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Mt. Magazine Air Race
Task Basics
If you have never flown these sorts of tasks before, I can tell you right now, proper navigation is MORE important than completing the task. IF you miss making a turnpoint, everything you do after that does not matter when it comes to scoring the flight. You can make the flight in record time but if you miss a turn point, you won't get the credit for it. What route you fly to get to the Turnpoints is up to you but getting to ALL the turnpoints IN the proper order is critical. It's not that hard to do but there are several ways to screw up and blow the flight when scored.
There are 3 Tasks at Mt Magazine. You are encouraged to make several attempts at each Task to try to get faster times.
All Tasks have a Start Cylinder. The Start Cylinder size varies from Task to Task.
All Turnpoints will have a 400 meter radius Cylinder centered on the Turnpoint Waypoint. That is 0.25 miles.
Most of the Goals have a 400 meter radius Goal Cylinder centered on the Goal Waypoint. Again, 0.25 miles.
The basic on Cylinders.
Each Cylinder is centered on a Waypoint and the Cylinder goes from the ground to infinity. We are using meters for the Cylinders because that is what the scoring software requires. You should not have to change the settings in your GPS or Vario to metric to fly the tasks. If you have a comp vario, you should use the metric numbers when setting up the task but you can still fly using statute miles and feet.
Start Cylinders - Start Cylinders will either be centered on the launch Waypoint or another Waypoint some distance from launch. If centered on launch, the Cylinder radius can be several miles from the launch. This gives the pilots room to fly and time to get high before starting the clock. This is known as an Exit Cylinder. When you exit the cylinder, your time for the task starts. Ideally, your altitude will be topped out and you will be just inside the Cylinder before exiting and starting the clock and the task. If you happen to drift out of the Cylinder and started the clock before you wanted to, just fly back into the Cylinder to reset the clock. Your time will start the last time you exit the Cylinder.
There are Entry Cylinders too but right now we are not using them. They are usually centered on a Waypoint some distance from launch and the radius can be several miles from that Waypoint. You fly from launch to the Entry Cylinder and when you Enter the Cylinder, your time starts.
Turnpoint Cylinders - You do NOT have to fly to the Waypoint to get scored for making that Turnpoint. You just have to fly into the Cylinder far enough to leave a track point inside the Cylinder or showing your track breaking the Cylinder. This is where pilots can blow a flight. Getting close but not inside the Cylinder and not getting scored for making that Turnpoint. You should have your GPS setup with Dist to Next in your data field and be watching the distance count down to 400 m / 0.24 miles or less before you GOTO the next Turnpoint. That will assure you leave a track point in the Cylinder and are scored for a valid Turnpoint.
Goal Cylinders - This one is easy. Just fly into the Cylinder to stop the clock and get scored for completing the task if all the other Turnpoints are valid. You do not have to land! If you can get up, you can continue to fly and it won't effect your time as long as you leave a track point inside the Goal Cylinder. How ever, since these are races - with the winner being the pilot with the shortest over all time for each task - IF you are racing hard to minimize your time, you will get to Goal LOW and may not be able to go on. That is the idea BUT you should only do this if you KNOW there is a landable field at goal. For some tasks that will be the case, for others, it is not! On your last climb, climb only high enough to make Goal. You climb higher, you can fly faster on the final glide. Ideally, you fly as fast as you can and still make Goal. Climbing higher than needed or flying slower to conserve altitude to continue your flight will hurt your time.
Triangle Tasks - All the Turnpoints use 400 meters radius Cylinders but one turnpoint is the Start Cylinder and the Goal Cylinder. The Start Cylinder Turnpoint is an Exit Cylinder, so fly from launch and fly inside the Start Cylinder, then when you Exit the Start Cylinder for the last time, your time starts. Since it's a small Cylinder, you can spend some time going in and out of it while thermaling, but the last time you leave it, that is the time the scoring software will use to start your time for the Task. You will have to fly to the next two Turnpoints, in the proper sequence and return to the same Turnpoint that was your Start Cylinder, which is now your Goal Cylinder. Enter the Goal Cylinder and the clock stops. Now since there may or may not be a landing field at that location, flying fast to the ground might not be smart. Leave yourself altitude to make a safe landing field.
All of the above is why it would be a steep learning curve for pilots with little XC experience. There is a lot going on besides just blowing down wind. Navigating with a GPS is something a lot of experienced pilots don't know how to do. This will train them how to do it properly.
That's the basic. Now on to the details of the Tasks.
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