August 19, 2024
It was hotter and a bit bluer today, a trend that is predicted to continue in central Texas. (Numbers like 107F are being heard in tomorrow’s forecast.) Speeds were again excellent, though conditions were not consistent over the full task area.
In the 18-Meter class, 24 pilots finished in less than the 4-hour minimum time (which hurts speeds and scores). This was largely due to difficult conditions in their first turn area causing many to turn short there, only to find that remaining distance was insufficient to fill the remaining time.
US Open-class pilot had a good day, with Jim Lee at third and Keith Baugh seventh. In 20-Meter class, Sarah and Karl were fifth, and stand in second place overall, not far out of first.
At a World Gliding Contest, pilots choose when they’ll cross the start line and commence their task, but this has complications. You’d obviously like to wait until the day develops, so your flight will take place while soaring conditions are good. You’d also like to start just a few minutes behind some very good pilots, as it should be reasonably easy to spot them ahead, see how they are doing, join them in a good climb and then fly briskly around the course in skilled company, ideally finishing with them and thus with a time on course a few minutes less than theirs. This is known as “leeching” and is both scorned and practiced by all successful contest pilots.
To blunt this tactic, the PEV start has been adopted. All pilots carry a GPS-based flight recorder that makes a record of their position every second, and thus shows whether they flew the day’s task, and how fast. Each flight recorder can record the time a pilot pushes a button – that’s a pilot event (PEV). The rule here says that recording a PEV opens a window of time that begins in 10 minutes and lasts for 10 minutes (for example, if you record a PEV at 13:15 your window runs from 13:25 through 13:35.) If you cross the start line during that window, the start is penalty-free. If you miss your window by less than a minute, the penalty is one point per second; otherwise, the penalty is 60 points (tolerably severe). You are allowed just three PEVs each day.
Pilots have mixed feelings about this. Most agree that frustrating the tactic of leeching is sensible (except, of course, when they are the one trying to do it), but the PEV adds complication and opportunities for penalties resulting from minor carelessness. It’s also a distraction at a time (shortly before starting) when the sky tends to be crowded and attention is needed outside the cockpit. It’s something of a work in progress, and it’s unclear the extent to which this will find favor at other levels of competition.
John Good