On Sep 20, 7:07*pm, John Cochrane wrote:
Hi John

I'm not sure where a start height limit and 2 minutes under before start
originated - we've been doing it in UK for years now.

Good! Now let's persuade the IGC, which banned this for Uvalde. Huge
gaggles in the clouds at Szeged was idiotic.

In UK it's conventional to brief 2 (at least) tasks in view of the
variation in possible weather, and then notify the task to be flown 10
minutes before first launch if it isn't the primary task.

This is also by far the most common situation in the US. Task changes
in the air are avoided if at all possible. They are a last ditch tool
for a CD to remedy a looming disaster, but CDs are strongly advised
against it if at all possible. Still, it's nice to avoid the
disaster...

Our contests try to launch everyone in 1 hour, and wait 15 minutes
before gate open. We also require 15 minutes between task change and
launch. So, the decision to open the task is at least 1:30 after the
last chance to change the task on the ground. Often, weather
ucertainty means that the start is delayed further. So it's easy to
have two hours pass. The weather can change a lot in two hours!

What do you do if a pilots' radio goes unserviceable transmit and he can't
be raised to confirm a change - cancel the day?

It happens rarely. Once to me when I was leading the contest on the
last day. Fortunately I heard the task change, rocked my wings in
response to radio call and it was passed on. If you can't hear either,
then you can't hear when the start gate is opened. I don't know of a
case of that happening yet. But it is the pilot's responsibility to
have a radio. If the roll call goes through, and the pilot can't be
raised on multiple tries, tough for him. We're not going to send the
whole fleet into the storm because of that.



I don't claim our way is perfect, but we do listen to alternative views and
are prepared to adopt good ideas.

Hey, come on over and fly one of our comps, see how the other half live..

I'll take you up on that!

John, actually I participated in a contest were 2 days in a row new
tasks were given in the air and not because of thunderstorms. This
rule just enables a not so smart CD to be really stupid just because
he is also lazy. Luckily 90% of contests do not have tasks set while
pilots are in the air, but when I see one done again that might be a
reason for me to quick contest flying.

If you ask me if I want to stay alive or lose a day I would say I want
to stay alive! This rule has no place in our competitions. We can
program many tasks into our computers. Have 5 dump tasks but do not
force people to put heads into the instruments in such high glider
density area as start cylinder.

John, your safety approach is not consistent. On one side you say we
need minimum finish height because we can't trust pilots not to put
themselves in dangerous situations but on the other hand you give a CD
a way to put all pilots in a dangerous situation.