Southern Area BMFA THERMAL SAILPLANE COMPETITION
23-08-2009
General Rules:
1.0Thermal Sailplane event:
The event is open to all types and classes of pure sailplanes and gliders of any size and employing any number of channels and controls.
The launch can be by one of the following methods, Electric winch, bungee or hand tow.
The competition will fly a minimum of three rounds, weather dependent, and a fly-off will be held if there is a dead heat of two or more competitors at the end of the third round.
The competitors will be arranged to fly in slots within each round and the number of competitors flying per slot will depend on the number of towlines available and to ensure no frequency clashes. Typically 3 to 6 per slot.
The flying time will be a maximum of 10 minutes per slot except for the fly-off round (if required) which may be extended to 15 minutes at the CD's discretion.
The start of the slot timing will be indicated by the CD blowing a whistle and flight times will commence when the glider drops the towline. Timing will cease at the end of ten minutes and be signalled by a long blast on the CD's whistle. If requested by the competitors, the CD will give a verbal time signal at 9mins 30 sec to pre-warn that the end of the slot is approaching and also count down the last ten seconds of the slot.
In the event that a competitor has a miss- launch or launches into bad air he or she may land and re-launch after landing. The original slot timing however carries on regardless.
To obtain the bonus landing points the gliders must be on the ground within the ten-minute slot and be within the confines of the designated landing spot . The landing bonus is 50 secs if the landing spot tape can touch any part of the glider.
If the glider out flies the ten-minute slot the landing bonus is lost and a 30 point penalty awarded (Flight time -30 seconds).
If the glider lands outside the flying field all flying points are lost as well. This rule may be waived if the conditions or wind direction is adverse but must be declared in or out by the CD before the contest commences.
If the glider is damaged in achieving the spot and is not in a suitable state to fly again then the landing bonus is lost. (This tends to stop dartboard type landings).
Scoring is achieved by comparing the flying times of the competitors in the same slot. This is known as "flying man on man" or “slot percentage scoring”.
All the competitors scores in seconds plus any landing bonus of 50 secs are totalled individually and then compared with each other in the same slot. The person with the highest score in seconds is then given 1000 points and the remaining competitors in that slot are given a percentage of the 1000 points by comparing their total score for the slot with highest score.
Thermal Sailplane event Continued
For example. Per slot
Competitor No. Flying score secs. Landing score secs, total score sec, percent
1 590 0 590 983
2 550 50 600 1000
3 400 50 450 750
4 300 50 350 583
At the end of the contest all the individual competitors slot score percentages are added together and the highest total wins. The rest are pro rata.
In the event of a dead heat at the end of three complete rounds a fly-off round is held to find a winner. Depending on the preceding flight times the flying time for the fly-off may be extended to 15 minutes.
A fly-off may also be held if there are several competitors who at the end of the third round have scores that are very close together. In this case the CD will nominate a cut off score and those above the cut off will fly an extra round of 15 minutes duration.
The CD's decision on any point is final.
Modified as requested by Terry Weeks. Peter Turley January 2009
ThermalSailplaneCompRules2009-3 / 1 of 2