2 long days of flying and Assigned Area Tasks

Last couple of days were long and hard, particularly yesterday. The day before yesterday we had a 3 hour Assigned Area Task, so what's that??

Well, the normal gliding competition task is called a racing task, simply race around a pre-defined course using GPS points to define the course. However, this means you might end up not flying in the best part of the sky i.e. where the best weather conditions are. Also, normal racing tasks do not test your skill as a glider pilot to select the best route to fly through.

So a new task type called Assigned Area Task (AAT) was invented. This is quite complicated and many pilots are stressed out when these tasks are set, not us Brits of course because we practice them a lot..

So how does it work? The task setter will define two or more areas, normally circles, with radius say of 20 or 30 km, and a Task Time, say 3 or 4 hours. You then have to fly from the start into each area (in the correct order) as far as you want then fly into the next area and so on and then come back on or after the Task Time has elapsed. When you get back your flight trace is analysed and the scoring program works out your overall distance for the day and divides that by your flight time to give your average speed. The fastest speed wins the day.

Things to remember:

You can fly anywhere you want within the areas.

The Task Time is minimum so if you come back in 2 hours of the 3 you still score as if you flew for 3 hours.

The scoring program calculates your maximum distance in a straight line, not your overall distance flown, so it doesn't pay to fly in curve lines or circles for that matter :)

The Climb

During a flight there are two main components that influence your speed, the Climb and the Glide.

So we all know that aeroplanes fly by moving through the air at speed and creating airflow over their wings which is a "Lift" force, but what about gliders? Well we dont have engines onboard but we have a much bigger enigine, Gravity. So we get towed by a tow plane and once released we point the nose down and let gravity pull us, resulting in accelaration and the speed required to generate the airflow which results in lift. Basically gliders are large paper aeroplanes...

This means that gliders are always on a decending path, normally at about 100-200 feet per minute, so how do we stay up? Well the answer is we find air that's going up faster than our decent rate.

There are many ways but the most common one is to use Thermals. In short, the sun heat the ground, the ground heat the bubble of air above it which then given a suitalbe trigger, pops up and rises up because it's warmer than the air around it. As it is going up it is cooling down until its temperature is equal to the air around it at which point it stops rising.

Gliders find thermalls (Climbs) then circle in them (they are sort of column or bubble shape). Some thermalls go up as fast as 1000 feet per minute or more. The faster we climb the faster we can glide forward, and in fact the climb rate is probably the most important factor in the average speed.

So the idea is to find the best Climbs, center in them (the thermal will do its best to throw you off its centre), turn tight (sometimes up to 60 deg of bank), then when the climb rate drops off (normally at the top) you leave and glide forward to the next climb. To win a competition you have to only take the very best climbs and reject weak ones. However, this is a trade off because if you are quite low you might have to compromise and take a weak climb otherwise you will be forced to land.

Day 3 - The Percentage game

Gliding competitions are long, this one is going to be 12 flying days with possible 12000 points on the board up for grabs. You can't win every day so the tactics is to put yourself in a good position and then get study results.

Today, 275 km racing task in the blue was tricky so we started early and although we got overtaken by later starters i managed to come fifth and retain my position overall.

Tomorrow is another day and still everything to play for so having an early night after singing a few Simon & Garfunkel with the Germans.

Day Win

On day one everyone got back so the task setter clearly thought the task was too short for the good conditions (it was) and felt he had to make up for it. Day 2 task then 439km for the club class. Long way to the north west then back and even longer way to the north east. Took off at 11:15, started at 12:45 and landed back after 6 so it was a long day and we're all knackered. More of the same today..

The leg to the west was awsome, good reliable cumuls and 6-7 knots climbs up to 6500 feet. Then crossing the river on the long leg to the east the clouds disappear and now almost the whole class were together. Liz and I together with the French pilot were at the top of the stack and pushed very hard, concious that the day is running out.

We turned the north east turn point after 4pm with still 145 km to go in the blue with climbs 3.5 knots at best, but still going up to 6000 feet. We egged each other on and as soon as the climb dropped below 3kts we moved on.

This seems to work very well and we managed to lose the hunting pack, now four of us at the front and Rose, who left earlier and always fly on our own also doing very well a little ahead.

Last 60km were under a sheet of Cirrus cloud that stopped the sun heating and climbs now down to 1.8kts. Managed to get a climb on the edge of the cirrus and then one more 30 km out to put us on marginal glide home. The last part into the control point is over a large lake and flying over it at 1200 feet with still 10km to go was character building material. But the last 10km were good and we got in comfortably.

