While I guess it's possible that guys might try to purposely break a line, it seems a stretch to me (pun intended), moreover, if the line is good, it's hard or maybe not possible to break.
When we stagger launches in seeded MOM, the high score is always launching first, the last guy always has a slight advantage, even then, lift is not often apparent right off launch.
I suggest a time limit from first guy to last guy, maybe 2 minutes, but launch master uses his head
If it's longer, you get bumped to the next round where it's tougher. If it's the last flight group, move fast. More than one break, everybody comes down. Seems like this is pretty much what we've been doing to date.
It really sucks to be penalized for a line break, particularly when nearly every time, it's a weak line that causes the break. If someone has travelled a great distance to be essentially tossed out for a line break, it ain't so fun anymore.
There's enough dumb things I can do to blow a contest, purposeful line breaks aren't in my bag of tricks to find the air. I don't believe that most pilots play that way; bad booga booga, not likely to really work, and might have the result Gordy got, and richly deserved, if he was really playing that way.
We've done ok to date, seems to me. I agree that we don't want to regulate the fun out of contests, but if I break a line, I expect a way to get in the air to fly, that flight group or the next.
Hey, the stakes are really high!!
My .02
Barry
On May 16, 2005, at 5:47 PM, pfsiegel wrote:
I would like to throw this topic out to the soaring exchange to see if there is any consensus of opinion on policy concerning winch line breaks during launch, particularly during man on man competition. What would be a good standard policy for line breaks that could be universally adopted for a contest series like the OVSS?
Let's assume that there is an extra winch that is available for relaunch if a line break occurs. If during launch there is a line break during a mass launch or even during a slightly staggered launch, then an unfair advantage can be gained by the pilot who experienced the line break. Before any subsequent relaunch from the extra winch during the same round, the delay in that relaunch could allow the pilot to observe the scatter of sailplanes already launched for any obvious areas of lift.
The obvious solution is to NOT allow any relaunch after a line break. This solution certainly discourages intentional line breakage by a pilot who is not happy with his launch or who just wants to be the last pilot to launch.
However, there is very real possibility that the line may have been weakened by a previous line cross during launch phase or even when the timer was "tapping down" the chute after a previous launch. In this instance, the pilot who suffered the line break would be unfairly penalized for a problem that he was not responsible for. This hardly seems fair, particularly for an unfortunate pilot who may have traveled a fair distance to compete over a full weekend of flying.
For better or worse, this no relaunch rule also discriminates against larger, heavier sailplanes.
One possible solution might be to automatically bump the pilot to the next flight group. But what if this happens in the last flight group for the round? Or, what if more than one line break happens in the same flight group and there is only one extra winch? Maybe a quick retrieve of an already been launched winch for the relaunch?
Should there be a time limit for when the relaunch must happen? What would that time be? Or should this be at the discretion of the launch master?
It sure slows down a contest to have everyone land for a mass relaunch which makes that an unpopular solution.
What about a compromise to allow one line break per day, with the provision that in the opinion of the launch master that there has not been an intentional attempt to break the line?
Or???
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