entered the Belgian Condor contest.
> >
> > I am looking for the other U.S. contest on condor-club.eu and am not seeing them.
> >
> > I did recently fly a mountain / OLC camp in Logan UT. I would certainly love to fly more soaring camps. As time and travel allows. I am not yet retired so have to plan vacation time appropriately.
>
> Check out gliderracing.com for US Nightly Soaring and Monday Night Soaring.
>
> All the best,
> Daniel