Monthly Archives: April 2018

A MAT task is a Modified Assigned Task, used at US contests. There are a lot of details and complexities that require reading the rules. However, the basic idea is you get to choose the points that you can use, giving the pilot flexibility to avoid storms, bad areas, stay in the strong weather, etc.

Some contest sites have listed landable areas as points on the map. Others might only be a start

No matter how many times we talk about this, it happens. Some of you might be following the FCC contest in Slovakia that finishes today. A club class pilot did it again. Won a day, then well, then he didn't win the next day, actually, he didn't make it home the next day.

Many of us are not mentally prepared to win yet. We are still working on our Mental preparation.

"If you are not

Based on the ancient Roman game plumbata, lawn darts were banned in 1988 in the US. Whoops, wrong Wikipedia page... What I actually want to discuss is a term we use in racing, lawn darting.

You start and go straight into a field. Maybe you found a thermal. Maybe you didn't. We will not get picky about the duration of your short flight before lawn darting.

What caused it? It's doubtful

How many different ways can we make this mistake?

At the 15 m Nationals in Tonopah NV, I was in one start group for multiple days. The organizers warned us that they would be changing groups daily, however, when my group changed, I didn't notice. I quickly entered the task and started in the wrong group.

When I finished the task, the SN 10 said I was over 100 mph. Congregating outside