Ian Cant wrote:
Over the last few days I have noticed that the number
of US competitors has
crept up from 142 to 145, but on the daily score sheet
there have been no
scored flights. I have looked at the 'unscored' flights
which have
appeared, but they do not seem to correspond with the
increased number of
competitors. This may be just a timing issue, or poor
observation on my
part - can anyone say what's happening ?


I wish I knew enough about the USA OLC to answer your question
thoroughly. Hopefully someone else here does know. I wish it were as
easy to understand the workings of the OLC as its booming popularity
deserves. US participation has doubled in each successive year of its
existence.

It appears to me that:

As of now, there are 773 "Competitors" -- pilots who have signed up for
the USA OLC, without necessarily submitting flights;

There are 145 on the "OLC_Champions" list -- pilots who have submitted
scoreable flights;

The OLC site has been experiencing some anomalies as it transitions to
the new season's database, but OLC seem to be working them out, if
slowly. I noticed some inconsistencies in flights here in region Seven
(easy since there are so few flights here this time of year) that have,
after several weeks, been corrected.

These three pages are all that I have found, in English, to explain the
OLC: http://tinyurl.com/bb3mm, http://tinyurl.com/eyfgn, and
http://tinyurl.com/9kj3z.

I hope that as SSA takes over OLC for the USA it will result in a
clarifying of the behind-the-scenes processes, and result in more
useful, detailed explanations in English -- including a Forum for OLC
discussions, preferably on the SSA USENET Groups. They need to be
enlivened anyway.


WRT: [Rule] 10. Validation
Flights and scores will be accepted if no objections have been
filed against them within 4 weeks after the corresponding weekly
deadline (see para 6)."

During the 2005 season, a significant percentage of flights filed in
Region Seven contained no point on the track which was actually within
the region's boundaries. I can only assume that a similar proportion of
errors occurred in other regions. I believe all the erroneous entries I
noted were the result of keyboard fumbling and inattention, e.g.,
clicking on an adjacent pull-down menu item to the one intended during
the submission process. As noted above, objections to these entries must
be submitted within four weeks or they will be incorporated into the
results as entered. Anyone can file an objection, but it would be best
if the Pilot submitting the flight would be careful to review the entry
to see that it is represented properly.

Also there are instances where the same individual has registered with
OLC multiple times using either the same name or a slight variation.
Consequently the number of actual "Competitors" is somewhat less than
stated on the OLC site.

Corrections to the above perceptions are heartily encouraged.


Jack