2012 Weekend Comp Series (Highland)

[callen]

All,
For the last few years I've been thinking about organizing a fun race to goal multi-weekend competition at Highland. I've finally managed to get enough free time to come up with a good structure, learn how to score and create a website to manage all the logistics. This could be a ton of fun if pilots are willing to attend. If you have an interest please sign up sooner rather than later so I can start to gauge interest and fix the weekends to be used in the competition. All relevant info can be found on the site below:

https://sites.google.com/site/highlandweekendcomp/home

Also for newer pilots that want to compete in the Sport class this could be a very low stress event.

Best,
Charlie

[Ward Odenwald]

Great idea Charlie, but I believe that limiting it to multiple weekends at Highland and not including mountain sites will reduce the participation. For example, if conditions are good at Woodstock or the Pulpit on a designated weekend - many will opt to fly in the mountains and not at Highland. Predicting the best flying site 48 hrs, heck 24 hrs out is near impossible for most of us. I don’t have an answer for including the mountains but one of us may have a solution. Ward

[RichH]

Having a website that would provide several tasks for a given site would be a good solution..For example: If a specific weekend looks to be NW at a good wind velocity a selection could be made from a series of pre-planned tasks for a given site. Then the night before a task that best suits the given conditions could be selected and posted on the website..Tasks could be selected for several sites and conditions/wind directions..This website could include tasks for an advance and sport class pilots..This would be fairly easy to accomplish and would take a task committee to select tasks for given situations at a small variety of sites..I always though this would be the best way to run a seasonal competition that would allow selection of sites and tasks to be fine tuned to a variety of pre-planned weather situations..Example winds are predicted to be WNW at 10-15 mph with light thermal activity. Woodstock could be selected then the committee or a flight director selects a task for advance and sport class pilots pilots..If pilots get to the site and conditions are not what they were predicted.. a revised task could be selected from a list of pre-planned tasks for a given site and posted at the site on a task board..This would take a small number of committed pilots ..a task officer/and a few committee members could be assigned for given weekends and rotated among the committee members. The task officer and selected committee members would be expected to be committed for that assigned weekend and to be at the site to observe the conditions and fine tune the tasks and record results if needed.. This way pilots can access the site and task direction the night before Fri/Sat night ..and review the results as the competition progresses..

[callen]

Ward,
Thanks so much for the feedback and I 100% agree there will be days that the mountains will be much better flying conditions than Highland. However, it's my hope that pilots that register would choose to fly a comp task over free flying in better mountain conditions. The comp would consist of only 5 committed weekends which is less than 25% of the available flying weekends in the season (it could be shortened to 3 weekends and 1 alternate if there is push back). Anyway i hope you choose to register if we get people to commit it will be a ton of fun.

The first day of the ECC was overcast and rainy in the am and stayed overcast when we called a 38k task. No one was optimistic however it was safe to fly so we flew and ten out of fifteen pilots made goal. We never got much higher than 2500ft and the sun barely peaked through. Average flight times were about 2hrs. My point of this example is that at least for me making goal in light and challenging conditions was extremely rewarding.

As for having comp days in the mountains I see it as a huge logistical challenge below are some of the issues which made me not include it as an option.

Issues with adding mountains (other sites):
- Getting people to the right site will be herding cats and dogs
- Will there be enough staging area for all the pilots? (obviously would depend on turnout)
- We would need to prioritize comp pilots launching in front of free flyers. Who would manage this?
- Harder to take a re-flight if one sinks out.
- Wind direction and thermal cycles at launch become a major issue in getting people in air especially if there is a large turnout.
- XC will be more challenging for Sport class
- No place to stay at night for Saturdays and no sense of community
- No waypoint database for calling tasks
- May be harder to find retrieve drivers for the whole field and retrieve times may be longer in mountains. This is a major issues; my goal is to get a few drivers lined up for the whole field.
- Multiple scoring issues, GAP parameters for a mountain ridge run may not be appropriate for Highland, etc.

Benefits of Highland:
- Not restricted by wind direction (assuming not blown out)
- Easy re-flights
- They have agreed to give us priority launching window over tandems.
- Established pool of locals that we can get to retrieve
- Pilot lounge with internet which is great for pilot meetings / task planning / and scoring
- Place to stay on Saturdays (camping)
- Herding cats and dogs won't be as bad
- No GAP scoring issues
- Lots of waypoints and routes/tasks that have been used in past
- Forgiving landscape for Sport class

Charlie

[RichH]

Charlie other clubs such as TTT did pretty much what I explain above..You bring up some good points but with the whole off season to hash through some of them ..I think a small committee of pilots could bang them out ..A registration process could limit the size of the comp..if size (# of pilots) is a problem..Really, with tasks preselected for a given number of sites there is nothing saying you couldn't have several sites selected on a given weekend and award points for each specific task. As I mentioned a website containing sites and tasks for those sites administered by a comp committe would be a great way to go..That way pilots that live in the west regions do not feel forced to drive to Highland every weekend there is a task..

[Danny Brotto]

Solution? Call it the "Highland Comp Series" and by definition... it originates at Ridgley Airport.

Thanks for taking the lead in this Charlie!

Danny Brotto

[callen]

You have some very good points and by no means do I want to create barriers for western pilots or any pilots to enter. However the one thing I don't want to change is the format it needs to stay a Race To Goal ("RTG") competition. Unfortunately there are certain nuances with this format that make having multiple sites more challenging. Ideally if there is enough pilot interest i would want to look at the USHGA rules and see if it's possible to have it sanctioned.

