DLG & TD Competition Rules

[cgroves]

I am interested in doing some competitions next year. I can't seem to find any competition rules for the local clubs.
How are most of the competitions at ORCC & MATS for DLG and TD usually structured? What sort of tasks should I be practicing? What types of landings?
Thanks,
cgroves

[Jinker]

I am interested in doing some competitions next year. I can't seem to find any competition rules for the local clubs.
How are most of the competitions at ORCC & MATS for DLG and TD usually structured? What sort of tasks should I be practicing? What types of landings?
Thanks,
cgroves

I'm sure Louis will provide a link to the answers you want, but here's the basics.

Contests are multiple rounds with different tasks in each.

There's basically two different types of flights involved in these tasks, flights where you're trying to max out how long you're in the air, and flights where you're confident you can make the window, and want to hit a specific time.

Examples of tasks:

All up, last down, points awarded in landing order.

Ladder tasks, as many flights in a defined window as possible. To count the first flight must be >30s, the next flight 45s, 60s, 90s, 120s.

Maximum time within the task window, such as 5 flights within 10 minutes, with a 2 minute maximum counting per flight. (turnaround time between flights is important)

Sometimes there's a 10 second bonus for hand catching, depending on the task.

The exact tasks vary with each contest to keep things interesting. Examples of tasks:

http://olgol.com/contest/tasks.html

The basic skills in what I feel are decending order of importance:

1) Smooth flying losing a minimum of altitude (good turns, no stalling etc.)
2) Good consistent launch height
3) Thermalling technique
4) Reading the air before you throw (watching other planes/guessing good air is)
5) Catching with confidence
6) Wingtip catching for quick turnaround

That's at least the order I'd practice things in.

Without flying the plane well, you can't do the rest.

Without any launch height, you don't have time to hunt thermals.

Once you're in the air, coring thermals makes the difference.

Knowing when/where to throw maximizes your chances of finding the good air. (Some events have you sitting on the ground for a few minutes waiting for the perfect time to launch, these are probably the most strategic ones)

Hand catching and wingtip catching (haven't mastered wingtip catches yet) is icing, but can make a pretty decent addition to your scores.

-Greg

[Ol' Ken]

Here is the link to the series webpage-the rules are there as well as some other stuff.

http://www3.sympatico.ca/mark.gervais/hlg.htm

[cgroves]

Cool, that was exactly what I has looking for. Is there a similair page to the normal TD competitions (ie not DLG)?
Thanks,
Corey

[Ol' Ken]

Cool, that was exactly what I has looking for. Is there a similair page to the normal TD competitions (ie not DLG)?
Thanks,
Corey

We fly variations of the the events in the link below, but a CD can "invent" his own contest.
There are also the F3J rules. MAAC used to have Sailplane rulebook but I have not seen it avaiable for a while.
The MATS homepage also used to have some event rules listed.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/comp/0506Rulebook/RCsoaring.pdf