Re: When are the new, 2015 SSA Pilot Rankings officially published (typically)?

[Karl Striedieck[_2_]]

The unsung, self-effacing, gift to contest soaring who handles the PRL, also manages the colossal World Wide Turnpoint Exchange. And colossal is no exaggeration considering the number of countries covered with all the turnpoints and landing points to keep up to date.

He has been doing this quietly for decades and we are all in his debt.

If you are curious about his "day job" Google John Leibacher.

And, while you're at it, send him an atta boy. His e-mail is his name with a dot between the two names at gmail.

KS

[John Godfrey (QT)[_2_]]

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 9:17:08 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
> The unsung, self-effacing, gift to contest soaring who handles the PRL, also manages the colossal World Wide Turnpoint Exchange. And colossal is no exaggeration considering the number of countries covered with all the turnpoints and landing points to keep up to date.
>
> He has been doing this quietly for decades and we are all in his debt.
>
> If you are curious about his "day job" Google John Leibacher.
>
> And, while you're at it, send him an atta boy. His e-mail is his name with a dot between the two names at gmail.
>
> KS

I for one am greatly in the debt of JL for the tremendous amount of support he provides not only for soaring in general, US soaring in particular but also for what he has done virtually on demand to support me in specific contest situations. Public criticism of when he does his volunteer work only reflects a complete lack of situational awareness.

QT

QT

[Sean Fidler]

Thanks to the PRL volunteers for sure. I certainy did not mean to complain.. I am only asking the question.

To clarify, my thought was: it is, I am sure, a PITA to do this chore whenever it is going to be done. It would however be quite useful to move that excercise forward (vs. waiting to the last minute) for some of us (in particular, me, US & Canadian SGP competitors). Again, I am only asking the question. I am also very happy to help with this task (or to take it on entirely). Just send us the relevant data and rules. We will have it done, ASAP.

If the WONDERFUL volunteers who have been doing this task are no longer flying contests, I can certainly see this being quite a not mission critical task for them. I can also see why they dont see the urgency. Maybe its time to hand it off to someone who has more interest?

I need the 2016 PRL for 2016 Sailplane Grand Prix USA (www.sgp.aerp/usa2016) pilot qaulification purposes. We are "oversold" in both international and north american pilots. We are limited to 20 pilots total. 5 international pilots and 15 North American. I am going thru the process of finalizing the competitor list. If the SSA PRL is not going to be released, as normal, until sometime next spring...please let us know ASAP. I'll simply have to use last years data (2015 PRL). I only just realized when the PRL is normally released. This is not a major issue, but it may change whether or not some make the final cut. I think it would be better, and fairer to use the current, up to date data for this purpose.

I cant think of many times that the PRL is this useful or important. As far as I know the only other contest that uses it is the Perry regional.

Thanks again for hearing me out. I look forward to some options.

Sincerely,

Sean

[Dave Nadler]

On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 9:17:08 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
> The unsung, self-effacing, gift to contest soaring who handles the PRL,
> also manages the colossal World Wide Turnpoint Exchange. And colossal
> is no exaggeration considering the number of countries covered with
> all the turnpoints and landing points to keep up to date.
>
> He has been doing this quietly for decades and we are all in his debt.
>
> If you are curious about his "day job" Google John Leibacher.
>
> And, while you're at it, send him an atta boy. His e-mail is his name
> with a dot between the two names at gmail.
>
> KS

Another voice of thanks to John Leibacher for his tireless work supporting
Soaring. We should not take for granted his contributions!

Calculating the PRL seems like a 2-minute exercise, until one realizes
that the quality of the input data is, um, variable. Name mis-matches,
missing SAA numbers, missing data, trying to keep this consistent over
a 3-year interval... are among the things that have made this a gnarly
business.

Thanks again John for all your contributions!
Best Regards, Dave

[Ron Gleason]

On Thursday, 22 October 2015 21:37:32 UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
> Thanks to the PRL volunteers for sure. I certainy did not mean to complain. I am only asking the question.
>
> To clarify, my thought was: it is, I am sure, a PITA to do this chore whenever it is going to be done. It would however be quite useful to move that excercise forward (vs. waiting to the last minute) for some of us (in particular, me, US & Canadian SGP competitors). Again, I am only asking the question. I am also very happy to help with this task (or to take it on entirely). Just send us the relevant data and rules. We will have it done, ASAP.
>
> If the WONDERFUL volunteers who have been doing this task are no longer flying contests, I can certainly see this being quite a not mission critical task for them. I can also see why they dont see the urgency. Maybe its time to hand it off to someone who has more interest?
>
> I need the 2016 PRL for 2016 Sailplane Grand Prix USA (www.sgp.aerp/usa2016) pilot qaulification purposes. We are "oversold" in both international and north american pilots. We are limited to 20 pilots total. 5 international pilots and 15 North American. I am going thru the process of finalizing the competitor list. If the SSA PRL is not going to be released, as normal, until sometime next spring...please let us know ASAP. I'll simply have to use last years data (2015 PRL). I only just realized when the PRL is normally released. This is not a major issue, but it may change whether or not some make the final cut. I think it would be better, and fairer to use the current, up to date data for this purpose.
>
> I cant think of many times that the PRL is this useful or important. As far as I know the only other contest that uses it is the Perry regional.
>
> Thanks again for hearing me out. I look forward to some options.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Sean

Sean, we are in the same position regarding the Nationals at Nephi for 2016.. We will be over subscribed and the pilots would like to know where they sit so they can make appropriate plans. As Hank points out each pilot can do this themselves, the formula is able here http://www.ssa.org/ContestCommittee?show=blog&id=1551

Thanks to JL for everything he does for soaring and the competition pilots throughout the world. Also there are many folks that assist JL and thanks to them also.