It's possible from a scoring perspective to add additional sites to a comp (though a logistical pain), however, having pilots fly different sites on the same day won't work with the RTG format. As for the other meets the TTT meet is not RTG and there are currently no west coast RTG meets that i know of (excluding SCF). This would be the first of it's kind and if it was to morph into a team challenge, open distance or OLC format then i would expect all the local pilots that fly the ECC and other RTC may not enter.

Perhaps shortening it to 4 weekends would lessen the commitment and result in more people registering?

Also have you had the chance to fly a RTG comp before?

[callen]

Danny - website heading is Highland Challenge. I think shortening it might be the trick but I'll leave that to the registering pilots. Are you interested? If so please register soon I'm going to ask Davis to post it to the OZ report on Monday but would love to have a few people signed up before it goes live on OZ report.

[Danny Brotto]

Charlie

Just looked at the web site...nice!

I would like to participate but 4 (or 5) consecutive weekends would put a cramp on my style (i.e. a commitment to crew for a Belgium team member at the Worlds next year in Uvalde and the lure of that slick carbon/glass thing I fly.)

So a definite “maybe” on signing up at this point but thanks for heading this up! Very cool! I think You’ll get good participation.

Danny Brotto

[RichH]

Just saw the site I like it but like Danny it would be difficult to commit that many weekends..My hats off to you though I think its an excellent idea!!

[callen]

Danny - Fyi.. it's not consecutive weekends. There are about 13 weekends you can choose from on the form when you register. The final weekends will be based on what works best for all the pilots.

[mcgowantk]

Hey Charlie

Thanks for organizing this. I will sign up and look forward to some organized RTG flying. One suggestion is to keep an option of having a competition day in September. Those are often good weekends.

While RTG is not everyone's cup of tea, it is fun to try something different. As someone who doesn't make goal too often, it has improved my flying and I have a great time just staying up and doing as much of the task as I can.

With respect to finding drivers, I have found it is pretty easy to use Craigs list to find them. I typically get 40 or more responses each spring when I post a job listing.

Tom McGowan

[callen]

Tom,
Craigs list is a great idea I'll look into that as we get closer. Also I added a Sept weekend to the list. I know RTG is not every ones cup of tea but it's a great format and usually results with longer flights due to group flying. Hopefully this will be the least stressful format for pilots new to the RTG format to try it.

Best,
Charlie

[lbunner]

Charlie, awesome job. My recommendation is to keep it as simple as possible for the first year and if it goes well, only then expand to a mountain site in future years. Looks like you've laid it out well. It should be a blast! Count me in!

[callen]

Larry great to hear you're in. If you want input on the weekend selection try to register sooner rather than later. Also let me know if you think 5 weekends is too much. I've been thinking about dropping a weekend to make it 4 weekends if that will draw more pilots.

[lbunner]

Charlie, you might get more participation if you reduced the number of scoring days but kept the number of weekends at five. For example, 5 weekends where you can compete but your best 6 scores will contribute to the overall ranking. Many pilots may not be able to dedicate 5 weekends but could make 3 or parts of the 5. This would get those on the fence that have families and other extracuricular activities that interfere with flying to commit as they can probably manage 6 days of flying over the 5 weekends. What are your thoughts on this?

[callen]

Larry, I already update the website to indicate that the alternate weekend may be dropped. The big question is how many pilots are or will really be on the fence? There have been lots of suggestions on changes to the format however will implementing any of them increase attendance? If 1 pilot said I will register (and attend) if you make it 3 firm weekends and 1alternate or just 4 weekends and no alternate then I would make the change. I'll add a survey to the website to see if there are any takers.

As for your particular suggestion it might create a problem with scoring and add an unfairness to the meet. For example if a pilot gets his 6/8 best scored days then it would make picking the weekends based on weather and overall attendance very important. For example what if you only fly 6 days winning each day and lost the meet because those 6 days were only 500 point days and the winner of the meet flew 5/8 comp days but won 2 1000 point days? Obviously this is a extreme example but you get the point. I think to keep it 100% fair shortening the meet is the best solution.

Charles

[lbunner]

Charlie, I thought about that as well and don't have a good answer. The highest valued days will be those that meet the min distance, duration and requisite number of pilots at goal. It may be too much to change what you have at this time. Keep it simple.

[callen]

If anyone is interested in flinging in the Highland Weekend Comp Series and would like a vote on the weekends please register before 12/16/2011. Currently there are 7 registered pilots (5 open, 2 sport).

https://sites.google.com/site/highlandweekendcomp/home

[mcgowantk]

Thanks for the reminder to sign up. I just added my name to the list. I am looking forward to a better year of flying - this year has been the worst for xc that I can remember. By the way, the schedule of weekends is not a big deal to me except the conflict with Big Spring in July.

Tom McGowan

[callen]

Tom,
Thanks for registering, it should be fun. Also all the potential weekends were picked around all U.S. comps except for the WRE. I'll double check the dates on Big Springs.
Charlie

[Dave Proctor]

Charlie--thanks for setting this up, and reminding me to enter. I doubt that I will be able to fly both days of 4 weekends, but it should be fun anyway.

DaveP

[sailin]

I'm signed up for the Sport Class! Like Dave posted above, I doubt I will be able to fly both weekend days throughout....but I'm gonna give it a shot. Looking forward to it.

Jon

[callen]

Jon, thanks for signing up.
best,
Charlie