Summer / Fall Competition

Talk about anything hang gliding.

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Don
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Joined: Thu May 12, 2005 8:58 am

Summer / Fall Competition

Post by Don »

I see that some clubs in the county have some sort of competition. Some are based upon XC miles, others based upon reaching specific turnpoints. I even briefly read a recent OZ submission about a competition without a specified start time.

What interest would there be for a competition held over several weeks or even several months and somehow designed (handicapped) to provide pilots on intermediate or even beginner gliders at least a chance to be competitive? I realize that many of you are certainly capable of pointing out all the reasons why this is not feasible - therefore the first challenge is to find ways to make this workable. Nothing, no handicapping system, no route, no scoring will be perfect - if nothing else it will provide all the wieners an excuse to bitch and moan!

As for an incentive to compete - I'm willing to put up the prize money.

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Frederick
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Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 11:24 pm
Location: Altadena, CA

Class racing works in sailboats...

Post by Frederick »

I think it sounds great. Eric and I are itching, since we were up in such great conditions for the Sping Air, but the event was cancelled. Maybe 3 classes: single-surface, sport, and topless.

We need some folks to figure out the specifics. Chip says there's an intermountain event in NCal, that's a workable format. I've not yet found those details. Anyone know how to make this work?
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Chip
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Local Comp

Post by Chip »

The suggestion about the inter-mountain league was in reference to the Kagel - Crestline challenge not our own local meets. The inter-mountain league could help foster some friendly :twisted: competition between clubs with several teams.... maybe a open team (Team Condor), king posted / limited team (Team RedTail), and a falcon class (Team Sparrow).

That kind of meet would be best held using 3 or 4 events throughout the year. I kind of envision a Kagel Event, a Crestline Event, an Elsinore Event, and a Pine or Laguna Event. Highest team score over all events wins. 4 man teams (if we can get them). The challenge would likely run from Spring through Fall. Maybe we could have some sort of Cup for the winning club.

Don, I think your on to something and you should take a look at the Tiger Tag format that's going on in Washington. This format is easily adoptable and I believe we can get the web space (for nothing besides the DNS registration) to host much of the details.

Don't know how much participation you'll get but the money might help.

I know I'm more interested in the team challenge aspect of clubs taking on each other.
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Joseph
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Joined: Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:31 pm

A Great Idea!

Post by Joseph »

Speaking from a new pilot's viewpoint, I like the concept that Don has suggested. Chip is also on point that we should not try to reinvent the wheel and look at other competitions. Looking at other comps that are similar is a great place to start.

I think where Don is coming from is that the purpose of this competition is to give H-2s and new H-3s an opportunity to start exploring comps and XC safely and to get the broadest participation from this group. The best way to do that is to get the participation of the more experienced pilots in the competition while making the rules relaxed enough so that H-2/H-3s have a good chance of participating. That said, it can't be boring to H-4s.

Perhaps a way to make this interesting is to create teams/pairs of H-4s & H-2/H-3s. They fly together and work a task together. The H-4 mentors the lower pilot/glider through a two part task. For example, the first part of the tasks the is for the h2 to get to trash and back. The H-4s job is to help them do this safely. Once he is sure that the H2 is okay the h4 goes on and flies a more advanced task. The combined score of all the pilots in the team makes up the team score, perhaps with some handicapping involved. Since the H4 usually has a GPS, waypoint verification is not such a big deal. Nothing a disposable camera can't solve fairly easily anyway.

Now an h4 flying with a boat anchor h2 :wink: seems like a worthy challenge for an h4. The h2 gets to fly somewhere they normally don't fly :D and learn from someone they normally only see setting up and disppearing into the distance.
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