On Oct 10, 10:11 am, Papa3 wrote:
On Oct 9, 11:23 pm, "noel.wade" wrote:



All -

Does anyone know of any good books or articles on the nuts-and-
bolts / common-strategies of how to fly the various competition task
types?

I'm still waiting on my copy of Winning II, but Reichmann and
Brigliadori don't really touch on these and the competition rules only
define what the tasks ARE, not how to approach flying them...

I haven't yet been able to find any good reading material (other than
the SRA 2005 Comp Guide) on how to approach the different task types -
anyone have any recommendations?

BTW, I've read some of the different rules documents, and it may be
that I don't fully understand the scoring system... the big question-
marks in my mind relate to speed points vs. distance points, and their
trade-offs. For example: when is it worthwhile to push for extra
distance, even if it might hurt the average speed you have going (so
far) during a task?

Thanks, take care,

--Noel

Hi Noel,

John Cochrane's web pages have a bunch of interesting reading. Some
of it is fairly "deep" (hey, he's an economist for chrissakes - sorry
John), so be prepared to white board and talk to yourself while you
read.

http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.c...rs/#For_glider

For my part, I'd also suggest you keep it simple. Aside from the
obvious stuff like being prepared, knowing the basic rules, etc. I'd
do the following:

- All tasks: Assuming you have the basic flying skills (e.g.
thermalling, cruising, etc.), try to stay with people, preferably a
few people who are a bit better than you. Don't be embarassed about
"leaching" in your first contest. At the same time, don't get in
the way. You'll be amazed at how much you'll learn.

- All tasks: Start early and let the good guys catch up to you.
No, really. Forget about start gate roulette or trying to start at
the "optimal time". If you're near/at the top of the gate and it
looks like the day is more-or-less "cooking", go ahead and start.
Sometimes, a few more folks will start soon after, and you'll have
them to fly with for a while. More often than not, they'll sit in
their cockpits laughing (privately) at your rookie mistake while you
get hung out to dry. Inevitably, the good guys will catch you and
pass you. Maybe you can hang with them for a couple of thermals.

- AAT: In theory, you want to finish the task more or less "on
time"; ie. if it's a three hour task, you want to finish around 3
hours. Good theory. In practice, most newbies have trouble hitting
a precise time because their flying is inconsistent. The penalty for
being under time is way worse than being a bit over. Shoot for 15
minutes over time. You'll be so slow that it won't really matter, and
your goal at this point should be to build up contest time anyway.

- MAT: Similar to AAT in terms of time. Other than that, the one
big one is to always aim for a "target rich environment". If there's
a quadrant that has lots of turnpoint options, go there, other things
being equal (i.e. unless it looks like crap compared to the other
areas). There's nothing worse than banking on one turnpoint that
miles from nowhere, only to find that it's surrounded by the only blue
hole/thunderstorm/over-development in the contest area. To put it
another way, always give yourself some options in case the turnpoint
you thought you were heading for isn't going to work out.

There you have it. Follow the above, and you're guaranteed not to
come in DFL.

P3

I'll add a couple things (with 2 whole contests under my belt!):

1. look at the forecast for the day. Generally the weather report
you get will plot the expected cloudbase through the day. Plan
on flying your task during the best hours of the day. It works
against
you to start in weaker conditions and finish while there's still an
hour
of strong lift available. This factor favors the MAT and TAT format
over
the AT, since with an assigned task you have to worry about how long
the task will take you and then center THAT in the best soaring!

2. Estimate your speed on task once you know how good the day will be.
Based on that you can determine how far you want to go into the
cylinders,
or how many turnpoints to hit on a MAT. E.g., task time is 3 hours,
conditions are good, so you think you will fly 60mph. Nominal task
length is
160 miles, minimum 120, maximum 200. You'd better fly deep into that
first
cylinder or else you're going to be stuck coming in early.

3. Practice makes perfect. During your weekend flying with your
friends
get together early and call a MAT or TAT for the day and see how it
works.
Also, get Condor and use it in the off season. Mostly the online
competitions
call ATs or arcade tasks, but you can program your own tasks and even
host
them so others come to join. Best of all, you can connect your PDA to
Condor and learn how to use it for MAT and TAT tasks.

Most importantly, fly safe and have fun!
-- Matt (sometimes AI)