OLC site not operating?

[Eric Greenwell]

I haven't been able to get the Online Contest site today; instead, I get
a "Connection was refused ..." type of message. Are other people having
problems? It worked fine yesterday.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[[email protected]]

Eric
Have a little patience
Web sites do this from time to time.

[MC]

It been down since this morning.

Mike


"Eric Greenwell" > wrote in message
...
> I haven't been able to get the Online Contest site today; instead, I get
> a "Connection was refused ..." type of message. Are other people having
> problems? It worked fine yesterday.
>
> --
> Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
>
> Eric Greenwell
> Washington State
> USA

[Eric Greenwell]

wrote:
> Eric
> Have a little patience
> Web sites do this from time to time.

I've got plenty of patience - but I couldn't be sure it was the web
site! What prompted me to inquire was the fact that SeeYou was able to
submit a flight, making me think I had the problem. If it's a problem on
my end, being patient will be a loonnnng wait. in the past, I've had
problems with my ISP doing funny things, my firewall turning finicky,
and even the router and modem needing a reboot sometimes.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[[email protected]]

Sure enough, and thus, I missed the deadline for submitting my flight
of 6-13.
__Mike


Eric Greenwell wrote:
> I haven't been able to get the Online Contest site today; instead, I get
> a "Connection was refused ..." type of message. Are other people having
> problems? It worked fine yesterday.
>
> --
> Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
>
> Eric Greenwell
> Washington State
> USA

[Jeffrey Banks]

Eric,



This is the exact problem I had.



See You uploaded a claim and igc file, however I could not get into the site
from my usual favorites link.



I just figured it was busy as Tuesday is the deadline for claims the prior
week.



BTW is the Tuesday OLC deadline midnight utc or midnight local??



Jeff Banks

[Eric Greenwell]

Jeffrey Banks wrote:

> BTW is the Tuesday OLC deadline midnight utc or midnight local??

Local time at the landing place, according to their website.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Eric Greenwell]

wrote:

> Sure enough, and thus, I missed the deadline for submitting my flight
> of 6-13.
> __Mike

I think if you contact them at and explain the
problem, they'll take care of it. People with problems tell me the OLC
folks are quite helpful.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Greg Arnold]

Eric Greenwell wrote:
> Jeffrey Banks wrote:
>
>> BTW is the Tuesday OLC deadline midnight utc or midnight local??
>
>
> Local time at the landing place, according to their website.
>


I think it really may be midnight standard time on the East Coast. I
know someone who submitted just after 8 pm PDT on a Tuesday, and they
were told they had missed the deadline. Makes sense, as I doubt if the
OLC software is sophisticated enough to figure local time form the
location of the flight.

Just hope that your flight of a lifetime does not end on a Monday
evening in a sparse section of Nevada where you can't get to an internet
connection before the next evening.

[Eric Greenwell]

Greg Arnold wrote:

>>> BTW is the Tuesday OLC deadline midnight utc or midnight local??
>>

>> Local time at the landing place, according to their website.

>
> I think it really may be midnight standard time on the East Coast. I
> know someone who submitted just after 8 pm PDT on a Tuesday, and they
> were told they had missed the deadline. Makes sense, as I doubt if the
> OLC software is sophisticated enough to figure local time form the
> location of the flight.
>
> Just hope that your flight of a lifetime does not end on a Monday
> evening in a sparse section of Nevada where you can't get to an internet
> connection before the next evening.

It'd be even worse if it ended on a Tuesday evening, wouldn't it? But,
we may be OK: according to their data, I submitted a flight claim on
June 8, 2005, at 5:30 UTC. That's Wednesday morning UTC, but Tuesday
evening on June 7 at 10:30 pm for Washington State, an hour and half
past midnight on the East Coast.

OLC seem very responsive to problems, so I'm guessing you could email
them about being denied a submission done before midnight at the landing
place, and get it corrected.


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Greg Arnold]

>>
>> Just hope that your flight of a lifetime does not end on a Monday
>> evening in a sparse section of Nevada where you can't get to an
>> internet connection before the next evening.
>
>
> It'd be even worse if it ended on a Tuesday evening, wouldn't it?

If it is a Tuesday flight, don't you have until the next Tuesday to
submit the flight?

But,
> we may be OK: according to their data, I submitted a flight claim on
> June 8, 2005, at 5:30 UTC. That's Wednesday morning UTC, but Tuesday
> evening on June 7 at 10:30 pm for Washington State, an hour and half
> past midnight on the East Coast.

Was that a Monday flight or a Tuesday flight?

