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#61
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snoop wrote:
"Requiring mental math"? Methinks this is the root of the problem, and KC has himself given it to us. To me the real champs in our sport, can do the required math, and do it handsomely. What if the battery dies. Oh, just crash, can't do math. I agree with you on the "insecurities" issue. Mine is that when I go flying whether it be in my glider or at work, that there might be some idiot in the air who can't do the required math! This argument isn't about saving "the real champs in our sport." Your chief proponent of the "Cylinder" has used the example of a fellow who was over the finish line at 50 kts and 50 ft and still thought he ought to pull up to some sort of pattern -- not exactly a championship move. There is no way you are going to rule out that kind of misjudgment occurring, whether in the Cylinder or in a low fast dash to the threshold -- it will just take different forms. Everybody needs to be a bit more careful with their examples, a bit less polemical, and provide a lot more hard data. So far all we have is strong feelings on both sides and minds already set in cement. Jack |
#62
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Distance only, no speed points or time limits for that distance?
Interesting concept for the XC purist. Frank Whiteley "Bob Korves" bkorves@winfirstDECIMALcom wrote in message ... All of this argument could be solved by going to a task described to me by Ray Gimmey: RETURN DISTANCE Go anywhere you want and then turn toward home. Only mileage toward home from the farthest point counts. End of rules. ;-) -Bob Korves "Andy Blackburn" wrote in message ... At 18:00 19 March 2005, John Sinclair wrote: Oh, that's good! Let's use all of the finish line, even though we know the pilots go for the nearest corner.......... .............And let's just use 1/12th of the finish cylinder..................That aught make the numbers look good. This part of the discussion has gotten a little silly. On an AST or TAT there is no way that the traffic is going to be finishing from 360-degrees. Maybe on a MAT, though I've not heard anyone suggest using a gate for a MAT with no final turnpoint. It's true that if the gate is close to parallel to the final courseline people will try to 'hook' it, but I've not seen a CD set up a task that way in some time. Yeah, I guess even if the gate is 45-degrees to the final course line pilots will converge on the close end. You could make a similar argument about the cylinder - there's always a single point that is closest to the final turnpoint. I've just never had a problem with inadequate space to finish under either scenario. I don't know of any pilot who would deliberately fly into someone to beat them to the line, so the question has to be does one form of finishing inherently lead to finishers being unable to see and avoid on another? I've heard lots of arguments but thankfully no evidence of actual collisions - a couple of 'encounters' have been mentioned for both gates and cylinders. So, on this one we're definitely talking about problems in the theoretical. I personally have found more people finishing at different speeds and altitudes and directions under cylinders than gates and in my mind this creates mor opportunity for a glider to come at you from an unexpected direction. I've gotten surprised once myself in this way in a cylinder, never in a gate, but that's just me. The second part of the argument has been about energy management, this is an entirely separate argument from finish line configuration. It is true that it's possible for someone to make a legal gate finish with too little energy and have a problem trying to make a pattern afterwards. JJ has his list of 5 accidents. We also have some examples of pullups and spins trying to make 500' at the edge of the cylinder. Some see it clearly one way - I look at it and see a more mixed picture. That's why I say we leave it up to the CD and contest organizers to decide what's most suitable for the site, the day and the contestants. Over the 30 years I've been flying contests I have found the sport becoming progressvely more antiseptic, with less and less of a visceral sense of racing from starts and finishes to navigation, tasks and scoring. The start I don't miss much and I have found the new tasks to offer new challenges that in some ways cvompensate for the fact that you spend most of the flight flying by yourself. Waiting sometimes overnight to find out who won has been a downer. Overall most of us have been willing to make these tradeoffs. Maybe the finish gate is the last tangible feature of the sport that actually feels like racing - and just maybe that's why some of us want to hang on to it. Otherwise we may as well all do OLC - or get copies of Sailors of the Sky. 9B |
#63
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Bob Korves wrote:
All of this argument could be solved by going to a task described to me by Ray Gimmey: RETURN DISTANCE Go anywhere you want and then turn toward home. Only mileage toward home from the farthest point counts. End of rules. It'd be an interesting task, but I don't think that would be the end of the rules or discussion! For instance: -unlimited relights? -relights allowed if you land off the airport? -how is tow order decided? It reminds of me of the "cat's cradle" distance task from 30+ years ago, which lost popularity as pilots decided they didn't like flying seven or eight hours a day, day after day. Some of them didn't think that was safe... -- Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly Eric Greenwell Washington State USA |
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