Time Distance Task

[Bill Feldbaumer]

An outline of a talk on the Time Distance Task is available. It was
presented by Joerg Stieber, the Chairman of the Sporting Committee of
the Canadian Soaring Association. It resides on the web page of
Canadian Advanced Soaring. The URL is
www.sac.ca/cas/resources/resources.html

I recommend this talk to anyone who wants to keep abreast of the
latest developments in contest tasking and contest scoring. Pilots who
are not familiar with the Time Distance Task should go to my posting
on r.a.s, History of Contest Scoring, October 2, 2003.

Bill Feldbaumer 09

[Paul M. Cordell]

History repeats it's self. This discussion was entertaining before
the internet. I can't wait for this to start again. I was really
getting tired of the VNE thing.

[Andy Blackburn]

TET becomes TED

It seems simple enough except for the endpoint problem.
It basically means everyone will drive as low as they
dare when time runs out. The question becomes: how
low dare you go when time expires and still climb back
out to get home for the bonus? It's particularly an
issue if the day is miscalled or if you individually
are much slower or faster than the expected speed.
In this case you are likely to be a good distance from
home and fairly low.

So if 1000 feet is worth 6 miles, on a 200 mile task
that's 3%. In today's terms that's about 150 points
over the course of a regionals for a pilot who consistently
drives to 1000 feet as time expires versus one who
targets 2000 feet. It costs you 300 points over 5 days
if you shoot for 3000 feet versus 1000 feet, etc.
This presumes those who dive lower actually get away
with it.

I'm guessing that for any given day you could figure
out the optimal altitude to shoot for where the expected
probability of landout penalty (based on average inter-thermal
distance)equals the extra altitude margin penalty -
go lower and the odds are too high that you'll land
out, stay higher and you leave points on the table.
I'm guessing the optimal 'finish altitude' for a typical
racing day is less than 2000 feet, possibly less than
1500 feet, and that some pilots will be making saves
at less than 1000 feet. With some simple assumptions
you can calculate the actual optimum, but those are
my rough guesses.

An alternative is to grant some number of miles per
1000 above field elevation when time runs out and skip/reduce
the get home bonus. That would likely reduce the gutsball
aspect of the finish altitude.

Of course it all adds complexity beyond simple sum
of Total Elapsed Distance (TED).

9B




At 04:30 02 April 2004, Paul M. Cordell wrote:
>History repeats it's self. This discussion was entertaining
>before
>the internet. I can't wait for this to start again.
> I was really
>getting tired of the VNE thing.

[hannu]

Hello

I personally don't think that TET would diminish greatly gaggles. Very often
the fastest way is to go in a group and it is as true here as in any other
task type.

Another problem is that if the pilots separate they might (and will) come to
the turning points from widely varied directions which I don't see as a
major safety increment.

TET has its place in really a difficult to forecast a day but I don't see it
as THE task type. Nor AAT is it, though the trend in task setters seem to
lead that way.

I think AAT is a good task type for unsure or lazy task setter ;) And yes, I
HAVE been giving tasks every now and then...

Enough of venting.. back to the job. Competition tasks still almost two
months ahead ;)

regards hannu

P.S. One possible (but I don't say probable or preferable) task type might
be OLC, meaning us staying up for whole the day. To get pilots home, the
task type should be peppered with a hefty homecoming-bonus...