>
> OLC seem very responsive to problems, so I'm guessing you could email
> them about being denied a submission done before midnight at the landing
> place, and get it corrected.
>
>

[Eric Greenwell]

Greg Arnold wrote:

> If it is a Tuesday flight, don't you have until the next Tuesday to
> submit the flight?

After rereading the rules, I suspect you are right. But, we may still be
OK: according to their data, I submitted a flight claim on June 14,
2005, at 4:20 UTC (that's Monday, June 13, 2005, 9:20 pm for Washington
State). The flight claim was accepted, even though it was half hour past
midnight on the East Coast.

I have at least two other Monday submittals:

1) April 12 at 5:50 UTC (Monday, April 11, 10:50 pm local)
1) April 5 at 5:00 UTC (Monday, April 4, 10 pm local

Living close to a time zone, or in one of the areas that doesn't change
time during the year, might be different story.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Greg Arnold]

Eric Greenwell wrote:
> Greg Arnold wrote:
>
>> If it is a Tuesday flight, don't you have until the next Tuesday to
>> submit the flight?
>
>
> After rereading the rules, I suspect you are right. But, we may still be
> OK: according to their data, I submitted a flight claim on June 14,
> 2005, at 4:20 UTC (that's Monday, June 13, 2005, 9:20 pm for Washington
> State). The flight claim was accepted, even though it was half hour past
> midnight on the East Coast.
>
> I have at least two other Monday submittals:
>
> 1) April 12 at 5:50 UTC (Monday, April 11, 10:50 pm local)
> 1) April 5 at 5:00 UTC (Monday, April 4, 10 pm local
>
> Living close to a time zone, or in one of the areas that doesn't change
> time during the year, might be different story.

Maybe I don't understand, but didn't you submit these flights before
midnight EST on a Tuesday, which is when I think the cutoff is? The
test would be whether a flight (made on Monday or earlier) is accepted
or rejected if submitted after 8 pm PDT on Tuesday. As noted
previously, I know someone (actually, two people) who had flights
rejected in this situation.

[Eric Greenwell]

Greg Arnold wrote:

> Maybe I don't understand, but didn't you submit these flights before
> midnight EST on a Tuesday, which is when I think the cutoff is? The
> test would be whether a flight (made on Monday or earlier) is accepted
> or rejected if submitted after 8 pm PDT on Tuesday. As noted
> previously, I know someone (actually, two people) who had flights
> rejected in this situation.

I think you're right - as far as I know, I haven't submitted a flight in
that sequence. Did they contact OLC about allowing the submittals, since
they were submitted within the time allowed by the rules?

That won't help in the situation you described (landing in the middle of
nowhere on Monday, so you don't get to an internet connection until too
late Tuesday). I asked about that situation in an email to them earlier
this year. Summarizing their answer: "We want to ensure the weekend
flights, when most flying is done, are posted promptly, to keep the
contest as 'real time' as possible". It's an unlikely situation (not
getting to internet in time), I think, but I'd still like to see some
tolerance for flights that land a long way from the takeoff point.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

[Greg Arnold]

Eric Greenwell wrote:
> Greg Arnold wrote:
>
>> Maybe I don't understand, but didn't you submit these flights before
>> midnight EST on a Tuesday, which is when I think the cutoff is? The
>> test would be whether a flight (made on Monday or earlier) is accepted
>> or rejected if submitted after 8 pm PDT on Tuesday. As noted
>> previously, I know someone (actually, two people) who had flights
>> rejected in this situation.
>
>
> I think you're right - as far as I know, I haven't submitted a flight in
> that sequence. Did they contact OLC about allowing the submittals, since
> they were submitted within the time allowed by the rules?

They didn't contact OLC. I suspect that the rejections were in
accordance with the rules as understood by the people at the OLC, but
the website just doesn't clearly state what the OLC people understand
the rules to be.

> That won't help in the situation you described (landing in the middle of
> nowhere on Monday, so you don't get to an internet connection until too
> late Tuesday). I asked about that situation in an email to them earlier
> this year. Summarizing their answer: "We want to ensure the weekend
> flights, when most flying is done, are posted promptly, to keep the
> contest as 'real time' as possible". It's an unlikely situation (not
> getting to internet in time), I think, but I'd still like to see some
> tolerance for flights that land a long way from the takeoff point.

Or just require submission of flights within, say, 3 days of the flight.
That would delay the submission of a Sunday flight by only a day (Wed
evening rather than Tuesday evening as now required), but should give
adequate time to submit even flights that land in desolate areas.