Paul Remde wrote:
Hi,

I just created my first soaring video for YouTube. It is and time lapse
(interval recording actually) film of the process of bringing the gliders
out to the runway, gridding up and launching. It was filmed at the 2007
Albert Lea MN Soaring Contest. The contest included the U.S. Open and 18 m
Nationals and the Region 7 Sports Class contest. The Sports Class contest
had ended before this footage was taken.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6l0pFIGBYtk

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com


Sorry for my ignorance as a newbie who stumbled onto this discussion,
but after watching the movie, I still can't see exactly
what the object of the glider contest is. It appears to involve some
type of full scale board game involving moving the gliders as game
pieces around on a
large outdoor grid of some sort, according to some complex and arcane
rules that must
be written down somewhere, as per the references to "gridding". It looks
something like chess perhaps? Are some gliders more powerful than others
like the Queen or Bishop and can knock other less powerful gliders off
the "grid"? Or what actually is going on in one of these "soaring contests"?