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aeajr
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 Posted - 08/23/2007 : 10:56:41 AM
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Eastern Soaring League Newsletter - August 2007
2007 OFFICERS AND STAFF
Tony Guide -------President
David Beach ------Secretary/Treasurer
Tom Kiesling -----Contest Coordinator
Anker Berg-Sonne--Scoring Systems Coordinator
Jeff Steifel -----Public Relations Coordinator
John Hauff -------Clinic Coordinator
Phil Barnes ------Winch Conditioning
Jose Bruzual -----Web Master and Publisher
Ed Anderson ------Web Site and Newsletter Content Editor
FROM THE EDITOR - Ed Anderson
In this issue we have the upcoming schedule, as usual, along with some good news. The SJSF DLG contest that was announced as canceled has been reinstated. So all you flyers who love DLG soaring should register so the decision to have the contest turns out to be a good one.
I had the pleasure of working the DLG contest hosted at the LISF field in July. My DLG was not ready so I did not get to fly, but I had a great time working the event. Timing for numerous pilots gives you an opportunity to see and learn about technique and strategy. This was a great learning experience for me. I had the fun of meeting and working with some great people even though I did not fly.
We are fortunate to have an article by Anker Berg-Sonne, our ESL score keeper. Anker outlines how Man on Man scoring works and how to work it to your advantage. The more you know about how the scoring works the better you can plan your flight and your strategy to put up the best scores possible.
Lastly we have an ESL member looking for some parts. Take a look and see if you can help him out!
CONTEST REPORTS
Anyone can post a contest report in the ESL forums. If you were there, let us know how it went.
Photos are welcome too!
http://www.flyesl.org/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=15
SEPTEMBER CONTEST SCHEDULE
http://www.flyesl.org/calendar.asp
CASA Open
09/08 - 09/09, 2007
Location: Warrenton, VA
Sanctions: AMA and ESL
Registrar: Skip Schow
Phone: 703-573-7242
Event: Unlimited (ESL Expert & Sportflyer), Unlimited RES (Limited to RUDDER, ELEVATOR & SPOILER controls) (NON-ESL, see comments). A CONTESTANT MAY ONLY ENTER IN ONE CATEGORY EACH DAY. Thermal Duration: Tasks, Rounds and Times to be announced at the Pilots' Meeting. Landing Task: 25ft, 50pt tape
Event Homepage: www.soarcasa.org
Awards: Expert, Sportflyer, & RES trophies to 3rd place & Best Novice award daily. Trophy for best two-day performance for Overall, Over 60, Jr/Sr
Max Entry: 2 Flyers per channel
Register before: 9/5/2006
One day fee: $17.00
Two day fee: $34.00
On field registration: Yes *Additional charges may apply, check "comments" for details.
Schedule: Check-in Time 8:30 a.m.
Pilots meeting 9:15 a.m.
First Flight 9:30 a.m.
Directions: See flyer/map/hotel info on website (click events, mem. open). Site address is 9669 Green Rd, Midland, VA 22728
Comments: Cannot enter RES on this site, send e-mail or entry form. On-field reg subject to freq available. Pls advs how many attending free catered supper Sat eve for headcount. Subs and sodas available for lunch for a nominal fee, advs how many wanted. On-Site Camping permitted. Porta-John available.
SJSF (HLG)
09/15 - 09/16, 2007
Location: Marlton, NJ
Sanctions: AMA and ESL
Registrar: John Jenks
Phone: 856-983-7024
Event: HLG at the Evans Mill Pond Field in Marlton NJ. Site of SJSF. 8 & 10 min rounds. See; sjsf.org web site for directions. Email jwjenks@netzero.net for additional info. This contest is now on! Call/email me for info. I'm on the website.
Event Homepage: www.sjsf.org
Awards: Sportsman and Experts: Prizes to 4th place.
Max Entry: 1 Flyers per channel
Register before: 9/15/200
One day fee: $10.00
Two day fee: $20.00
On field registration: No
Schedule: Check-in Time 8:15 a.m.
Pilots meeting 9:00 a.m.
First Flight 9:15 a.m.
Directions: go to: sjsf.org
Comments: Man on man format requires pre-registration. I currently don't have a cook lined up so I can't promise lunch. No round starts after 3:00 on Saturday, 2:00 Sunday.
LISF 2
09/22 - 09/23, 2007
Location: Syosset, Long Island, NY
Sanctions: AMA and ESL
Registrar: Frank Strommer
Phone: 516 432 8108
Event: Man on Man unlimited duration Contest with tasks to be announced at the pilots meeting. Graduated landing tapes.
Awards: Expert and Sportsman to 3rd place and best two day overall award. Novice to 2nd place. Novice registration is free.
Max Entry: 1 Flyers per channel
Register before: 9/17/2007
One day fee: $17.00
Two day fee: $30.00
On field registration: No
Schedule: Check-in Time 8:00 a.m.
Pilots meeting 8:45 a.m.
First Flight 9:00 a.m.
Directions: (About 15 miles east of New York City line) A map and lodging information will be available on the ESL web site. For directions click here
Comments: *NO ON FIELD REGISTRATION* Five dollar free lunch each day. Contest is free to all under 18 and over 65 years of age.
FUTURE 2007 EVENTS - October Forward
Consult the Web Site for Updates and Registration
www.flyesl.org/calendar.asp" target="_blank">http://www.flyesl.org/calendar.asp
Oct 6, 7 ESL EOS - Reading PA
Oct 20-21 East Coast HLG Festival - ESL HLG EOS - Wilson, NC
ESL LOGO ITEMS NOW AVAILABLE
The ESL is fortunate this year to have a wide selection of items that bear the ESL Logo. We have two suppliers, who are providing different items, so we have something for everyone.
Visit the ESL Store
www.flyesl.org/store/" target="_blank">http://www.flyesl.org/store/
We hope to have embroidered ESL T-shirts and hats at the LISF Hand Launch and Winch Launch events at special prices. If you would like one, let me know so I can be sure to have one in your size.
Man on Man (MoM) Contest Format
By Anker Berg-Sonne - Scoring Systems Coordinator
The Man on Man contest format has become very popular in thermal duration. There are very good reasons for that, including, but not limited to:
1. You cannot "sandbag¨, because you are told when to launch
2. There is less of a "luck¨ factor, because you can score well even if there's "bad¨ air when you are called to fly.
There are several ways to fly MoM, and I'll only describe the one most commonly used in the ESL, otherwise this explanation becomes way too complicated.
The first step is to divide the flyers into groups for each round. Ideally, at the end of the day each flyer will have flown the same number of times against every other contestant. This is best done by making random groups for round one, and then systematically permutating the group assignments for subsequent rounds. Using random assignments for all rounds doesn't work nearly as well, because the end result will not be as close to the ideal described above.
Once the groups have been assigned, you call the flyers up to the winches, group by group. You want to have everybody launch into the same air, so it's critical that they either launch at the same time (that's what they do in F3J), or one after another in rapid succession (as they do at the Nats). There is still a small advantage to being the last to launch, but the shorter the time between the first and the last launch, the less advantage the last launcher will have.
The timers then record the time from release to landing and the number of landing points in the usual manner.
For each round, the scores for each group are calculated as follows: The best time gets 1000 points, and other times are given proportional points. For example, if it's a 7 minute task (420 seconds), and the best time is 20 seconds short (400 seconds), the flyer who had 400 seconds gets 1000 points. If another flyer is 30 seconds short (390) seconds, he gets 1000*390/400=975 points. The last step is to add the landing points to get the total score for that round. If you use graduated landings to 100 landing points, the maximum score you can get for a round is 1100 points.
So lets talk a little strategy: Suppose you are in a group of four flying a 10 minute task, and at three minutes, you are the last one in the air, high up in a boomer. Should you come down? You might think so, because you will get 1000 points plus your landing points, no matter when you come down. Its actually bad strategy, because the longer you fly, the fewer points the other members in the group will get, and you want to "hurt¡¨ them as much as possible to place well at the end of the day. But you do NOT want to blow your landing, because that is added after the times are normalized.
The total score for the contest is simply the sum of the scores for each round. The flyer with the highest score gets first place, and so on. If, by chance, two of the top placing flyers have the same score at the end of the day there is a fly-off between these pilots. The fly-off determines their final positions.
One more explanation: Since sportsmen and experts fly in separate groups, how do we determine advancement points and overall standings? Tom Kiesling came up with the solution. The final, overall score is calculated as follows: Experts are simply given their final, normalized scores, calculated as described above. For sportsmen we use the un-normalized overall scores of the top expert and the top sportsman as an adjustment factor. The un-normalized scores are calculated as the traditional TD flight and landing scores. The final sportsman scores are their normalized scores multiplied by the un-normalized score of the leading sportsman divided by the un-normalized score of the leading expert. The effect of this adjustment is that if the leading sportsman missed landings and times much more than the leading expert, the scores are adjusted downwards. If we didn't do this, then top sportsman and the top expert might both have scores close to 1100 times the number of rounds, even though the top sportsman consistently missed his times and the top expert consistently made his times.
I promised not to talk about variations, but I have changed my mind. Read on if you understand the above. Do NOT continue if you are confused, it will just confuse you further.
Variations:
„h Normalizing to 1000 AFTER the landing score has been added. The merits of this scheme relative to the one described above can be debated till the cows come home. I just like normalizing BEFORE landing.
„h Seeded MoM: In this scheme groups are assigned dynamically from round to round. It biases the groups towards having "good¨ flyers fly in groups with "good¨ flyers and ¡§bad¡¨ flyers fly in groups of "bad¨ flyers. The end result is less spreads in the scores. It almost works like golf handicapping.
„h Sometimes contests have a number of rounds, followed by a fly-off of one or more rounds for the final positions. The way this works is that the initial rounds determine who gets to fly in fly-off. Then the fly-off is a new¨ contest that determines the final standings.
„h The concept of throw-out rounds allows all contestants to select one or more scores to be eliminated from the final score. All contestants must obviously throw away the same number of scores. Contestants with an IQ over 25 select the worst scores to be thrown away.
Editor: This article is also posted on the ESL web site. You can find it at the attached link. Feel free to post questions to Anker.
www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=294" target="_blank">http://www.flyesl.org/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=294
LEARNIN' 'BOUT THERMALIN'
Congratulations, you have tried soaring with the ESL and you like it. Now how do you learn about this stuff when you are not at the field. Why, by video of course! ;-)
I am sure there are many good videos on soaring out there but these are ones that I own or have seen and can highly recommend them to anyone who wants to improve their soaring experience.
The first one you need is SECRETS OF THERMAL SOARING
www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/asecthermalmain.html" target="_blank">http://www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/asecthermalmain.html
Then you want to add PERFORMANCE TUNING. This will help with gliders of all types and may even help you rig your power plane, once you understand the basics he covers.
www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/perftunemain.html" target="_blank">http://www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/perftunemain.html
If you have decided to buy and build one of the discus launched gliders, then you will want the HAND LAUNCH BUILDING CLINIC
www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/buildclinicmain.html" target="_blank">http://www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/buildclinicmain.html
And then there is the HLG PRO CLINIC to learn how to throw that DLG
www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/proclinicmain.html" target="_blank">http://www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/proclinicmain.html
Not everyone has a high end sailplane radio but this video can help you understand some of the reasons why people buy these radios. The tips can be applied to sport radios for flying electric as well.
RADIO CLINIC
www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/Radiomain.html" target="_blank">http://www.radiocarbonart.com/Pages/Radiomain.html
Perhaps you have a book, tape, video or other resource you would like to recommend, to help us improve our soaring skills. I invite you to post your recommendations in the ESL forums or send them to me and I will include them in the next ESL Newsletter. Please include a source and an Internet link or an address if possible.
2.4 GHz WATCH - USER SURVEY
We now have a few people flying on 2.4 GHz in the league and there were 2.4 GHz systems flown in the NATS. I continue to watch the chatter on the forums on the subject. I came across this survey:
www.rcuniverse.com/forum/showResult_1/" target="_blank">http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/showResult_1/www.rcuniverse.com:80/forum/m_6149523/anchors_6231159/page_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm" target="_blank">http://www.rcuniverse.com:80/forum/m_6149523/anchors_6231159/page_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm
Tonight there have been 179 people who have posted responses to the survey. Only 2 have indicated any kind of serious problem. Seems to me that this would be similar to what people might report on 72 MHz.
From what I have read, there are two installation points to watch with 2.4 GHz systems:
„h 2.4 GHz has problems with carbon fuselages. 72 MHz does too, but the long antenna of the 72 MHz systems gives us options that 2.4 GHz does not. People are developing work arounds.
„h Do not let your receiver pack get below 3.2 volts under load as this can cause a reboot of the receivers. Of course best practices would be the same for 72 MHz systems, so this is really nothing new.
There have been some recalls and some firmware upgrades, but these have occurred on 72 MHz systems too. Other than that, things seem to be going pretty smoothly in the 2.4 GHz world.
WANTED:
From: Gglide@aol.com
To: aeajr@optonline.net
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 7:23 PM
Subject: Re: ESL Newsletter - July
Ed,
Can you add to the next ESL News:
Wanted- Mantis or similar V-tail set- mounted or unmounted. Old v-tail butchered from hangar rash. Contact me at greg.sado@castrol.com
HERE TO SERVE YOU
I hope you find value in the ESL Newsletter. Perhaps a piece of useful information that will help you this season.
If you have ideas or input for the next Newsletter, please feel free to write. Perhaps you have a quick tip to share. These little gems can make a big difference in competition. Why not pass them on.
Send your notes, comments, photos or complaints to Ed Anderson, ESL Newsletter and Web Site Content Editor, at aeajr@optonline.net |
Edited by - aeajr on 08/23/2007 11:48:33 AM |
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ESL Newsletter - August 2007
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