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The local procedures for 2012 Overseas Championships.

The competition director will be Brian Spreckley

The co-director will be Dick Bradley

In addition to the usual team of happy competent organisers with Boris fiddling the scoring system and Shaun Lapworth who will provide IT support, we welcome Mayte Sirene and Pedro Berlinches to the team. Mayte and Pedro will take care of all the arrangements locally and on the airfield.

The competition will be run in accordance with the BGA Handbook which is also available on the BGA web site except for the following local procedures.

The competition will use use a Handicap system under review by the BGA Comps Committee, you can find a full explanation at the bottom of the local rules.

Local rules

a. All Competitors must bring a serviceable aerotow rope with them, clearly marked with their glider number.

b. Only gliders on the grid at the time of the start of the launch shall affect the opening of the start. Gliders that are absent from the grid will be deemed to have been offered an official competition launch . Each glider is permitted a maximum of three competition launches per day. However, if a pilot postpones his first launch on his own initiative, or he is not ready when his turn comes up, he shall be deemed to have been offered a competition launch and shall be moved to the back of the grid for his class.

c. FRs shall be turned on 2 minutes before takeoff to establish an altitude baseline.

d. Start open time. The start will open not less than 10 minutes, after the last competitor in that task group has had the option to launch..

e. The finish line will be a radius based on the airfield center, the radius will be announced at briefing but will usually be 3kms. The finish time is taken as the first GPS fix after crossing the finish radius. Finish procedure details will be issued at the pilots briefing.

There will be a minimum height for the finish specified at briefing but usually this will be 50 meters.

After the finish, pilots should not make any hazardous manoeuvre and are required to either plan a circuit to runway 29/11 or plan a straight in approach to grass runway 35. In each case, the final approach should follow a descending profile at normal approach speeds. Failure to comply and hence unnecessary flight below 30' outside the airfield will result in the standard penalties for dangerous/hazardous flying being applied.

f. Cloud flying is prohibited all gyro instruments must be disabled before the first competition launch.

g. Units of measurement are:- Altitude in feet, distance in kilometers bearings are true.

Handicapping

Updated 24.04.2012

A new handicap system will be used at this event, being a trial set up by the BGA Competition committee to correct the BGA handicaps to suit the conditions at Ocana rather than standard UK conditions for which the handicaps were intended.
In these strong conditions, gliders with high aspect ratio and spans exceeding 15m tend to perform less well compared to the reference 100 handicap standard class glider. This is because of their high aspect ratio and in many cases by restricted wing loading potential, this biases their optimum performance for weak climbs and slow inter-thermal speeds.

The new system adjusts the glider handicaps to suit the conditions on a daily basis, it uses the average handicapped speed (Sih) of the fastest 1/3 of finishers, this is subject to a minimum of 5 finishers providing there are more than 5 finishers.
The trial list of glider handicaps remain unchanged except that they now have in addition a range reduction figure. This figure represents the reduction that may be applied in the case when the Sih is 125kph. The % of this reduction figure tends to zero linearly as the Sih drops to 85kph. For speeds below 85kph , the figure goes negative by twice the rate that it decreases between 125kph and 85 kph

Local rules required to run BGA Weathercapping trial in 2012

Speed Index 'H'
A competitor's performance is adjusted during the scoring process by the gliders speed index. This takes the form of a base speed index 'Z' plus a range reduction figure 'Q' denoting the maximum reduction that can possibly be given, with the actual figure used dependant on the Average Handicapped Day Speed(Sih).

Most gliders are included in the list Appendix A.

If the glider has been modified by, for example, extra span, wing root fairings, wing turbulator trip tape or winglets unless marked with a (w) on the list, the owner should apply to the Competitions Committee for a speed Index range reduction figure prior to the competition.

In order to deduce Sih, the task is initially scored using speed indices Z - (Q/2) and with a day wind of ZERO

The average handicapped speed of the fastest third of finishers rounded down but no less than five unless there are actually less than five finishers is calculated to deduce Sih.
The actual speed index used for final scoring 'H' is deduced from the following formulas where there are task finishers.

Where Sih is greater than 85km/h but less than 125km/h H=Z-((Sih-85)/40xQ)
Where Sih is less than 85km/h H=Z-((Sih-85)/40x2xQ)
Where Sih is greater than or equal to 125km/h H=Z-Q

If there are no finishers then H=Z

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36.4.3 Leg Handicap Increment 'Hi' BGA handbook 2012 replaced with :-

Leg Handicap Increment 'Hi'. Calculated as follows:-
Hi=100x(Ö(1-(W/56.8)2sin2q) - (1+(W/56.8)cosq)) where 'q' is the non-reflex relative angle between the track and the direction of the wind.

Appendix A Handicap in form Z(Q)

118(9) Nimbus4T Nimbus4M - 850kg
118(11) Nimbus4T - 800kg ASW22BLE
118(12) ASW22b Nimbus4 - 750kg
117(11) ASW22b

116(7) ASH31
116(9) Nimbus4DT
116(11) Nimbus3(25.5m) Nimbus4D
116(11) Ash25(27m)
115(9) Nimbus3DT (25.5m)
115(10) Nimbus3(24.5) ASW22(24m) Nimbus3D(25.5m) ASH25(25.6m)
114(9) Ash25 Nimbus3D

111(4) Ventus2cxa(18m) ASG29(18m) Antares (18m)  JS1(18m)
110(4) Ventus2cx(18m) DG808(18m) -600kg.
110(5) Ash26 DG800(18m) Ventus 2c(18m) DG808(18m)-525kg. Lak17(18m)

107(1) Arcus
107(4) Ls6c(18m) DG600(18m)
106(3) Ls6c(17.5m) VentusC(17.5)
106(5) Ls8-18
106(4) ASW28(18m) Lak19(18m) Ls8s(18m) Discus2c(18m)
105(3) DG600(17m)
104(0) ASW27a,b Ventus2a,b Lak17a(15-w) ASG29 (15m)
104(3) Ventus a,b(16.6m)
103(0) SZD56 Ventus2C(15) DG800(15m-w) Lak17a(15m)
103(3) ASW20 bl,cl
102(0) LS6(15-w)
102(1) Duo Discus X DG1000(20m)
102(3) LS3(17m)
101(1) Duo Discus
101(0) LS6(15m) Ventus a,b,c(15m)
101(3) ASW20L ASW20FL DG400(17m) DG202(17m)
101(3) Vega L(17m)
100(0) LS8(15m) Lak19(15m) Lak19(15m-w) ASW28 Discus2 Discus2(w) ASW20b,c DG600(15m-w)

Gliders of BGA handicap below 100 have range adjustment of 0 and have 'Z' base handicap in accordance with BGA Handbook 2012 Appendix 1