SSA Contest Rules and Waiver for Nationals Now Posted

I distinctly recall my second flying lesson because we ended up in the clouds! A front blew in and there was STRONG convergence lift everywhere. We flew just below VNE with full airbrakes and the vario was pegged up. Clouds quickly formed around and below us. Suddenly, we found ourselves in the soup.. 20 years later, it remains my most terrifying aviation experience. I'm currently putting together a panel for my new ship and it will absolutely have AHRS.

Pretty much every modern VFR airplane has AHRS and the FAA requires all private airplane pilots to log 3 hours of instrument training. This isn't all for ****s and giggles; unintended flight in IMC is one of the leading causes of GA accidents.

I recall that just a few years ago, an ASW-27 came out of the clouds in pieces over Reno. That pilot survived thanks to his parachute, but others have perished.

In this day and age, we really ought to encourage AHRS installation and teach our students how to use it. I understand the desire to reduce cheating, but I feel that banning common safety equipment is going too far. Besides, as others have mentioned, every cell phone and tablet is a potential AHRS device, so it has become impossible to enforce.

I'd rather risk losing a race to a cheater than losing my life to inadvertant IMC. In any event, I will have AHRS enabled for every flight and it will be really unfortunate if this prevents me from participating in contests.

US Rules do not address the issue sufficiently.

6.6.1 Each sailplane is prohibited from carrying any instrument that:â—�Permits flight without reference to the ground.

Approved Instruments with Aritifical Horizon or T&B Features, the only approved instrument in the USA is the Butterfly Avionics Vario. Many other instrument have these features and are not approved.

I competed in a National Contest several years ago. I showed the officials my Air Avionics had been disabled. I also asked the official how he was going to ensure all AHRS were locked out. The CD announced at a pilots meeting that no checks will be made for AHRS disabled in the contest. Again if you are not going to enforce the rules get rid of them.

Richard

Why did the weight adjustment formula in 11.4.1.5.6 change between 2019 and 2020? Which formula is right? 2019 uses addition in the parenthesis, 2020 subtraction.

Mark, you might be right about a stand-alone phones or tablets. However, I know that Foreflight provides a very nice AHRS display when plugged into a Status or Sentry. Dynon also makes a slick portable EFIS with AHRS. It measures 3.5" x 3.25" x 1" so you can easily hide it in a pocket. With so many cheap and affordable AHRS devices on the market, they're going to require cavity searches in order to actually keep them out of cockpits. Heck, it's getting pretty difficult to put together a modern panel without AHRS. As another member mentioned, he has 3 different AHRS devices.

I'm trying to imagine what would happen if a pilot deactivates AHRS to comply with contest rules... and then they have an accident involving IMC. I wouldn't want to be involved in that lawsuit.

Richard, after you've disabled the AHRS for a contest flight, how quickly can you enable it during flight in the event you encounter unexpected IMC?

I've heard from other folks that the AHRS rules aren't enforced. I completely agree that they need to use it or lose it.

By the way, I've been pricing out instruments for a new panel. I'm finding that an EFIS is now less expensive than steam gauges. For example, a GRT Mini-X EFIS starts at $1,395. In addition to ASI, Altimeter, and compass, it provides attitude indicator, synthetic vision, turn coordinator, vertical speed, wind vectors, voltmeter, g-mater, clock and timer. It's almost free since I'd no longer be looking at $830 to enable the AHRS on my S80.

Most cell phonew have gyros.
ixGyro pro works pretty well.

On Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 10:37:16 PM UTC-5, Tony wrote:
Why did the weight adjustment formula in 11.4.1.5.6 change between 2019 and 2020? Which formula is right? 2019 uses addition in the parenthesis, 2020 subtraction.

There was an error in the published 2019 rules text that is corrected in the 2020 rues text. The calculator on the SSA site and used in the scoring system was and is correct.
UH

Thanks, I hate it when that happens

Now...if the 17m Kestrel and the ASW-20B have the same performance, why cant they both fly in club class?

For those who think it’s about time the SSA drop it’s restriction to instruments that allow flight without reference to the ground...............there are many things that can be found inside the clouds and all of them are bad:
1. Another sailplane!
2. Wing ice, Probe ice!
3.Hail, Lightening, Extreme turbulence!
4. The ground!
5. Joe Cessna on an IFR Plight plan!

It doesn’t happen very often, but on a thunderstorm day and a MAT is called, contests have positioned themselves in front of the storm and logged some high speed miles flying a constant heading at an altitude above cloud ceiling! On the last day of that contest, I saw a sailplane come out of the clouds and two other pilots told me they iced up! Contestants are very observant and if somebody’s doing it and nothings done to stop it, some will join the movement!

If you want to kill sailplane racing in the US, just let someone find an airliner in the soup!

JJ

On Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 9:14:01 PM UTC-8, wrote:
Richard, after you've disabled the AHRS for a contest flight, how quickly can you enable it during flight in the event you encounter unexpected IMC?

I've heard from other folks that the AHRS rules aren't enforced. I completely agree that they need to use it or lose it.

By the way, I've been pricing out instruments for a new panel. I'm finding that an EFIS is now less expensive than steam gauges. For example, a GRT Mini-X EFIS starts at $1,395. In addition to ASI, Altimeter, and compass, it provides attitude indicator, synthetic vision, turn coordinator, vertical speed, wind vectors, voltmeter, g-mater, clock and timer. It's almost free since I'd no longer be looking at $830 to enable the AHRS on my S80.

You can set the number of days to disable the Air-Avionics AHRS. The AHRS cannot be enabled in this time period.

Richard