GP06

[Paul]

Anyone here seen the results?

Ben Flewett from NZ won. Got a nice chq for his trouble as well. Good on ya
Ben!!

Any thoughts on the overall impression from the website, videos etc?

I thought it was excepionally well done. Congrats to the organisers and
competitors. Hopefully there will be a highlights package shown by some TV
network so we can see all the nifty footage they shot from the helicopters
and cockpit cameras.

Paul

[chipsoars]

I thought the website, updates and video were good. Does anyone know
the number of spectators/day?

My hope is someone makes a slick DVD of the contest.

Chip F

[[email protected]]

Yes, maybe something similar to the excellent footage in " Windborne".
Craig

chipsoars wrote:
> I thought the website, updates and video were good. Does anyone know
> the number of spectators/day?
>
> My hope is someone makes a slick DVD of the contest.
>
> Chip F

[[email protected]]

The website was nice but what I missed was the ability to follow the
whole thing online more or less in realtime as you could in St. Auban.
Besides the online tracking they had a great Dynamic Flight
Visualization in St. Auban allowing you to compare who did what when
and the consequences of it - great learning tool :-). I guess in
Omarama they had this new real time tracking system from the same
company that does this for the round the world sail boat races but no
online access, only for paying visitors on site... Not having that
availalable online was a step backwards fro me...

Markus

[Paul]

You can download the igc files from each day and achieve the same result
with Seeyou.
True it was after the racing has finished but still possible. The St Auban
Grand Prix coverage was delayed by 15mins due to tech issues etc. The
Omarama one was done live onto the big screen with video footage from the
helicopters and cockpit cams edited as they went along. Just like the
Americas cup racing is done. They even had a couple of guys in front of the
big screen giving a running commentry as well. The actual numbers to come to
the event where dissapointing but the big thing is to show a package of all
the infomation is possible which is a saleable item to major networks. Then
with TV comes sponsors and exposure.


Paul
> wrote in message
oups.com...
> The website was nice but what I missed was the ability to follow the
> whole thing online more or less in realtime as you could in St. Auban.
> Besides the online tracking they had a great Dynamic Flight
> Visualization in St. Auban allowing you to compare who did what when
> and the consequences of it - great learning tool :-). I guess in
> Omarama they had this new real time tracking system from the same
> company that does this for the round the world sail boat races but no
> online access, only for paying visitors on site... Not having that
> availalable online was a step backwards fro me...
>
> Markus
>

[Bruce Hoult]

In article . com>,
"chipsoars" > wrote:

> I thought the website, updates and video were good. Does anyone know
> the number of spectators/day?

I'd esrtimate maybe four hundred on Saturday, and half that numberr on
Sunday. Perhaps we'll hear the actual ticket numbers in time.


> My hope is someone makes a slick DVD of the contest.

You can count on that. More than that, I think it would make a great
show for broadcast TV.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

[Philip Plane]

> Yes, maybe something similar to the excellent footage in " Windborne".
> Craig

The images are way in advance of what was possible when Windborne was shot.

The camera used for the aerial shots is very nice. Zoom from cockpit filling
the frame to several kilometers out. Steady as a rock.

The graphics are good enough that you could fool the uninitiated into
believing it was real video footage. Watching Uli slip through a saddle
between Timaru Creek and The Dingle was magic. No gliders going through
the side of a hill like you get with less accurate 3D stuff.

The gliders had three cameras in each, one on the pilot, one looking
along the wing, and one over the shoulder. We watched real time over Ben's
shoulder as he landed on a strip in the Hunter valley.

The footage I saw was amazing, and there's plenty more I didn't see.


--
Philip Plane _____
|
---------------( )---------------
Glider pilots have no visible means of support

[Pat]

Hi,

it is definately not the same thing to download the igc files. It is
like watching reruns of some soccer game knowing the result. I know
Paul that you are from NZ and try to keep it up, but that was a BIG
failure.

Web site was nice as far as graphics etc, but many times results were
wrong at first. Many other competitions has done much better job and it
has been much more interesting to follow their web sites.

I got the impression that GP06 supposed to be THE best, easiest to
follow glider competition ever... Sorry guys you failed a bit.

Though all the cameras etc, were very nice, very nice graphics, but
again nobody saw then out side of Omarama... It would been ok to put a
web cam to the big screen or something. Anything...

And congrats to Ben Flewett...

[Mal]

The richest prize in gliding history $10,000.00 new Zealand dollars.

> follow glider competition ever... Sorry guys you failed a bit.

Come on more than a bit all hype what 11 gliders 11 pilots

Average website when you put it up against St Aubins.

[Pat]

You are right Mal,

though the whole consept is very good I think. I would of been nice to
see those final glide battles where only I second was separating pilots
(usually Ben Flewett)

I truly hope that the reason that there were no tracking wasn't that
they wanted to so it only to the paid visitors (did I hear 10000-15000)
Ok, divide it by 100 :) Unfortunately Omarama is middle of nowhere.
Maybe next issue is, how to get this race closer to the big cities.

Big thank to Mette and Dave who ran very nice web sites too. Lot more
information could be gathered thru there...

[[email protected]]

To All:

It should be aired on ESPN, ESPN 2, Sports Channel, Speed, etc.....the
attempt is good but coverage is necessary if we want this sport to be
promoted...

Jacek Kobiesa
Washington State

[Philip Plane]

In article om>,
wrote:
> To All:
>
> It should be aired on ESPN, ESPN 2, Sports Channel, Speed, etc.....the
> attempt is good but coverage is necessary if we want this sport to be
> promoted...
>
> Jacek Kobiesa
> Washington State

Quite right, but wanting it doesn't make it so. First you have to
use the material to produce an acceptable program/documentary.
Then you have to convince the broadcasters to show it.

This all takes money. Serious money.

What has been done so far is just the first step, and I hope that as
part of the follow through this will be aired on major broadcast
channels. But it won't happen overnight.

--
Philip Plane _____
|
---------------( )---------------
Glider pilots have no visible means of support

[Paul]

Instead of grumbling about the lack of coverage.
Contact ESPN and others by e-mail.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=contact/espntv

Ask them why they didn't show it live and point them in the right direction.

Maybe if we all do it then the networks may do something about it. I am sure
the GP06 team will be working from their end but if there seems to be no
public interest in it then it will never happen.

Paul


"Philip Plane" > wrote in message
...
> In article om>,
> wrote:
>> To All:
>>
>> It should be aired on ESPN, ESPN 2, Sports Channel, Speed, etc.....the
>> attempt is good but coverage is necessary if we want this sport to be
>> promoted...
>>
>> Jacek Kobiesa
>> Washington State
>
> Quite right, but wanting it doesn't make it so. First you have to
> use the material to produce an acceptable program/documentary.
> Then you have to convince the broadcasters to show it.
>
> This all takes money. Serious money.
>
> What has been done so far is just the first step, and I hope that as
> part of the follow through this will be aired on major broadcast
> channels. But it won't happen overnight.
>
> --
> Philip Plane _____
> |
> ---------------( )---------------
> Glider pilots have no visible means of support

[Bruce Hoult]

In article . com>,
"Pat" > wrote:

> You are right Mal,
>
> though the whole consept is very good I think. I would of been nice to
> see those final glide battles where only I second was separating pilots
> (usually Ben Flewett)

Then ask your favourite TV station why they didn't pick the live feed
up. It was available, and it was great.

At least ask them to show the package currently being edited up. At the
function on Friday evening Peter Newport told me that he intended to
have the DVD ready to go within two weeks. I'm not sure about the TV
packagee, or whether there is a difference.


> I truly hope that the reason that there were no tracking wasn't that
> they wanted to so it only to the paid visitors (did I hear 10000-15000)
> Ok, divide it by 100 :) Unfortunately Omarama is middle of nowhere.
> Maybe next issue is, how to get this race closer to the big cities.

Wanaka is even further from Dunedin and (especially) Christchurch, but
they get 100,000 peeople there to Warbirds Over Wanaka.

The scenery along which the gliders were flying in close proximity is a
big part of what made the coverage so good.


> Big thank to Mette and Dave who ran very nice web sites too. Lot more
> information could be gathered thru there...

They have nice sites. Philip Plane also has a blog at
http://www.xinqu.net/cgi-bin/blosxom and Sue Wild's race diary on the
official site was also great when I wasn't there myself
(http://www.gp06.com/race_diary.htm).

From Mette's page:

"On the ground I could for the first time observe the second race on the
big screen and hear Gavin and Kirk Davis' live comments. I tell you, it
is all ready to go on Eurosport. It was amazing. In the second race the
pilots chose to fly more thermals and less on the ridges and were
therefore higher, slower and watching each other more. John Coutts and
Pete Harvey came in on a close finish, and time ran out. It was time for
price giving."

What she didn't see was the spectacle during the first sprint race
(which Mette was in herself) of Ben Flewett giving extensive commentary
(with video) directly from the cockpit of his glider as it raced along
the side of the Benmores, talking about his tactics and the other
pilots' tactics, and who was where, and even directing the TV editors as
to which camera might give the most spectacular view in the next few
seconds. Great stuff. And with all that he still won the race.

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

[Bruce Hoult]

In article . com>,
"Pat" > wrote:

> Big thank to Mette and Dave who ran very nice web sites too. Lot more
> information could be gathered thru there...

I don't have any information, but I took some pics:

http://www.hoult.org/bruce/gp06/

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------