HGFest'2001 Homepage
Based on the long range guess-ta-ment on the weather this weekend - changing weather and potential high winds - your flight guessing team has made two decisions. The first is to move the start of the Saturday morning pilots meeting up from 11:00 to 10:00 AM. The reasoning is that it would allow an opportunity for pilots who choose to launch early, and avoid higher launch wind conditions later, the opportunity to do so. Now this is a double edge sword, safety wise. Getting off early to avoid high winds at launch may mean being in the air as things really begin developing and not wanting to be up there. As a great pilot once said “The only thing worse than being on the ground wishing you were in the air, is being in the air and wishing you were on the ground.” In my view, it's always the pilot who should decide. Moving the pilot meeting up does not preclude late launches, but the converse is not true. I plan to camp out Friday night at launch as well, if anyone would like a really early briefing over the campfire and a beverage. I doubt I will launch too early, so I will likely be able to conduct some late briefs to accommodate late arrivals. Another benefit of this earlier schedule is we could credibly make the call to move the comp to another location at ten o'clock if the Pulpit looks to be unflyable. I don't want to put my cell phone number out on the internet, but I'll have it, as probably many other folks will. Call to check in. Semper Flexible!
The second decision that is related to this weather uncertainty is that the comp format will be pilot called tasks. I have been on too many task committees at competitions that tried in vain to make decent calls the morning of afternoon tasks in changing weather conditions. It always depends on the weather and that stuff is always changing. The other hard part is, what's good lift, textured air to one pilot might be trashy scary stuff to others (I remember King Mountain several years ago - what a mess). From those experiences I believe the answer (at least for fun flying, safety conscious meets) is pilot executed tasks. We'll score what you decide to fly. The task committee might suggest some options and everyone will know the hopefully simple point value of different types of tasks (i.e. ridge runs get only one way miles, straight over the back gets one for one miles, and out and returns/triangles may get some type of bonus factor - all yet to be exactly determined), but in the end the pilot flies what they are comfortable with. I ran my last Pulpit fly-in something like this if I remember correctly and other fun comps (Chelan classic) also do something like this. It is harder to score, more difficult to objectively verify the tasks everyone claims to have flown (GPS helps here and I'll have download capability), but the meet isn't selecting the next world team - it's for fun and safety is a driver here. Another benefit of pilot called tasks is that missing the early pilots briefing is not as big a deal.
The last tidbit I can pass on is that the scoring will be handicapped by pilot XC skill level - I'm thinking consistent with the region nine comp rookie, 60 mile and open class levels - but not additionally handicapped by glider type. The intent is to offer everyone a shot at placing well.
Hope to see everyone at the Pulpit this weekend,
Mitch