Ron Gleason

[Sean Fidler]

Thanks Ron and all.

[Sean Fidler]

I just wanted to say thank you to John Leibacher (and his behind the scenes helpers).

After Karl pointed out that John was the volunteer in charge of the PRL process, I reached out to him. John has helped me (and I am sure many of you) with countless questions and complex tasks relating to turnpoints (adding and deleting and re-compiling site turnpoint files several times leading up to a contest for example), IGC ranking lists issues, etc, etc, etc.

John is one of those people who, when you really think about it, we cannot really function without.

John, THANK YOU for all the work you do for all of us. It is greatly appreciated.

Oh, by the way, John is going to update the PRL in the next few weeks as well. This is going to be a great help. As is common with folks of his caliber, he refused our help.

John, you are a true champion of our sport.

Thank you!

Sean
7T

[Andrzej Kobus]

On Friday, October 23, 2015 at 8:58:16 AM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
> On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 9:17:08 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
> > The unsung, self-effacing, gift to contest soaring who handles the PRL,
> > also manages the colossal World Wide Turnpoint Exchange. And colossal
> > is no exaggeration considering the number of countries covered with
> > all the turnpoints and landing points to keep up to date.
> >
> > He has been doing this quietly for decades and we are all in his debt.
> >
> > If you are curious about his "day job" Google John Leibacher.
> >
> > And, while you're at it, send him an atta boy. His e-mail is his name
> > with a dot between the two names at gmail.
> >
> > KS
>
> Another voice of thanks to John Leibacher for his tireless work supporting
> Soaring. We should not take for granted his contributions!
>
> Calculating the PRL seems like a 2-minute exercise, until one realizes
> that the quality of the input data is, um, variable. Name mis-matches,
> missing SAA numbers, missing data, trying to keep this consistent over
> a 3-year interval... are among the things that have made this a gnarly
> business.
>
> Thanks again John for all your contributions!
> Best Regards, Dave

This is a good point. There is no reason these days to have poor quality of data. It looks like we have systems integration problem that should be dealt with. We need to stop being cheap. I don't have a problem to pay more for membership if money is used for good purpose. We already collect all the required data for contest sign up. We should use it for scoring and reporting and not ask people to enter it over and over causing issues.

[Ron Gleason]

On Friday, 23 October 2015 16:55:08 UTC-6, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
> On Friday, October 23, 2015 at 8:58:16 AM UTC-4, Dave Nadler wrote:
> > On Thursday, October 22, 2015 at 9:17:08 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:
> > > The unsung, self-effacing, gift to contest soaring who handles the PRL,
> > > also manages the colossal World Wide Turnpoint Exchange. And colossal
> > > is no exaggeration considering the number of countries covered with
> > > all the turnpoints and landing points to keep up to date.
> > >
> > > He has been doing this quietly for decades and we are all in his debt..
> > >
> > > If you are curious about his "day job" Google John Leibacher.
> > >
> > > And, while you're at it, send him an atta boy. His e-mail is his name
> > > with a dot between the two names at gmail.
> > >
> > > KS
> >
> > Another voice of thanks to John Leibacher for his tireless work supporting
> > Soaring. We should not take for granted his contributions!
> >
> > Calculating the PRL seems like a 2-minute exercise, until one realizes
> > that the quality of the input data is, um, variable. Name mis-matches,
> > missing SAA numbers, missing data, trying to keep this consistent over
> > a 3-year interval... are among the things that have made this a gnarly
> > business.
> >
> > Thanks again John for all your contributions!
> > Best Regards, Dave
>
> This is a good point. There is no reason these days to have poor quality of data. It looks like we have systems integration problem that should be dealt with. We need to stop being cheap. I don't have a problem to pay more for membership if money is used for good purpose. We already collect all the required data for contest sign up. We should use it for scoring and reporting and not ask people to enter it over and over causing issues.

Andzrej, most of what you mentioned is available. When a pilot registers for competition they can use their membership information for the data fields (see http://www.ssa.org/ContestCommittee?show=blog&id=3108 for the first page of the registration process) but it is not required and non-SSA members have to fill it in manually.

The scoring program WINSCORE does import directly from the SSA, however there are situations when participants are entered manually, such as onsite registration and nuances within WINSCORE where it is easier to delete await a pilot and re-enter them manually etc.

IMO the data is as consistent as possible but errors will be introduced.