Grade inflation
From the The Oz Report:
Every day is worth at least almost 1,000 points, no matter what.
The GAP parameters for competitions have been set so low that every day is as "valid" as the next day. Here's how the authors of the GAP scoring program explain how to set the GAP parameters (really the only one that is contentious is the distance parameter which is tied to the fastest time to goal time parameter by the projected fastest pilot's speed):
NominalDistance: the minimum task distance that should be worth 1000 points.
(In the Alps, for hang gliding competition is suggested 50-70 km, for paragliding 30-50 km). If a task distance is less than NominalDistance, the day will be probably devalued. There is no penalty for a task that is longer than NominalDistance as long as the task results in an even distribution of the pilots along the course. There would also be no penalty if the NominalDistance parameter was set shorter, as long as it would take a reasonable length of time for the pilots to fly this distance. What constitutes a "reasonable length of time" is explained further down the page.
To get a fair competition task, you should normally have pilots in goal and pilots need to be in the air for a period of time so that the competitors make a series of different decisions, thereby sorting out the best pilots from the good ones. If a pilot reaches goal with just two thermals, then this is not necessarily a good test of skill. This task may have a tailwind and a high cloud base and therefore could be maybe, 100 km long (or it could just be a short task). In this case the fastest time can still be short and the day will be devalued because of the Nominal Time factor. In this case there was not much scope for the pilots to make decisions and the day was not such a fair test of skill. It is important to remember that it is mainly time in the air (to make decisions about the flight) that separates different levels of pilot skill. Set tasks that will take a reasonable amount of time to complete and have no difficult part at the beginning. A good task will have pilots making many decisions in the air, and the pilots who do not reach the goal would be landing evenly along the course.
The NominalDistance parameter is the minimum distance that would still result in a good task worth 1000 points. NominalDistance ties in with NominalTime, and these two parameters need to be considered together.
When asked for a suggestion about where to set the GAP parameters for this US Nationals I suggested 75 miles and three hours. I felt and still feel that a three hour task (for the winner) is a reasonable test of the competitors and that the average speed of the winner will be in the neighborhood of 25 mph.
Other vehemently disagreed. Their arguments are as follows:
This is not the way it is done at other meets and pilots have a reasonable expectation of having the scoring situation at this meet to be the same as at other meets.
This would put too small of points difference in ranking between the pilots relative to what pilots can expect at other meets.
The Florida Ridge meets have historically had shorter tasks in the 60 mile range.
Yesterday we had a task that the winners won in a little over a hour an a half. It was just over 75 miles long. Given the day's conditions the task committee felt that this was an appropriate task for the day. Let the GAP system reduce its validity if the fastest time to get to goal is shorter than three hours.
Others (a few who missed the pilot's meetings, one of them mandatory) after the task (but before it was scored) complained about how they felt the proposed (and agreed to) GAP parameters would affect the scoring.
I felt that a 600 point day would be an appropriate score for the day given the very short time length for the task. I have no idea if the GAP parameters that I had suggested would have that result or not.
The GAP parameters were changed from my original accepted suggestion to 50 miles and two hours and then the day was scored. It was worth 949 points. It is my humble opinion that the task was not that valid. Others disagree.
It appears to me to continue to be a matter of a difference in opinion. I really hate having these little meaningless spats like little boys about the rules of the game.
Discuss GAP at the Oz Report forum
to Table of Contentsto next topic Another meaningless spat
Sun, Apr 9 2006, 1:14:42 pm EDT
Start before the first start time and your flight duration gets shifted to the first start time
As we have done in numerous US meets and again recently at the Bogong Cup, we allowed pilots to cross the start circle line first without additional penalty other than the shift of their flight forward to the first start time. We feel that this is penalty enough.
Sometimes this is hard to do, especially with GAP 2003 as this requires manual work on the part of the scorekeeper. One way we've gotten around this is to have the start window open a half hour after the launch window, but with no fifteen or twenty minute time intervals imposed until one hour after the first launch time.
Everyone is aware that going in the open start interval is a disadvantage, as pilots can use you to mark the thermals with no penalty to themselves. The point of doing this is to encourage pilots not to wait at launch on windy days (yesterday they still did for twenty minutes) and to let less experienced pilots go through the start circle without additional penalty if they just can't stay up in it.
One pilot seems to have found this rule particularly offensive and in conflict with his principals of fair play. He wants an additional penalty to further encourage ("force") all start at or before the first start time (of course the top pilots most often wait for the last start time). He doesn't want someone sneaking way out in front of everyone. He also feels that everyone should have the same opportunity to get every start time.
Well, we aren't flying today, so we might as well make each other miserable.
