Updated 17/04/04
Stay Up - With the Competition
You can keep up to date with the latest club ladders points and rankings by following the links on the home page. The detailed spreadsheets of the flights in the various ladders as well as the points and positions can be found on the club noticeboard.
If you have any questions about the ladder competitions Dave Thompson, the club's Ladder Steward will be happy to answer them. If you feel the need to submit evidence for ladder or trophy flights, .igc flight files can be attached to a short email and sent to Dave at the address on the home page.
Changes to the Rules for 2003-2004
At the customary annual meeting to discuss rules for the forthcoming year, the following main points were agreed.
Ladder year - There was a brief discussion on whether to change the SGU Ladder year to coincide with the BGA Ladder year. It was agreed, however that there should be no change.
Remote Starts by Engine/Aerotow - It was agreed that the present trial limits of 35 km and 4000 feet should be extended to 40 km and 5000 feet. Much time and deliberation went into arriving at an appropriate, unambiguous statement of this rule. It was finally decided that "Free flight must start within the beer can of 5000 feet aal and 40 km radius from POR".
Height Gains - A new Height Gain Ladder will start in the new season. This is in line with developments in the BGA Ladders. Points for height gains will not count in any of the cross country ladders (i.e. the Open, Weekend, HotWings or Junior Ladders) but flights earning height gain points may be entered in the new Height Gain Ladder. Note that a flight may earn both cross country points in the cross country ladders and height gain points in the Height Gain Ladder if applicable.
Shape Factors - The 1.1 shape factor existing for 28% triangles will be extended to 25%/45% triangles for flights greater than or equal to 5oo km. (i.e. shape factor will be 1.1 for FAI triangles).
Undeclared Flights - The introduction of an increase in achievement factor last season from 0.50 to 0.85 was agreed to be a great success. Consideration was given to whether this was too much but it was decided that this value should remain for the forthcoming season.
More complete minutes of the meeting can be found on the SGU Ladder noticeboard in the clubhouse
2002-2003 Final Results
There was good distribution of winners over the various ladders, reflecting healthy competition throughout the season. The Hot Wings Trophy, for flights in thermal, was won by Z Goudie in his Discus T, 381. The Peter Copeland Trophy for the winner of the Weekend Ladder went to Kevin Hook in his DG 400, 320. John Williams in his LS8, Z7, was the winner of the Open Ladder and he collected the McClay Championship Trophy. The complete list of trophy winners for last season can be found on the SGU Ladder noticeboard.
At a lively meeting held on Saturday 19th October 2002 at Portmoak, consideration was given to the rules for the new club season which would start on 1st November. The changes agreed are shown in the 2002/03 Rules (see the link on the home page). The full minutes of the meeting are posted on the Ladder section of the noticeboard in the clubroom, but some of the ten items discussed were...
Height gains - should they count for ladder points? A split vote and so the status quo remains.
Remote starts by engine/aerotow - It was agreed that to maximise flying opportunities from Portmoak, the present, experimental limit should be extended. It is hoped that this might allow pilots to make use of favourable weather conditions which can, on some days, exist away from the local area. In deciding a fair limit the cost of aerotowing was considered. The new limit for use of an engine/aerotow for a flight to be considered to have originated from Portmoak has been increased from 20 km to 35 km, with the ceiling remaining at 4,000 ft.
There was some discussion on the fairness or otherwise of having an engine. It was accepted that there were cons as well as pros and that on booming days, when winning points were scored, having an engine available probably makes no difference.
Declarations in flight? There were concerns that, because of Scotlands small land mass and changeable weather, it was difficult to make successful declarations for long flights. The question of being allowed to make a fresh declaration when under way was considered as a way of encouraging long flights to be declared. The idea was rejected, primarily on safety grounds. An ingenious solution to this concern was heartily accepted by those present. It is to increase the achievement factor for undeclared flights from the current 0.5 to 0.85. It was thought that this would encourage pilots to declare big without too large a penalty should it be necessary to miss a turnpoint at one extreme edge of the country or the other.
Still on the problem of encouraging long flights, the comment was made: "Scotland is not wide enough"! - meaning that it is difficult to fly large tasks with the present limit to the number of turnpoints allowed. After discussion it was agreed that the club ladder rules aleady address this issue by allowing four tps.
Finally, the matter of bank holidays. It was agreed that flights on these days would no longer be counted for the club weekend ladder. Only flights on Saturdays or Sundays will count in the new season.
2001-02 Final Results
Whether needed or not, Kevin Hook's 3305
point flight on 5th October for a declared and completed PCS-CRI-TAD-KLN-PCS
won't have done any harm in the end of season battle to top the
ladders.
With the Hot Wings ladder already effectively being won by Kevin
back in September, he made a clean sweep of it by winning the
Open and Weekend Ladders.
The Junior Ladder was won by Guy Hall with a commendable flight of 306 km in a Pirat. That was a h/c distance of 392 km and a h/c speed of 66 km/h, earning 1410points. This same glider has been used to gain points by two other Juniors during the season, with Andrew Bates getting home after an abandoned attempt at a declared 323 km task. Andrew completed 216 km of the task earning 535 points. Gareth Francis did an undeclared 100 km in it as well as achieving in a separate flight, a gain of height of 14,617 ft.
Full results can be found on the ladders section of the club noticeboard as usual.
2000-2001 Season
The Club Ladder competitions for 2000-2001 ended on 31st October, but not before a final flurry of activity from John Williams on Tuesday, 9th October. John, in Z7, achieved a height gain of 18,550' in the morning and then after lunch zipped along PCS-THD-BDO-FET-PCS at an average handicapped speed of 112km/h for a massive 3514 points, totaling 4,864 points for the day. Added to the points for two of John's previous flights for the season, the day's points proved significant in his 'quest for glory' in the Open competition. (and an excellent start to the National Open Ladder competition for 2001/02)
... and Weekend Ladder
Exactly one month earlier, John flew an historic leg which saw him at a turnpoint at the far side of Mull. Compensation, surely, for having to abandon his declared task for that flight due to the damp conditions he encountered later, near Aviemore. Good effort, but not enough to catch Kevin Hook in the Weekend competition. That Sunday 9th September must have been a cracking day because Kevin managed an average handicapped speed of 81km/h over a declared task of PCS-MOS-LLT-CGF-PCS to give him a decisive 3,132 points.
Changing Seasons
Now that we are safely into November the ladder book entries for the past season can be examined to find out the winners of the various Club Trophies. These prizes are awarded at the club's Christmas bash. Click here to see the list of trophies.
Two additions to the rules for the 2001/2002 SGU Ladders were agreed at a meeting on 8th September. One of these was to overcome conflict there may have been for pilots competing in the Inter-Club League.
For such competition to be encouraged it was decided that flights in this league competition may count towards the SGU Ladder competitions, even if these flights do not originate from Portmoak.
The second addition defines what is to be accepted as a flight 'originating from Portmoak', since the increasingly common 'iron thermal' as well as the standard aero-tow, could be used to enable a start to be made a long way off and a long way up.