Live coverage of the Chile GP starts at 18:00GMT today, The gliders have
just launched and the start time has been anounced as 3:00pm local or
18:00GMT. Free live tracking at http://www.rockitg.com/chile/index.html

Cool!

Paul Remde

"Shaun Lapworth" > wrote in message
...
> Live coverage of the Chile GP starts at 18:00GMT today, The gliders have
> just launched and the start time has been anounced as 3:00pm local or
> 18:00GMT. Free live tracking at http://www.rockitg.com/chile/index.html

Yes, this is very neat. Good work by the race committee. Viewership
just surpassed 200 worldwide.

I stopped watching after a few minutes.
The quality of the picture is lousy.
Udo

At 19:58 18 January 2009, Barny wrote:
>Yes, this is very neat. Good work by the race committee. Viewership
>just surpassed 200 worldwide.
>
>

But whoever has even attempted to offer something new in viewing glider
races?

"Udo Rumpf" > wrote in message
...
>I stopped watching after a few minutes.
> The quality of the picture is lousy.
> Udo
>
> At 19:58 18 January 2009, Barny wrote:
>>Yes, this is very neat. Good work by the race committee. Viewership
>>just surpassed 200 worldwide.
>>
>>

So the picture isn't so good - so what? Where else can you look at
glider racing strategy developing in real time? Where else can you see
the brilliance of those like Schwenk, Holighaus and Gostner displayed
clearly as they jockey for position and alitude? I guess you didn't
see the finish yesterday, when 3 gliders with transmitters raced for
about 120 km with a separation of less than 1 km. Turns out there was
a 4th glider with them, and the difference between 1st through 4th was
less than 5 seconds - at the end of a 480 km race! The only thing I
regret is that we can't get a feel for the wind strength and
direction, nor the cloud sizes, positions and heights. To me, it's
brilliant - I give it a 9 out of 10.

-John

On Jan 18, 3:45 pm, Udo Rumpf > wrote:
> I stopped watching after a few minutes.
> The quality of the picture is lousy.
> Udo

> I stopped watching after a few minutes.
> The quality of the picture is lousy.
> Udo

I found the quality to be quite acceptable. It was actually rather
exiting watching it, knowing that the adrenaline was flowing in real
time. Pic quality gets pretty decent once the terrain comes into
focus, but while it is scrolling terrain it gets pretty messy. The
announcing was even OK. I called up a buddy and we watched it
'together' on the phone, relishing the blow by blows. I see why 'real'
sports fans are so excitable. If a game interests you than watching
tactics unfold IS quite fascinating.

Now if only I could get this worked up about a bunch of guys in tights
throwing/kicking/hitting a ball while chasing each other around and
grabbing each other...hmm, now that I think about it I think I'll
stick with the gliding thanks.

-Paul

That was a great race today. Keep up the good work!

I would like to see an improvement of the viewer:-

The labels should be moved off to the side so that the actual glider
icons are visible (like they do on IndyCar). The labels should be
ordered to indicate the current standings

Also please tell us the wind direction and strength more often to help
us understand how the ridges are being used. A compass rose on the
viewer screen would help

Peter