First Annual In-person Condor Regional Soaring Contest

The first annual in-person Condor Regional Soaring Contest was held January 13-15 in Ann Arbor Michigan in the Solo Aviation FBO classroom.  1o pilots from two different states and Canada vied for the regional title, including Derek Mackie (TT), current member of the Canadian National Soaring Team.  When the dust settled after four ‘days’ (two on Saturday, two on Sunday) of flying, Sean Fidler (F2) of the Ionia Michigan non-club took away the gold, followed by Luke Szczepaniak (2W) of Canada and Frank Paynter (TA) of the Caesar Creek Soaring Club in Ohio.

I have wanted to do an in-person Condor regional for some time now, as I thought that the only thing missing from the Condor experience (other than the hassles of rigging, de-rigging, ballast, and retrieves) was the personal interaction and camaraderie typical of a ‘real life’ soaring contest.  I believed that a 4-day regional could be conducted over a weekend by doing two races per day, with a break in between for lunch, and by any measure this regional contest was a success.

Some thoughts and conclusions garnered from this experience:

 

  • First and foremost – ANYONE can organize an in-person contest, as there is no requirement for an airport, or tow planes, or even gliders – only the pilot and his/her Condor setup is necessary.
  • A four ‘day’ regional style contest can easily fit into a weekend, although a holiday like MLK day makes everything a bit easier. We wound up having a practice ‘day’ on Friday, followed by four contest ‘days’ on Saturday and Sunday, and I was still on my way back home by 7pm Sunday night and home before 11pm. Based on my experience, a Condor regional could expect to draw in pilots within a 4-hour driving radius.
  • You still need to make arrangements for accommodations, as pilots still have to sleep somewhere, and ‘camping on the field’ isn’t an option when (a) there is no field, and (b) it is 20F and snowing outside!
  • Soaring weather is and isn’t an issue. You can dial in any weather you want, but if it is too good, then tasks become unrealistically easy, and if it is too poor, tasks become a real grind, and pilot enjoyment goes into the crapper. For instance, I screwed up the weather on Day 3 by specifying an ‘open’ class race with narrow thermals. This was fine for me and the other experienced pilots, but not so much for the beginners.
  • Soaring sites and glider classes are variable rather than fixed, and this can become an issue. While it is enjoyable to fly a multi-day contest in different areas with different glider classes, pilot familiarity (or lack thereof) can be a problem in more technical sites like the European Alps. We flew four ‘days’ in four different locations Appalachia (southern Virginia/Tennessee/North Carolina), Rio Grande (southern Texas and northern Mexico), New Zealand, and Central Florida, but there were some gripes that we should have either kept to one site, or advertised the sceneries to be used so contestants could familiarize themselves with the soaring areas ahead of time.
  • A practice day is still a must (ours was Friday afternoon Jan 13) – but for an in-person Condor contest this entails getting the room set up with power strips, a projector and screen for spectators, and for setting up and validating the scoring software. We actually did fly a short task, but as often happens there were only a few scores turned in. For this contest we used ShowCondorIGC (SCI) for scoring, along with a program called CompMan for displaying daily and overall scores on the contest website.
  • Just like in a ‘real life’ contest, less experienced pilots need to be helped and mentored. In an in-person Condor contest, this takes the form of help getting sceneries installed on the practice ‘day’ and help with basic task planning for area tasks, etc.
  • You still need a CD to adjudicate issues and rule on protests (and there were some). I acted as CD for this contest, and employed a time-tested procedure for protests – I denied them all, including my own! ;-).

 

Based on the success of this contest, we will undoubtedly do it again next year, and I would be amazed if it isn’t at least twice as big. I also hope that others will see what we are doing and organize their own contests, and I would be glad to help anyone get theirs going.  Ultimately I would love to see several regional contests in December and January, culminating in a SSA-sponsored ‘Nationals’ held in conjunction with the SSA convention (or ‘gathering of the clan’ in off years).  I can’t think of a better way for the SSA to promote the sport and gain publicity than by hosting such an event.  Talk about spectator-friendly – not only could spectators see results in real time, but they could also watch a particular competitor over a period of time and gain insight into race tactics and strategy.  If you have ever wanted to be a fly on the canopy of an expert’s glider, this would be the way to do it ;-).

The updated contest website, including scores and photos from the contest, can be viewed at https://sites.google.com/site/region6condorcontest/

Frank Paynter (TA)

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