Contest rules for 04

[Duane Eisenbeiss]

By the lack of discussion I assume that not many RASer have read the
Proposed Changes for Contest Rules For 2004.
The proposed changes can be found at:

http://www.ssa.org/contests/ContestRules.asp

The pdf file has a date of 01/03/04

Some of you might even like some of the proposals.
Lets have some discussion.

Duane

[John Cochrane]

"Duane Eisenbeiss" > wrote in message news:<djXSb.194193$I06.2144317@attbi_s01>...
> By the lack of discussion I assume that not many RASer have read the
> Proposed Changes for Contest Rules For 2004.
> The proposed changes can be found at:
>
> http://www.ssa.org/contests/ContestRules.asp
>
> The pdf file has a date of 01/03/04
>
> Some of you might even like some of the proposals.
> Lets have some discussion.
>
> Duane

I'll bite. My comments are, like the rules changes, tiny in overall
impact.

1) For good or bad, rules changes 16 and 17 make weak PST days a
slightly bigger crapshoot than they were already.

There is the curious situation now that if you do 60 miles (one
turnpoint) in a four hour PST on a booming day, you are guaranteed 600
points. That has been raised to 630 points in the new rules. He beats
a guy who goes 400 miles but lands a few miles short.

That's extreme of course. The more routine situation is that there's a
half hour to go; lift is weak but not absent. You are in gliding range
of the airport. Do you try to add another 20 miles or so, or do you
land with a half hour or more still on the clock? You might add 30-40
points by going on, but if you land out, it will cost 400 at least,
ending your chances in the contest. This is a BIG decision, and making
it right is crucial for winning contests.

Most pilots play it safe, and also realize that everyone else will
make the same decision so that the day will be undervalued. The result
is the mass of undertime finishes we see on PST and TAT days. These
days are not unsoarable, and most pilots would continue on and make it
on an assigned task. But once lift is down to the sketchy 1-2 knot
range, they head for home.

Raising the guaranteed points for "finishing" makes finishing way
undertime more attractive. But lowering devaluation has the opposite
effect. Now, the lone eagle will get a lot more points if he makes it.

The net effect is probably not so much to make one strategy (finish
way early, vs. perservere and try for the big win) more attractive,
but it raises the number of points at stake; it makes this decision
more crucial, and raises the effect on the overall contest of whether
the lone eagle gets lucky or not.

2) You now get 1/10 of your time when you finish undertime. One
intention was to stop smart guys from waiting around outside the
finish circle so they don't contribute to day devaluation and get
their full points for winning. But it doesn't really stop it, it
raises the calculation bar. Say you get back 1/2 hour early, you've
done all the turnpoints in the turn area task, and you know everyone
is way behind you (John Seaborn, 2001 Region 7). Do you finish now,
and get 1/10 of your time? Or do you wait and make sure not to devalue
the day? Better get out your rule book and calculator!

3) The 20 meter class includes motorgliders, but bans water ballast.
If the class ever gets serious, this means guys with the motors get to
fly at a much bigger wingloading than guys without. Better yet, I
guess, to be competitive you want a light pilot 1 and a range of guys
in the back seat from 100 to 300 pounds. (Maybe give them a parachute
so you can get rid of them when the lift gets weak!) Water ballast may
be a pain, but it does even out wingloadings.

4) Rest In Peace the 15 minute time addition. Time to upgrade your
software, and really learn to use it so you can nail the exact finish
time.

John Cochrane
BB

[Bill Daniels]

"Todd Pattist" > wrote in message
...
> (John Cochrane) wrote:
>
> >4) Rest In Peace the 15 minute time addition. Time to upgrade your
> >software, and really learn to use it so you can nail the exact finish
> >time.
>
> Or (putting it differently) slower pilots who nail the exact
> finish time, get more points than faster pilots who don't.
> Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C
> (Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
navigation rally instead of a race?

