Sunday, June 21, 2009
The standard tasks
We've been talking a lot recently about the routes we fly out of Post Mills, but not everyone knows what we're talking about. Recently, Sonny reminded me of this, so here are the standard 100, 200, and 300 kilometer tasks that Kevin devised several years ago. They are all FAI Triangles, which means that the shortest leg is at least 28% of the total distance. You don't have to fly an FAI Triangle to get an FAI badge, but if you do, you may also qualify for a state record.
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The tasks are located in a white binder. I think the scribble on the spine says "Task Book". There is also a bunch of info on flying cross country and a section of the sporting code for those so interested.
Are there corresponing maps that show landable fields along these routes?
The known landing places are in the database. You can see them on the task images. If you stare at if for a little while, you can figure out which symbols signify airports, landing places, and turnpoints.
We really should improve the database. There are some places we know about that are probably good landing places, but haven't been confirmed as such.
What I think would be invaluable is to be able to view a map in the comfort of your home and see where the safe landing spots are, this way you know ahead of time and would make one more comfortable before leaving Post Mills.
Can you export these waypoints to view in Google Earth.
Lets get the new ones verified and entered too, let me know the points and I'll go check em out.
I don't recall specific landing points but the tasks were chosen due to the landability along the way. The idea for these tasks is records where the pilot might stretch the glide a bit to avoid stopping too often. This strategy is good for going fast but runs the risk of premature termination of the flight. They are meant to fly clockwise as records but can be done counter.
The 100k task has good to fantastic landing options from PM until 5 miles from Harvey lake where it becomes thin. Up to this point the river valley is loaded with landable fields. From Harvey to Brushwood road, Dean is there and from Dean to PM is the valley again.
The 200 is the same with essentially an airport hop from halfway down leg 2 to PM.
The 300 does have some grim landing options along the way. Most of these are at the beginning of the first leg. The hop from Montpelier to the Morrisville area is pretty good and the second leg to home is very good with a few airports thrown in for good measure.
The 100 is a two thermal task on a decent day and meant to teach the pilot to go and not stop. The first thermal is usually taken between home and Corinth. The next is somewhere along the second leg. I thought of it as the pilot's equivalent of interval training.
All of this is explained in the x/c book I put together a few years ago.
Btw... what happened to all of the VT state records. They seem to have evaporated from SSA site. Anyone got a link to the current list of VT speed records?
State Records... it's kind of a long story. There was a good website that had them all, but then SSA took over and asked the webmaster to close his site. Then SSA asked the State Record Keepers to retype every single record into the SSA site, using an amazingly klunky web form interface. I haven't quite gotten around to it.
It is on my list to improve the landing places database, and that would include kml placemarks. However, Kevin is right that the river valley serves as one giant safety field for most of the standard tasks, and you don't really need to identify any particular field in the valley.
Anybody with a handheld GPS is welcome to contribute candidate fields.
Tony has the Task Book. He promises to bring it back to Post Mills one of these days.
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