Day win for me and first overall, Liz in 5th and second overall. A grand day out!

Day 1 at last

First day of school and I am the new girl in town. I’ve been preparing for this day for two years and am a bag of nerves. Weather briefing is a bit confusing but cold front has gone through over night and pressure is building so what more do we need to know? 310km Racing task for clubbies, grid launch in 1 hour, so much to do arrggghhh!

The tugs finally arrived today and the grid is launching dead on time, Standards first then us. Here we go, don’t blow the first day…! Off tow and first climb in the bag, finally I can relax a little. First leg west, Liz and I are sticking together and going well, then the French catch us up but we are catching up with the Germans ahead. Into the 2nd turn point and Liz is pushing ahead, I’m falling behind and trying to keep up with the now leaders, everyone is running very fast. After the turn Liz is calling 6kts, I’m lower at 3000 feet and can’t get the climb.

Must keep calm, long third leg flew mostly on my own and managed to catch up with the lead gaggle on the last turn, then had stonking run home to find out I’ve finished 2nd. Rose is 4th and Liz 6th. Standards also doing well with 5th, 11th and 13th, good first day in the bag for the team.

So overall wonderful day out, 7 and 8 kts climb up to 7500 feet and very fast speeds. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

How to lose a gliding competition..

There are infinite ways to lose a gliding competition but the worse one has to be getting first and second degree burns on your chest two days before the comp start..

This is what happened to one of the club class German pilots who stumbled back as she was holding a large pot of boiling pasta water. She is now back in hospital in Germany and we all wish her well.

The most common way to lose a gliding competition is to take weak climbs.

Other ways to lose a gliding competitions:

Getting Swine flu
Forgetting to switch your flight logger on
Missing the start line
Missing the finish line
Confusing the start line with the finish line
Battery failure and not having second battery
Double battery failure
Entering the wrong turn points to your flight computer
Entering the right turn points to your flight computer but in the wrong order
Flying to slow
Flying too fast
Infringing airspace boundary
Infringing country boundary
Breaking your glider in a bad field landing

Rest day

Last day before the comp start. Nice cumulus but very windy, we are having a rest before opening ceremony this evening at the town square, hope to have nice pictures later on.

This morning first official briefing, each pilot was called up to the stage and introduced themselves and also got a bag of goodies. Also some last minute rule changes, start line is now 10 km long..

Last practice day

Finally a proper task, 2 hour Assign Area task. Launched at 2pm and started 2:56, all in the blue. Very good first leg then went horrible on the second, climbs going from 7kts to scratchy 1.5kts, then a reasonable run back home. Respectable 80kph, dont think many clubbies got round, i know the Germans didnt so moral victory! Rose and Hannah landed out.

Tomorrow day off then opening ceremony in the evening.

Crew briefing

The Germans have a much bigger pool but they wouldn't let us in it.

Psychology

I think psychology is the most interesting aspect of this sport so I want to write quite a lot about how I coped during the comp, I think it’s more interesting than technical details like what climb rate I was getting or what speed to fly I was doing.

Psychology is critical in any sport, but much more so in gliding where it’s really is all in your head and you are your own worse enemy. One of the problems you have as a competitor is that because there is no set start time (once the start gate is open you can start whenever you want, see Starts), you never really know how you are doing on the day, I mean you might feel you are having a great day only to land and find out that other people flew much faster and you’ve ended up 30th.

But normally it’s the reverse, you are having difficult time, you can’t get into the rhythm because the thermals are broken, you get low and you see gliders shooting past above you, and your think everyone else is having a blast, your morale evaporates, you are kicking yourself thinking your are the worse pilot in the world. But later you find out that actually, it WAS a difficult day and everyone had a bad day and you did ok.

What you need to do is to tell yourself, it is a hard day, the weather is bad and I am making the most of it, other people are also struggling. In the low points it’s crucical to stay calm and deal with the task in hand rather than thinking how other people are doing. But this is very very difficult to do, your brain is great at playing games with you.

Hot goulash

2nd official practice day. Hotter then yesterday - up to 37 degrees. We have a task, 173km but no one is in any mode to fly. We spend the morning trying to work out which bit of airspace we are allowed to fly through and marking them on our flight computer "SeeYou" which has a mind of its own. I am the geek (or "technical expert" as i prefer to call it..) in the team so keeping busy.

Lunch time we had improvised birthday party for Norman, one of the crew and we dunked him in our "pool".

