Well said Simon,
It is certainly true that we have no information as to how much
assistance has been given to any other pilot who holds an exiting
record, at any level.
One of the problems with records is that if you change the rules under
which they are flown you effectively invalidate all existing records in
that category because they were not flown under the same conditions.
The rules for records are set down in the FAI Sporting Code, and can
only be changed at international level. It's not a decision we can take
in Australia.
Banning external help and information is a pretty futile exercise these
days. Radios, phones, tablets, flarms, GPS, transponders, etc etc. You
don't need to be wingtip to wingtip, or even in visual range, to assist
another glider. If we don't know everything there is to be known, it is
only the depth of our wallets and the capacity of batteries that
prevents it.
Gliding is no longer a sport conducted individually in private, and
never will be again.
Congrats to Matt and Allan. And I look forward to Simon's imminent
return to our sport :)
Cheers
/Tim Shirley/
/tra dire é fare c' é mezzo il mare/
On 15/02/2014 08:28, Simon Hackett wrote:
Just to provide a contrasting point of view - perhaps we don't need to
'fix' this until we're really in a position to decide that it is
broken (and I don't think, right now, that we are).
We could start by considering what these records exist for, and hence
what they are presumably there to inspire (i.e. to inspire others to
do more of the same, surely).
... else why bother recording them at all?
If this sort of practice is consistent with the current rules, and
opens up the potential to push the sport into a new frontier in
record-breaking speeds/distances/times, well, I personally reckon
'good on them, and go for it'. Its not as if any of them are doing it
for the money.
Congratulations to the two pilots concerned for trying (and
succeeding) with something new.
It certainly reminds me that my own cross country achievements fall
very far behind theirs (having allowed other forms of aviation to gain
my attention in preference to soaring for the last few years). Hence
their efforts tickle at the notion, for me, that maybe I should go out
there and try a bit harder myself. Isn't that sort of inspiration
going to be a win (for the sport)?
To be clear - I do appreciate, and agree, that pair-flying is likely
to generate higher performance results than doing it alone. Some other
sports consider this a normal part of the process (e.g. team-based
competitive cycling).
If anything, perhaps this practice may be a rationale for us to keep a
'leader board' of the top 'x' flights in a given record category
rather than merely having a single current 'best' on our (electronic)
books - precisely because in a pairs-flying exercise, normally the
efforts of the '#2" pilot are probably not recorded at all at this
point - and its not as if that '#2' pilot didn't (also) 'do the work'
to get all the way around the intended flight path.
Last thought - with the exception of this remarkable effort in
generating the exact same time by both pilots, who is to say how many
other existing records were actually based on team-flying practices,
but simply not recorded as such (due to a lack of mechanism with which
to record it)?
If we don't have a way to record that practice, how do we know that
this actually *is* the first time this has been done as a part of a
record flight claim?
That really brings me back to where I began with this set of thoughts
- if its not broken, perhaps it isn't actually something we need to
fix. More flying better, right?
Regards,
Simon
On 14 Feb 2014, at 12:40 pm, Peter (PCS3) <p...@internode.on.net
<mailto:p...@internode.on.net>> wrote:
As an non-involved-with-records glider pilot, I would have thought
that team flying should have its own set of records. As flying as a
team, especially in the blue would give them an unfair advantage over
a solo pilot .
PeterS
On 12/02/2014 9:47 AM, Pam wrote:
GFA has received the following record claims for the Australian
National Standard Class 750km triangle speed record:
>>
Category: General
Class:Standard
Type of record:750km triangle speed
Location:West Wyalong
Performance:134.01 kph
Pilot:Matt gage
Glider:LS8/15m
Date:8/2/2014
>>
Category: General
Sub-classStandard
Type of record : Speed over a 750km triangle
Course/location : West Wyalong Aerodrome, NSW ( Australia ) - TP1`-
Conargo and return
Performance :134.01km/hr
Pilot : Allan Barnes
Glider : LS8/15mRegistration:VH-NSZ
Date : 08 Feb 2014
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