GAP parameters

GAP parameters are never easy to set. See the recent discussions we had about them at the Flytec Championships. They need to be set 'properly' to ensure we have reasonable validity so the results pilots get from this sort of event (turnpoint accumulation) is weighted properly versus the points we get for our national ranking from traditional Race to Goal style events.

I have a spreadsheet that Davis Straub made up at the Flytec meet to help guide you thru selecting these parameters. So this is what I set them to:
Nominal Distance: 30km (PG); 40km (HG)
Nominal Time: 1h (which is the mimimum allowed)
Minimum Disance: 4km (PG); 6km (HG)
% in goal: 10% (the minimum

With this turnpoint accumulation style of event, there is no goal as you fly for as much distance as you can rack up given all the turnpoints so I am not sure how that is going to weigh on validity. This is why I set the percentage in goal to the minimum.

Conditions can change so much this time of year in the Fraser Valley bringing conditions for it to be ridge soarable only with low cloudbase or I have seen us up to 10,000' at this event. The 'Nominal Distance' figure is key to the parameters and is supposed to be set (as a rule of thumb) as twice what the average expected disance all competitors will fly at the competition. Of course this is impossible to get this correct (especially with no historical firm data). I actually upped the Nominal Distance from traditional FV XC meets - this did 'seem' to work better at the Flytec meet and it revealed that the average distance flown is more important to get a 1000 point day. I upped this parameter becuase if the average distance flown is low, it will devalue the day and if decent distances are flown, it should weight this meet somewhat fairly against Race-to-Goal meets. We'll see...

Even the 'Nominal Time' parameter is related to the goal finisher's time so I am not sure how this will play out (validity wise). It will be an interesting experiment...this is also why I set the nominal time to the minimum.

As it was said at the Florida meets, the winners still win regardless of validity - this is more of an issue for National Ranking points.