Missing a Turnpoint
In my first contest, the scorer didn't want to deal with developing film, so he loaned me a Garmin GPS to record my flight. I safely stored it and flew the contest turnpoints as if I were taking pictures of each one. This resulted in missing each turnpoint and accumulating enough turnpoint penalties to get a negative score for the day.
Most of the missed turnpoints today are from pilots being a little too aggressive and trying to make the turn at 0.49km on 0.5km circles.
At the Grand Prix, I watched HA make his turn at the center of the turnpoint. I thought he was making a tactical turn by letting the mass of the gliders get a little ahead of him because the next time I saw him it was the belly of his glider. It turned out the flight computer he was using was very slow on counting distance and he had just been waiting to get into the turn.
Too many people try and cut it too close for no real advantage. The penalty outweighs any gain. I am not saying I want to go to the center of the turn but being at 0.3 or 0.4 on a 0.5km circle is good. I missed my 1000km flight by 270m...Sometimes a few extra seconds would be nice.
The Cambridge 302's have an event button. So as you got close you could push that and it would change the logger rate to 1 second for 15 seconds. Many of the loggers now have more memory than the old Volksloggers and 302's, so having a 1 second all the time is not really an issue, it just results in larger file sizes. A slower logger rate could be more beneficial on a potential airspace violation though.
If I am turning using a 500m turnpoint, I don't start my sharp turn until I have .5km. You could start pulling up and roll at 0.7km, 0.6km start pulling, hope it beeps and turns at 0.49km (and get 1 fix inside the area). But if you turn at 0.51km you are going to either go back or take the penalty.
US Rules: penalty =25 + 100 x (missed distance). That should be some pretty good incentive to not miss it. It is also a 1mile radius and you get scored from where you turn, reducing all incentive to cut it so close.
Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.
- Emergency Equipment (3)
- Checklists (12)
- Instruments (24)
- Aerotow (8)
- Cross Country (156)
- Traffic Pattern (3)
- Stalls (1)
- Landing (6)
- Control Transfer (2)
- Target Fixation (1)
- Contests (73)
- Wind (2)
- Flight Instruction (12)
- Spins (1)
- Flarm (2)
- Collision Avoidance (2)
- Preparation (18)
- Human Factors (45)
- Flight Review (3)
- FAR (5)
- Ground Handling (6)
- Wave (4)
- OLC (2)
- Maintenance (28)
- Rope Break (4)
- Weak Link (1)
- Batteries (2)
- Sailplane Trailer (3)
- Oxygen (3)
- Hypoxia (3)
- icom (1)
- transceiver (1)
- Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) (1)
- SeeYou (3)
- Controlled Flight Into Terrain (1)
- Motor Glider (4)
- Performance Enhancements (2)
- Cruising (2)
- Pilot Relief (4)
- Communication (4)
- Buy a Sailplane (7)
- Books (3)
- Weather (6)
- Recruiting to Soaring (2)
- Center of Gravity (1)
- Ground Crew (1)
- Ground Launch (1)
- Parachute (1)
- Weather (1)
- Motorglider (3)
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015