2021 VSA Cross Country Series!!!

[Ben Mayes]

Hello VSA Members!

I hope all of you have enjoyed the Webinars so far. During my Webinar I announced the new plan for the 2021 Cross Country Series. Below I will list the parameters we are looking for in our tasks and the first two tasks I think will be good for the beginner level. I would like to get everyone's input on the series in building the tasks. I feel it is important for everyone who thinks they may participate in the 2021 series to give their input!

The 2021 Cross Country Series will be composed of 12 tasks designed to be fun and have something for everybody. The task list will be announced mid March and the series will run April 1st to Oktoberfest. It will be an open format and can be flown and submitted on any day. This Cross County Series is designed to be a fun challenge and be used as a training tool to promote knowledge sharing and potentially; fun team flying.

It would be great to have input from everyone! The parameters that I want to strive for are 3 tasks that fall under each of the following categories.

• Beginner ≈ 100 Kilometers
• Intermediate ≈ 300 Kilometers
• Advanced ≈ 500 Kilometers

The VSA series will be composed of 5 Valley tasks and 8 Mountain tasks:

• Valley tasks should include:
  
  • 2 Beginner
  • 2 Intermediate
  • 1 Advanced
  
  
• Mountain tasks Should include:
  
  • 3 Beginner
  • 3 Intermediate
  • 2 Advanced

• A few general task guidelines we have come up with:
  
  • All Starts will begin at Williams, 3 Sisters or Tree Farm. With 5 Mile start cylinders.
  • All tasks should have at 3-5 turn points.
  • All VSA tasks should have 1 Mile turn points to challenge everyone (However to make the advanced tasks reachable for the intermediate pilots larger turn areas may be assigned)
  • All finishes will be the same as the chosen start cylinder at 2 Miles and minimum 1500 ft AGL
  • All turn points must come from the current WSC turn point database (https://soaringweb.org/TP/Williams)

I have 2 examples of beginner tasks I have came up with 1 valley and 1 mountain

West Side Valley Tour (Basic)

• Start Williams 5 Mile
• MaxMoller 1Mile
• 3sisters 1Mile
• Arbuckle 1Mile
• Finish Williams 2 Miles 1500 FT
  

Mendos 101 YOYO (Basic)

• Start Tree Farm 5 Miles
• Sheet Iron 1 Mile
• Snow Mountain 1 Mile
• St John 1 Mile
• Finish Tree Farm 2 Miles 1500 FT

I am super excited to see what you guys come up with this year! I am hoping this series will help us all grow as pilots and have a lot of fun.

Thank you guys as always and please contact me directly Ben@williamssoaring.com if you have questions. Otherwise please post your tasks on this thread!

Ben Mayes,
VSA President

[Peter Kelly]

Ben,

Here's a task you might consider for the following reasons. It is:

• A Beginner Task- 64 miles (103 Km) instead of 62 (100 Km)
• 3 TPs
• circles are - 5 mi start, 2 mi finish, 1 mi TPs
• Same track is flown twice - this fosters improvement and confidence
• Pilot is nearly always within glide of WSC (if over 8,000 ft)
• Legs do not interfere with each other, thus less chance of head on collisions (that is, it is all one-way traffic around the course)
• The typical weather that allows for Mtn day flying will result in this task being practiced quite often
• All points are over places of normal/ optimum lift

EDIT COMPLETE

[Peter Kelly]

Here's another task you might consider for the following reasons. It is:

• A Beginner Valley Task- 63 miles (101 Km) instead of 62 (100 Km)
• 4 TPs
• 5 mi start, 2 mi finish, 1 mi TPs
• Same track is flown only once
• Pilot is nearly always within glide of WSC
• Legs do not interfere with each other, thus less chance of head on collisions (that is, it is all one-way traffic around the course)

[Pete (98)]

Hey Peter ~ Your 4 TPs task photo did not post correctly.

[Ben Mayes]

Thank you Peter

The size of the tasks not much of the driving factor in the task selection however I do like the changes to the task.

Think that can be a fun loop instead of yoyo.

Ben

[Peter Kelly]

Pete-98,
Thanks - I reloaded the image for the Beginner Valley Task.

[Pablo Saso Perkins]

Here are the four tasks in condor form with slight differences to cylinder size due to condors limitations. Ill include brief descriptions on how to start and turn the gates.
After you load up the task, select plane brief the task and hit start flight. Once in the glider a 1 minute timer will count down to race start, you have up to 60 minutes to leave the start cylinder (you can leave from any position within the cylinder). As you approach the turn points all you need to do to activate it is touch any part of the cylinder. So one done with the flight you can save the flight track and upload your flight on this form topic https://www.williamssoaring.com/news...1-Condor-tasks , this will also give you the info needed on where to move the files. Good luck and lets see those cross country's


I messed up with the Thermal height and starting time before race and Window time I'm uploading a fix to the previous tasks.

[Peter Kelly]

Pablo, I see you have a "fix" on those tasks.
I'll try a couple of them .

[Peter Kelly]

I tweaked the weather on the BeginnerPKmtn task1.
release over 3 sisters at 5,000, caught first thermal east of Indian Ranch.. 4,000 up to cloud base of 10,500.
Flew the task, left tree farm at 7,500, and landed at wsc. good flight. i’ll share details tomorrow.
weather was very realistic for a good day to fly the menudos.

[Peter Kelly]

As I stated last night (see posting above)

Flew the task, left tree farm at 7,500, and landed at wsc. good flight. i’ll share details tomorrow.
weather was very realistic for a good day to fly the menudos.

The wx parameters for this task, as flown:


Release/ off tow/ start... over antelope at 5,000 and headed for the cloud/ thermals five miles north, and climbed there to 10,500 ft. and headed west.

Heading towards Tree Farm Start, passing overhead Indian Ranch, see nice clouds over the task area.



I turned over all task points - My baro trace

Left Tree farm at 7.5 for a easy final glide to WSC.

Leaving first ridge - looking for WSC... as it tuned out I went to Maxwell and then turned south to WSC
After landing at WSC - see clouds to the SW. Could still fly Down to Bessa Area...

FYI - flight conducted in Duo Discus with a GIB for ballast, running Condor 2, California landscape, viewed on a flat 22 inch screen, with a $50 Logitech 3D pro control stick.

end