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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0633.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 May 1957 637 COMPETITION GLIDING Problems of Championship Task-setting By ANN WELCH ONCE upon a time gliding championships were, bydefinition, a marathon for the pilot. Catapulted into theair after breakfast, he would spend the days flying with the wind as far as he possibly could, and the nights in being drivenall the way back again. To see who could last longest at this sort of thing was clearly not the purpose of such competitions and itwas realized that some modification to the rules must be made to keep abreast of the rapid development in pilot technique. Com-pulsory tasks are now set for every flight, many of which follow a fixed course and include a return to base. As a result the pilot'sday now starts with a pleasant aero-tow to a couple of thousand feet, includes some hours of highly competitive soaring, andfinishes, more often than not, with the pilot sleeping in his own bed. The success or otherwise of such a championship is to a largeextent dependent on the ability of those who set the tasks. It is not only a matter of choosing a flight which is reasonably possibleon the forecast weather, but of obtaining desirable results from the contests; whereas in a world event the intention is obviously toextract the finest performances from the competitors, the aims in local championships may be to give training in speed or goal-flying, or just to provide as much general soaring as possible. The first requirement of the task-setter, or his committee, is theservices of a skilled meteorologist who has access to the latest met. reports. The relationship between the met. man and the task-setter must be good, and for the best results they should have some experience of working together well before any importantchampionship, so that the morale factor of the met. man is fully understood. This is not to criticise his ability, but only to say it isnecessary to know whether he tends to produce optimistic fore- casts or gloomy ones in the early morning when the task-settinghas to be done. An experienced met. man who understands gliding is extremely valuable, and if the championships are asuccess a great deal of the credit must go to him. The task-setter needs a good contour map of at least one-millionscale, preferably half-million, on which to visualize the scene. If this map can be fitted with a rule and protractor the task-setter'swork will be simplified. He will be able to set a large number of tasks in a few minutes, reading off the flight time under the fore-cast conditions, and thus he can quickly discard any impossible ones. WELL KNOWN in the British gliding movement, Mrs. Ann C.Welch, M.B.E., A.R.Ae.S., F.R.Met.S., has had extensive experience of the problems of championship soaring. She captained the Britishteams in the 1948, 19S0, 19S2 and 1956 world championships, and flew as co-pilot to her husband Lome Welch in those of 1954. Vice-chairmanof the British Gliding Association, Mrs. Welch is the author of a number: of books on gliding. In this article she discusses the various factorsinvolved in task-setting for championship meetings. . j i As soon as the task-setter knows what the weather for the day islikely to be he can begin to worry, for he must choose one of several tasks and decide in which directio . the flight is to be made,and how long it should take. This seemingly simple problem is bedevilled by all manner of conflicting considerations and interestsand a great deal of ingenuity may be needed to reach the best compromise. ; Championship Tasks. In modern championships the tasksare all variations on a theme of distance and speed. There are neither tasks nor marks for duration or altitude.(1) Free Distance. This task may seem a contradiction of all that has been said above, but free distance is a mandatory taskfor world championships, having to be set at least once. It is, as its name implies, a flight in which the pilot goes as far as possiblein the direction in which he thinks he will get farthest. Itis normally used in soaring conditions which provide opportunityfor record flights. The rules may forbid the overflying of frontiers, in which case, should any pilot inadvertently go toofar, only the distance to the frontier is counted for marks. (2) Races. There are several different speed tasks. Thoseusually set for world championships are (a) race to a fixed goal, (b) out-and-return race, and (c) race round a triangular course of100, 200 or 300 km. In national championships there is a greater variation in the choice of speed tasks. Such courses are shortout-and-returns and triangles (in which the competitors are required to complete more than one lap) or dog-leg races (whichhave one or more turning points but do not return to the point of departure); in fact, any suitable course may be set which fits inwith the limitations of the country and the needs of the com- petitors, provided that allowance is made for such flights in therules. As with most races, the winner is the person who achieves thegreatest speed; but, owing to the nature of gliding, considerable skill may be needed merely to arrive. The race to a fixed goal isa proposition quite different from races having courses in more than one direction. In fixed-goal races there need be no limit,other than safety, to the wind strength, but in multi-direction races the wind must not be so strong that into-wind progress isimpossible. (3) Distance Along a Line Set by the Organizers is a usefultask, as it can be used to control the direction of flight. This may be desirable owing to the existence of dangerous landing-country,control zones, or firing ranges. Further, by setting the line with a greater or lesser degree of into-wind component, flights of severalhours' duration will be obtained over a limited ground-distance. The marking system usually penalizes, with increasing severity,divergence from the set line. When the forecast is in doubt this task has an advantage overa fixed-goal race, as the line in theory is endless; if the weather is worse than forecast there is still a chance of the task being satis-factory, whereas if the weather is better than forecast the oppor- tunity exists for a longer flight. [Continued overleaf "An experienced met. man who understands gliding is extremely valuable . . ." One such valuable man is C. E. Wellington, adviser to the British team at the 7956 world championships.
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