jcarleto
Aluminum Supporter
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2007
- Messages
- 3,571
- Location
- Taylorsville, GA
- Aircraft
- Beech Bonanza G-35 N4638D/"The Bulldozer" 2-Place Gyroplane N575EE
- Total Flight Time
- Several
I was thinking about events and contests at Bensen Days, Mentone and the like and wondered if anyone ever considered a "road ralley" type event. I see it as something like this:
Event coordinators would have to lay out a course in the general area of the host airport. The course should include some dead reckoning legs and, typical of road ralleys, some waypoint clues that require a bit of thought. Most good road ralleys have one waypoint clue that is obscure enough to confuse at least one or two contestants and prevent them from finishing the course. That might be optional for a first attempt, as there is more to flying than driving a car and tough road ralleys generally include a driver and navigator. A clever course would bring the contestants in view of the airport every so often for audience interest.
The goal being to finish the course with the time closest to the event coordinator's time rather than the fastest time. It is more about precision flying than speed. The coordinator's time must be a well-kept secret until the ralley is complete. If the maximum expected speed for any given leg was limited to 50 or so, then any gyro should be able to compete.
It should be a very safe event. There is no need to for a shotgun start. Contestants could begin the ralley at 5 minute intervals or greater throughout the day or the whole event, for that matter. The only thing that would matter would be to get an official start and finish time for the contestant.
Just a thought...
*JC*
Event coordinators would have to lay out a course in the general area of the host airport. The course should include some dead reckoning legs and, typical of road ralleys, some waypoint clues that require a bit of thought. Most good road ralleys have one waypoint clue that is obscure enough to confuse at least one or two contestants and prevent them from finishing the course. That might be optional for a first attempt, as there is more to flying than driving a car and tough road ralleys generally include a driver and navigator. A clever course would bring the contestants in view of the airport every so often for audience interest.
The goal being to finish the course with the time closest to the event coordinator's time rather than the fastest time. It is more about precision flying than speed. The coordinator's time must be a well-kept secret until the ralley is complete. If the maximum expected speed for any given leg was limited to 50 or so, then any gyro should be able to compete.
It should be a very safe event. There is no need to for a shotgun start. Contestants could begin the ralley at 5 minute intervals or greater throughout the day or the whole event, for that matter. The only thing that would matter would be to get an official start and finish time for the contestant.
Just a thought...
*JC*