Bill Daniels

[Mark James Boyd]

In article >,
Bill Daniels > wrote:
>
>"Todd Pattist" > wrote in message
...
>> (John Cochrane) wrote:
>>
>> >4) Rest In Peace the 15 minute time addition. Time to upgrade your
>> >software, and really learn to use it so you can nail the exact finish
>> >time.
>>
>> Or (putting it differently) slower pilots who nail the exact
>> finish time, get more points than faster pilots who don't.
>> Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C
>> (Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)
>
>Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
>navigation rally instead of a race?
>
>Bill Daniels
>

One wonders, if the rules committee is largely unchanged from
the year before, and they come up with new changes, aren't
they saying they were too stupid to get it right the previous
year? So why would they think they'd get it right the
following year?

Wouldn't the honorable thing be to simply admit you couldn't
get it right, recuse yourself, and let in a whole new
committee that at least has a chance of coming up with
rules that are so good they might last more than a year
with no changes?

I personally think that would be best for the sport:
the rules committee remains the same until they decide
a change is needed, and at that point they go home forever
and are all replaced by new members who come up with new rules.

Eventually we'd come up with rules so good they'd never need changing,
right? ;PPPP

[Eric Greenwell]

Mark James Boyd wrote:
>>Is it just me, or are the competition rules becoming more like a sports car
>>navigation rally instead of a race?
>>
>>Bill Daniels
>>
>
>
> One wonders, if the rules committee is largely unchanged from
> the year before, and they come up with new changes, aren't
> they saying they were too stupid to get it right the previous
> year? So why would they think they'd get it right the
> following year?

If only it were that simple! Rules change for several reasons. For example:

1) new technology
2) the contestants change their minds about what they like
3) someone comes up with a new idea (often a pilot not on the committee)
4) a problem is discovered with a previous rule that wasn't discovered
in the initial, limited use

If it were just stupidity, we'd eventually get the right guys on the
committee, but my observation is changing the committee (which has
happened over the years) doesn't change the amount of complaining, but
just who is complaining.

The tasks we flew 30 and 40 years ago were dramatically different than
we fly now. Times change, people change, the rules change. It looks like
noise if you watch just the year-to-year changes, but if you look over a
period of several years, you can see significant changes related mostly
to the 4 points I listed.
--
-----
change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Brian Case]

I am relatively new to contest flying I have been flying about 1
contest per year for the last six years mostly if 15meter and some
Sports Class Contests.

While there have been quite a few changes to the rules in the past 6
years there have really only been 3 or 4 changes that acutally affect
how I fly the contest.

1. GPS is the biggest change which has changed both the start and
finish quite a bit However the Start and Finish are an extremely small
portion of a contest flight and it is much easier that it was when
were using the Visual start finish gate. There have been (and probably
still are) a few years while we figure out the best way to utilize GPS
for the contests.

2. Only last year did the Turn points change much from the 1/4 mile to
1 mile cylinders. This makes the turnpoint easier but again is a
relatively minor change in how the flight is flown.

3. The Post Task is gone replaced with the MAT Task. I personally like
the MAT Task better and really is only a minor change

4. The Turn Area Task, The Jury is still out for me as to how well I
like this task and is acutally the biggest change is how the contest
is flown.


Still overall the contest flying is pretty much the same as it was 6
years ago. While you should be familiar with all the rules the main
points are:

1. Figure out how and when to start. (keep it safe)
2. Go fast to the next Turn point (keep it safe)
3. Fly through the Turnpoint (TAT's are bit more complicated here)
(keep it safe)
4. Repeat 2&3 as necessary (keep it safe)
5. Figure out (before the flight) how to finish (keep it safe)


These are the exact same steps that I used 6 years ago to fly a
contest and it still works today. You can research the rules and and
look for ways to use them to improve your score but in the end is
usually the guy that flys the fastest that wins. Unless you finishing
in the top 10% of the Class you don't need to worry about using the
rules to your advantage anyway. You need a lot more practice learning
how to fly fast.

You will learn a lot flying a contest, even if you come if dead last
(and you probably will the 1st few times you fly one) But you might do
more x-country flying in a week than many glider pilots do all year.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL