Handicapping

[pascal]

We have an internal competition designed to promote cross-country
flying and increase the level in the club. The scoring is kept as
simple as possible to make it understandable even by newly certified
pilots. We use glider coefficient. We allow two waypoints between
start and end. The handicapp based on bonus (free kilometers are
offered to those pilots who have not succeeded yet to achieved one the
following milestones: 50km, 300km, 500km) has been dropped two years
ago because the bonus could be excessively generous in years with poor
weather, and unsufficient in hot years.

In 2007, we reverted to the following system: those pilots who have
not achieved 300km in the preceding season can count their 8 best
flight in the current season; 5 best flights for those who didn't get
their 500k; and 3 best flights for the best pilots in the club. With
this system, it may prove difficult for a very good pilot to compete
with 3 flights (and a high glider coefficient) against a fairly good
pilots who can score 5 flights. This scoring tends to advantage pilots
who are in a progression phase just before they pass the 500k mark.

In 2008, we hesitate between keeping last year's scoring not to
confuse the participants and inventing a new handicap system that is
more fair, i.e. offering a levelled playground.

Any experience out there at club level (simplicity and user-
friendliness are essential)?

Pascal

Groupe Genevois de Vol à Voile - Montricher, Switzerland
www.gliding.ch

The current rules in French:
http://www.planeur.ch/customs/conline/conline_index.php

[BB]

We run a club contest in Northern Illinois. For the past few years we
handicapped pilots in much the same way as a golf handicap works. We
score out of 1000 as in "real" races, with glider handicaps. Your
pilot handicap is your average score over all flights in the past 2
years. Thus, if you averaged 800 points, your handicap is 800. If you
earn 800 points on a given day, it's as if you got 1000 points. If you
earn 900 points, it's like 9/8 x 1000. We renormalize so that final
points max at 1000. In this way the winner is the "most improved"
pilot.

If you're interested the rules are on my webpage, under "northern
illinois contest"

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/Papers/#For_glider

This is an elegant solution and worked well on any given day. We are
going to scrap it however, as it did not do much to bring new pilots
in to active cross-country flying. I guess "I'll get a poor score"
really wasn't that big an impediment after all. And our hot racers
found it annoying; they preferred to be scored as in the real contests
they're practicing for.

John Cochrane

[pascal]

Thank you John.

We need to think about it, as we have the same situation here: the
internal competition attracted many new pilots initially, but it has
decreased sharply recently and the hot racers feel the scoring system
makes it impossible for them to step on the podium. A bit of a catch
22 situation: valorize on one hand the progress of young pilots
(relative performance) and on the other hand recognize the absolute
performance of the hot racers. It's almost incompatible.

Cheers,

Pascal

[Michael Huber]

> valorize on one hand the progress of young pilots
> (relative performance) and on the other hand recognize the absolute
> performance of the hot racers. It's almost incompatible.

I agree, it´s incompatible. Why not run something like an extra "newcomer of
the year" contest, score is OLC points this year minus OLC points previous
year. The winner could be a hot racer with 3x1000km improving to 3x1100km,
or the newbie with his first 50km, 100km and 150km flights.

Michael

[Don[_3_]]

Our club, the Central Indiana Soaring Society, has used a format that has
been very successful and itis fairly simple. We have two classes of pilots:
those who have acheived Gold Distance and those who have not. The ships are
handicapped using the official SSA handicap list each year. Minimum
handicapped flight distance must be 30 miles for novice class and 50 miles
for advanced class. Mnimum time on course must be one hour. For there to
be a "contest day", at least 3 qualifying flights must be submitted.
Scoring is based on speed, but we also give a "distance bonus": a pilot is
given scoring bonus of 1% for each ten miles over the scratch distance (30
or 50 miles). For instance, a day winner who flew 130 handicap miles would
get 1000 points plus 80 points if he were in the advanced class.
Contestants just email their flight traces to the scorer who uses SeeYou to
evaluate. We allow multiple turnpoints. We allow team flying. The rules
are simple and I'll be happy fwd them to anyone who emails me. Our club has
about 60 active members, and 14 of them participated in the contest last
year.

[HL Falbaum]

"pascal" > wrote in message
...
> Thank you John.
>
> We need to think about it, as we have the same situation here: the
> internal competition attracted many new pilots initially, but it has
> decreased sharply recently and the hot racers feel the scoring system
> makes it impossible for them to step on the podium. A bit of a catch
> 22 situation: valorize on one hand the progress of young pilots
> (relative performance) and on the other hand recognize the absolute
> performance of the hot racers. It's almost incompatible.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Pascal

The GTA (Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama {USA}) race series has two classes--A
and B. The B class is for novices (self declared) and the A class for the
experienced. The B class flies a shorter task in the same general direction.
There are prizes for both classes. Too many wins in B class and the pilot
gets moved to A class.

It works for us.

Hartley Falbaum
"KF" USA