wrote:
Try readin page 13 of the CAI 303 manual again, D4 Cruise
and climb performance. If your serious, and wish to improve your
performance, which I assume you are by your posts, then tell us after
you do your home work, how you determine when its time to leave the
thermal, this is in a contest setting, where minutes saved are points
earned.

I use the Reichmann criterion: am I high enough to have a good chance of
reaching lift that's better than what I have? The majority of the time,
that's when my climb drops off more than about 20% from the maximum
value seen on the 302's averager. It's more complex in a contest
setting, because I might be trying to follow someone or stay with a
gaggle, and that will take precedence over the climb rate.

I will help your, Eric, here and tell you what I do, some of
the time. When climbing, the upper left hand corner of the 303 has a
display. When the read out on the 302 30 second averager drops below
the figure on the upper left hand corner of the 303, I generally leave.
By doing extra turns at the top, in weaker lift, does add minutes to
your time, and if you look at the score sheets, only minutes per day
keep most out of the top 10. The 302 does load with Turnpoint data,
and landing data, which the 302 does not display. The 303 does display
this information. If the Ipaq does stop working, then I have a backup,
in the 303, for final glide, course, wind, and a bunch of other neat
stuff.

I think I got it: the primary purpose of the 303 is a backup for your
PDA; with a secondary purpose of showing you the average climb rate for
the _entire_ thermal (not just the 30 second average of the 302), to aid
in the stay/leave decision.

I, as others, have several systems. One is not better than the
other system, its the user who uses the systems, to help him save
minutes.

This is what prompts my questions, because it's not obvious how you and
others use multiple systems to their advantage. For example, I used to
use two varios because I liked the fast audio on one and steadier needle
on the other; but for some pilots with two varios, I know the second
vario was strictly for backup, others had a very sensitive one they used
in weak lift, and so on.

A ASW 27b doesn't have a engine to motor home on, as you do,
Eric. Maybe you should practice without taking so much gas on your ASH
26E, because it appears to many of us, you carry alot of gas.

I practiced for 3000 hours without any gas, and I figured I'd probably
reached a plateau in my learning curve! The engine lets me try soaring
situations I wouldn't attempt in an unpowered glider because I'm not as
keen on retrieves as I used to be. This year was a spectacular year for
doing flights I never would do in a unpowered glider (they are on the
OLC), so I'm very unlikely to give up any of the 17 liters it holds. I
actually make more low saves and set up for more field landings now than
when I flew my ASW 20 C, because I'm willing to use less predictable
weather. I'm not sure I'm flying any smarter in contests, but it's hard
to tell, since I'm in a different class now (usually Open at our Regional).

A past
World Champion was talking with one of our finer young junior pilots,
he asked this young pilot "How many points do you start a contest
with?" The young pilot answered, and then the World Champ told him what
he started with. So, Eric, show the world, and please do tell us how
many points you start a contest with, say a 6 day regional, then I will
tell the World the rest of the story.

Based on many of my contest performances, I suspect I start out with
about -300 or so. My weakness is pilot selected tasks (I liked tasking
better in the old days, when the CD told us where to go).

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA