The Interclub Soaring competition was again a success in 2006 and a year-end symposium was held in December at the National Aviation Museum. We also analyzed the flights of the season in detail and drew a number of interesting conclusions about effective cross-country flying techniques.
The basic idea continues to be a friendly competition between the three clubs in the Ottawa/Montreal corridor and to base this competition on information pilots are already submitting to the Canadian On Line Contest.
As most of you know, competition does not necessarily need to be the formal type that we see at Nationals and Internationals. This competition will be open to all approved cross country flying pilots, including the highly competitive as well as the less experienced pilot vying for FAI Badge pursuits. It is designed to be FUN without the pressures of real competition and, yet… to give us a sense of rivalry between clubs and its pilots.
Attached, therefore, are the basic rules and you will note that all you have to do is to obtain an OLC-Canada approved GPS/Flight Data Recorder and file your flights with OLC. It is as simple as that! The members of the Interclub Competition will organize for a Scorer to extract the relevant data of this group’s participants and publish the results on agreed web-sites.
This informal competition can also be of particular interest to our pilots who are trying for FAI Badge flight achievements, as we will measure only that portion of a flight which spans a maximum period of three hours from a set time (on, or after 13:00 hrs) on each designated competition day.(see calendar below).
We invite all qualified pilots to join us in this venture. It is a natural development of the electronic age that has not only allowed improved navigation (GPS) but, more importantly, much easier cross-country flight tracking and evaluation.
The participating clubs;
1) It will be a friendly inter-club competition between GGC ,MSC and RVSC and it is open to all pilots qualified for cross country by their clubs and include any pilots who file their track data with C-OLC. (Canadian On Line Contest). Pilots may also submit a flight log in IGC format directly to the scorer by e-mail. There is, therefore, no need for pre-registering.
2) It will be based on the COLC recording system including the use of (OLC) handicaps and scoring formula. Any GPS/FDR accepted by the OLC in Canada can be used for this purpose.
3) It will take place over 10 set dates, with the rain date being the following day (in brackets). The dates for 2006 were selected as:
4) To help optimize soaring conditions, tasks will be “pilot selected”. I.e. may turn at any safe point, thus leaving a GPS geographic set of co-ordinates.
5) Tasks will be 3 hours, starting anytime after 13:00 hrs each day. The starting point can be a 1 km radius centered on the pilot's take off field, or it can be anywhere on a track of a flight which started at the pilot's home field. The latter provision is to allow pilots to compete who are in pursuit of a FAI badge pursuits or other cross-country flying achievements. In this case the flight would be entered covering the portion between 13:00 hrs and 16:00 hrs. As mentioned above, a pilot may also elect to start after 13:00hrs, but this will require a start within a 1 km radius of the home airport. If the pilot does not make such a start and goes on a task anyway, the time of release from tow will be used as the start time. Distance covered will be measured within the three hours from this starting time. 2006 OLC scoring rules will be used to optimize the distance covered (up to 5 turnpoints will be scored).
Counting flights will be obtained from the OLC or can be submitted directly in IGC format to the scorer by e-mail
6) To have a contest day, at least one pilot must have achieved 50 km in 2 of the 3 clubs.
In the final evaluation for the season, only the six best days will be scored for each pilot. This, for example, compensates for the times when one club barely achieves 50 km flights whereas the other club flies much longer distances.
7) An award presentation get-together will take place at the end of the season, to be hosted by the highest scoring club who will choose the venue. It is agreed to create an appropriate award trophy for the winning club. Rewards may be of a kind to be determined by the founding members.
8) At all cost, it will be kept in FUN for every participant.
9) Scoring will be assigned to one of the participating pilots.
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Last updated : March 21, 2007