wrote in message
ups.com...
Bill Daniels wrote:
I've been replaying on-line contest .IGC files with Henryk Birecki's
"GPS_LOG WinCE". (This is a training function to learn Henryk's
software)
It's possible to set the software so auto-select the McCready number
based
on actual thermal strengths. Other software can do the same thing.

The average M number is a pretty good way to determine how good the day
was.
For example, one day might be a M= 6.1 and the result is some very long,
fast flights. Another might be a M=2.2 and shorter and slower flights
result.

My thought is that it might be possible to run the day's contest results
through similar software to determine the average M number and use that
number to handicap the weather in addition to handicapping the gliders.
This is a simplistic way to reduce the day's soaring weather to a single
number.The result would be to make the contest more equal for different
gliders.

That would interest me because my Nimbus 2C is not competitive with it's
handicap in strong weather since the US Sports Class disallows water
ballast. On the other hand, smaller gliders are not competitive in weak
weather where the unballasted Nimbus is at it's best. Canceling WX
effects
could make the Sports Class more attractive.

Thoughts?

Bill Daniels

Do you mean that every glider will have to a weather handicap value for
each strength of weather? In your example your Nimbus needs a
"favourable" weathercap on strong days and the smaller gliders need
their favourable number on weak days.

Well, I was sort of heading toward the idea of letting a computer look at
all the competitors .IGC files to get a "power number" for the day. This
would be a number related to the average strength of the thermals
encountered during the time window from opening the start gate to the close
of the task. This number would then be used, after the fact, as it were,
to alter the glider handicap table so as to make it fair for the day.

The competitors collective .IGC files contain a lot of information about the
soarability of the day. There might be a way to extract these data for
weather handicapping.

No doubt, someone has thought of this.

Bill Daniels