[RCSE] Actual New Ideas for HLG competition, anyone?

[Scobie Puchtler or Sarah Felstiner]

Paul Naton made some great points in his recent and provocative HLG post
that deserve a resultant thread that doesn't deteriorate into an
us-vs.-them-its-all-about-danger-liability-and-other-bad-things mentality:

Anyone up for serious consideration of completely NEW modes of hlg
competition format? We've got these incredible gliders that just keep
getting better and better. There's no reason to only keep doing the same
things with them. Why not design contests that help to avoid safety concerns
AND do an even better job of testing a really wide range of soaring skills
and mental strategies?

 What about a sort of micro cross-country paradigm in which the overall site
conditions must be artfully used to  get one's glider to show up at a series
of checkpoints?

 Some of those checkpoints might be near lift in a given round at a given
moment, others of course wouldn't be. Ability to read lift, work lift, avoid
sink or penetrate it efficiently, range upwind, range downwind AND our old
pal launch height would ALL still be emphasized, but real and elaborate
strategy might increase significantly, without the frantic launch and
relaunch (and accompanying stopwatch timing) being quite as emphasized. In
some situations, though, it would still be incredibly important to be able
to relaunch quickly to try again. I see a scenario like this as being
potentially more true to the idea of testing a full range of soaring skills,
rather than adapting skills to a contest format.

Imagine a ten or twenty minute round in which you can launch any time you
want. If you think you can complete the task in the last two minutes because
your theory is that the lift will be perfect for it at that moment, no
problem, that's when you launch. If you have to launch three times during
the round trying for the task, points could take care of taking your score
down a bit compared to the guy who aced the task in his (or HER!) very first
launch. If you can complete the task more than once in the round, obviously,
big points go to you. At the end of the round, your glider has to be in your
hand. If you caught it from the air rather than picked it up, bonus points
for you. Just a few thoughts.

If you see problems in managing a contest that's set up in this way, that's
great! Think of it as an opportunity to think up some brilliant, innovative,
creative and helpful solutions before you post back!

For what it's worth,

Lift,
Scobie in Seattle

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