Contest Help

[vontresc]

Hi, I was talking to some of the othe VSA members at the conference in
Philly, and more recently at the Chicago Glider Council meeting about
having some racing tasks set up during the VSA rally in Lawrenceville
this summer. Since sveral folks thought that this was a great idea, I
was sort of volunteered into being the CD.

I have been checking out the contest info on the SSA website, and
there is a lot of good info there but I am looking for something like
"CD for dummies".

The plan is to call simple tasks and score them using sports class
rules.

Thanks

Peter von Tresckow
Ka-6Cr

[Andy[_1_]]

On Feb 21, 9:38*am, vontresc > wrote:
> Hi, I was talking to some of the othe VSA members at the conference in
> Philly, and more recently at the Chicago Glider Council meeting about
> having some racing tasks set up during the VSA rally in Lawrenceville
> this summer. Since sveral folks thought that this was a great idea, I
> was sort of volunteered into being the CD.
>
> I have been checking out the contest info on the SSA website, and
> there is a lot of good info there but I am looking for something like
> "CD for dummies".
>
> The plan is to call simple tasks and score them using sports class
> rules.
>
> Thanks
>
> Peter von Tresckow
> Ka-6Cr

Here is the CD section from the draft 2011 Arizona Soaring Association
series rules:

"• A Contest Director shall be nominated for each contest day by the
Contest Manager.
• The nominated CD will normally be a volunteer contestant in the
contest series.
• The CD shall be responsible for running the contest day at the site
designated by the CM.
• The CD may fly as a contestant but only if that does not prevent all
CD responsibilities being met.
• CD responsibilities shall be as follows:
o Research the latest soaring forecasts for the task area prior to
the pilots meeting
o Coordinate with the tow pilots or commercial operation wrt grid and
launch time
o Select contest task consistent with the weather forecast. The
allowable task types are Assigned Task (AT), Modified Assigned Task
(MAT), Turn Area Task (TAT). When selecting the task type, task
distance, and task route the CD shall consider the range of glider
performance, range of pilot experience, and the nature of the terrain.
o Announce/communicate the pilot’s meeting time at least one hour
prior to the meeting
o “Chair” the pilots meeting in traditional format (previous day
winner; weather briefing; announce task, format, grid and launch
time; etc)
o Initiate a pilot sign up using a standard form obtained form the
contest manager or scorer.
o Prepare a task sheet using a standard form obtained from the contest
manager or scorer.
o Monitor the launch operation and set and announce task open times
o The CD is encouraged to provide the task and race format at the
pilots meeting but may delay this until grid time if the weather is
indeterminate
o Ensure that all pilots are accounted for at the end of the contest
day.
o Provide the scorer with completed sign up sheets and task definition
sheets.

email me if you want the complete draft rule set.

Andy

[ProfChrisReed]

I've run a few UK Interclub League weekends, which are contest between
4 or 5 local clubs, 15-20 gliders in three classes based on experience
(Novice, Intermediate and Pundit). Andy's list is very complete.

There are four main areas to be covered:

Task setting (and general oversight) - this is your job

Then three other areas which I'd recommend farming out to volunteers,
properly briefed:

Met (who need to liaise with you to help you set tasks)

Launch point operations (setting up the grid, running the team to
launch the grid, etc)

Scorer (downloads logger traces, works out winner(s))

Doing all four is too much, particularly if you want to fly yourself,
though combining met and task setting is possible.

If your grid is small (<20) then I found that abandoning a formal grid
and simply saying "launch whenver you're ready, first come first
served" worked very well. Normal club operations could carry on, with
competition pilots allowed to push into the queue. Admittedly we
usually had typically weak English conditions so there was lots of
"After you dear boy" rather than races to the launcpoint.


On Feb 21, 8:06*pm, Andy > wrote:
> On Feb 21, 9:38*am, vontresc > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Hi, I was talking to some of the othe VSA members at the conference in
> > Philly, and more recently at the Chicago Glider Council meeting about
> > having some racing tasks set up during the VSA rally in Lawrenceville
> > this summer. Since sveral folks thought that this was a great idea, I
> > was sort of volunteered into being the CD.
>
> > I have been checking out the contest info on the SSA website, and
> > there is a lot of good info there but I am looking for something like
> > "CD for dummies".
>
> > The plan is to call simple tasks and score them using sports class
> > rules.
>
> > Thanks
>
> > Peter von Tresckow
> > Ka-6Cr
>
> Here is the CD section from the draft 2011 Arizona Soaring Association
> series rules:
>
> "• * * * A Contest Director shall be nominated for each contest day by the
> Contest Manager.
> • * * The nominated CD will normally be a volunteer contestant in the
> contest series.
> • * * The CD shall be responsible for running the contest day at the site
> designated by the CM.
> • * * The CD may fly as a contestant but only if that does not prevent all
> CD responsibilities being met.
> • * * CD responsibilities shall be as follows:
> o * * * *Research the latest soaring forecasts for the task area prior to
> the pilots meeting
> o * * * Coordinate with the tow pilots or commercial operation wrt grid and
> launch time
> o * * * Select contest task consistent with the weather forecast. The
> allowable task types are Assigned Task (AT), Modified Assigned Task
> (MAT), Turn Area Task (TAT). *When selecting the task type, task
> distance, and task route the CD shall consider the range of glider
> performance, range of pilot experience, and the nature of the terrain.
> o * * * Announce/communicate the pilot’s meeting time at least one hour
> prior to the meeting
> o * * * “Chair” the pilots meeting in traditional format (previous day
> winner; *weather briefing; announce task, format, grid and launch
> time; etc)
> o * * * Initiate a pilot sign up using a standard form obtained form the
> contest manager or scorer.
> o * * * Prepare a task sheet using a standard form obtained from the contest
> manager or scorer.
> o * * * Monitor the launch operation and set and announce task open times
> o * * * The CD is encouraged to provide the task and race format at the
> pilots meeting but may delay this until grid time if the weather is
> indeterminate
> o * * * Ensure that all pilots are accounted for at the end of the contest
> day.
> o * * * Provide the scorer with completed sign up sheets and task definition
> sheets.
>
> email me if you want the complete draft rule set.
>
> Andy