At 14:05 26 October 2016, wrote:
Let's go back in time to August 4th 2010. The sport of soaring
lost a
well=
respected man named Chris O'Callaghan. It was the 4th fatal
sailplane
acc=
ident in 4 weeks. This was a wake up call to many pilots
operating
without=
Flarm or Parachutes. Chris was flying on the return leg of a task
when
he=
collided head on with another sailplane traveling opposite
direction to
th=
e final turnpoint.

What can we learn from history to avoid repeating it?

Can the tasks be a contributing factor to set up pilots for a
collision?

Let's look at the task for August 4th 2010 in Uvalde. =20
1. Start North
2. Callaghan
3. UnoMasPc
4. Leakey
5. Batesville
6. Finish

For those of you unfamiliar with these turnpoints, Leakey is due
north of
U=
valde and Batesville is almost due south. That means that from
the Leaky
t=
urnpoint to the Batesville turnpoint you are racing head on with
gliders
fl=
ying opposite direction from Batesville to the Finish. On a good
day, you
=
are traveling around 100 mph (85-90 knots true airspeed) which
is a
closure=
rate of 200 mph. You are racing between the same cumulus
clouds,
essentia=
lly on the same path, and same altitude (lift band).

Don't you remember from private pilot 101 that collision courses
between
ai=
rcraft are extremely hard to identify because there is no relative
movement=
in your vision?=20

So what's the point? Tasks that are called which have pilots racing
in
oppo=
site direction of each other should be avoided.

During a MAT race, there is a MAJOR threat of this happening
because there
=
is NO organized route for the task! It's just a bunch of gliders
traveling
=
in random directions as fast as they possibly can go. As cockpits
become
m=
ore technologically advanced with Flarm, GPS Maps, Thermal
centering
device=
s, etc, cockpit distractions have reached an ALL TIME HIGH.

If you have ever flown in a large contest you know first hand the
dangers
t=
hat exist when pilots are gaggling around the start cylinder. Many
pilots
=
will fly out of the way by many miles just to avoid this issue until
they
a=
re ready to start and then return through the cylinder.

Out on course with a MAT the threat level is high for a mid air to
happen.
=
Take a look at Chris O'callaghans accident and tell me if this can't
happe=
n again with a similar scenario with a poorly designed task or an
MAT.

And tell everyone again....why exactly are we doing MAT's???

As far as I am aware the MAT is unique to the USA, I had to look up
what it was. Having looked it up I can see the reason why the rest
of the world does not do it.
Gaggling in the start sector has dangers, of course, but set against
that is that pilots expect gaggling in this area and their awareness
is, or should be heightened. The expectation is perhaps much less
when out on a task when pilots might expect to see other gliders in
a thermal or travelling in the same direction as themselves. Their
reasoning is faulty but understandable.
In general, competitions in the UK set both the turnpoints and the
order of visitation, both for Assigned Task (AT) and Assigned Area
Task (AAT). From time to time an inexperienced contest director will
set an early turnpoint with an out leg close to the reciprocal of the
in leg, which can be hazardous. This does not of course preclude
meeting a non-contest glider flying a reciprocal leg on his own task.
From a logical standpoint, having looked at the rules for a MAT I
would not want to set such a task, or indeed any task where the in
and out legs to a TP are close.