At 19:06 10 January 2006, wrote:
Interesting responses.

Obviously, some more experienced pilots are comfortable
setting up a
new task inflight. I'm not too bothered by it myself,
I practice with
my systems so I can retask quickly and minimize time
heads-down.

It's the 'other' guy I worry about!

But it still seems like the way we do it now not the
safest way to do
it - especially at regionals - by definition 'training'
races. Perhaps
some guidelines for airborne retasks would be a start?
To try to avoid
the need to completely reprogram the whole task while
gaggling in 1
knot and 1/2 mile vis?

Heck, if the conditions are so bad that the A, B, or
C task have to be
dropped, then you probably should bail to a PST anyway!
Now that's
easy to retask!

With all the recent emphasis on 'safety' (ELTs, 500'
finishes, etc) I
just figured it was open season to discuss any area
that could be
potentially dangerous. I guess some guys like playing
with their
computers more than flying their gliders!

Anyway, I'm curious about how other countries handle
this issue (I
think we've heard from the Brits?).

Kirk
66

My orignal response was a little flippant. On a more
serious note as you are well aware the UK weather is
known for being iffy. I always set at least 2 tasks
A and B and if circumstances warrant it C as well and
all are issued to the pilots at briefing. They must
be given at least 10 mins notice of a task change which
can only be done on the ground. If launching starts
the only way a task can be changed is to recall and
rebrief. This applies to all comps, national and regional.
I suspect if I tried to retask in the air I would get
lynched, and rightly so. The thought of 60 pilots all
heads down in the start area reprogramming their PDAs
is a really scary thought. The bits might drop on me.