By 2pm everyone has given up and we went to stick unionjacks on our trailer when i spotted a glider thermalling. Decided to take a launch, everyone thinks i'm mad, but hey, i am here to practice not to go swimming. It was actuallt quite good, 5 knot climb to 6000 feet but that was as good as it got then downhill from then. Had 2.5 hours around the control points and did a fast straight in final glide.

This evening went to town and had a goulash and very nice it was too.

Technical check

Passed technical check ok, despite my wings span being 0.001 cm over 15 meters...otherwise all ok, weight is not above the max so can afford big breakfast tomorrow.

In the technical checks the gliders get checked to ensure they comply with the rules for their class, in particular in terms of weight and wing span which are major factors in performance. Generally speaking if the conditions are good you want to be as heavy as possible, this is because heavy glider will fly faster for the same height loss compare to a light glider. Some competitors will go to great effort to add weight to their gliders. The gliders get weighed every day during the comp.

Pep talk from the coach

We spent the morning writing all the Hungarian turn points into our shiney new Hungarian airspace maps. Luckily all the turn points are numbered, just as well because there is no way we can pronounce them.

Starting

Starting in a gliding competition is a critical phase of the flight and can make or break your score. Once the task is set, you get some time to get ready, then all the competitors get to the grid into their gliders and get launched by tow planes usually up to 2000 feet.

Launching 50 or so gliders can take up to an hour so launched gliders hang around the start gate (an imaginary line of about 10km long) and wait. Once all gliders have launched the comp control announce the start gate open and then you can make a start. However, you dont have to make a start at that time, you can start any time you like after the gate is open.

What happens then depends on the conditions, if the day is good then it's worth waiting for others to start because 1) they will mark thermalls for you and 2) the conditions generally improve later on. However if you get it wrong you might get left behind too late in the day to get round the task so it's a dangerous game to play. If on the other hand you start too early then you would normally get overtaken by later starters.

In particular on a day with no cumulus clouds to mark thermals you must not leave too early because you will be marking climbs (thermals) for later starters, so on such "blue" day there is normally a cat and mouse game with people making dummy starts and then coming back to restart.

The team

The comp is individual as well as team event. In the Club class it’s Liz, Rose and myself, Standard class it’s Gill, Kay and Hannah. All seasoned Internationals pilots except Hannah and me, and Hannah is in a new glider so tall order.

What’s it all about? Cont..

What’s it all about? If you are an experience comp pilot look away now..

So how do gliding competition work, I mean, gliders are lovely, elegant, serene things that you see on hot sunny days float quietly and peacefully through the English countryside, what do they have to do with competition of any sort?

Well, I would say that this common perception of gliding couldn’t be further than the reality of competition flying. Competitive flight is intense, fast, furious, aggressive, stressful, dangerous, immensely satisfying and most of all – brilliant fun. I would liken it car racing without the noise and fumes.

For detailed description of how gliding competition works see here and even more details on the Lasham website.

But in short, you race around a pre-defined course and the fastest wins. Simple. Not quite though, so later on I’ll give more my own take on things like Tasks and Scoring and tactics.

A regional or national comp would normally last 9 days, this may seem like a long time but don’t forget, gliding is very much weather dependent so in a good comp you’d expect to fly on 6 out of 9 days. Some comps last year had only 2 days. International comps are 12-14 days.

Competitions are split into classes, the main classes are:

Club class: Handicapped comp for gliders with relatively low performance
Standard class: High end gliders with 15 meter wingspan and no flaps
15 Meter class: High performance gliders with 15 meters wingspan with flaps
18 Meter class: High performance gliders with 18 meters wingspan with flaps
Open class: Anything goes – no limit on wingspan or otherwise

36 degrees in the shade, no one is flying including us mad Brits. . In queue for technical check.

Turf war

Arrived late last night and found a nice patch in the shade to stake our British flag. Woke up this morning surrounded and had a territorial bust up with the Hungarian team..all sorted with a little help from the comp director.

Actually everyone is extremely nice and helpful including the Germans who let us borrow some milk for breakfast.

First practice flight, went east to where the weather suppose to be good and it was blue and horrible, went west and into mega 8 knots thermals up to 8000 feet. So when it's good it's very good when it's bad it's very bad..

Quick trip to Tesco..they don’t sell marmite..

Tomorrow first official practice day and scrutineering. My tail numbers are too small, hope noone care too much.

Vienna - 5 and a half countries down, one and a half to go..

What's it all about?

What are gliding competitions? I can hear you ask, how do you compete in gliders, i mean, gliders are about floating peacefully and calmly in the countryside...?