OLC League
by Max Kirschner
The Gliding Club of Victoria won the Australia/Oceania OLC League last season. And we did not even know we had entered, or how the rules worked. So below are the results, history, and the rules of the 2008/2009 season.
There were a total of 19 rounds (every weekend from late October to the beginning of March) The GCV only had entries in for 12 rounds.
We won by 2 points, although the Darling Downs Soaring Club had a higher aggregate speed score.
The speeds are calculated automatically for the best two and a half hours of your flight. Bob Nicholls' fastest speed was 133kph in the middle of an 867kilometre triangle and the slowest was 45.46 kph by Dave Farmer. But as can be seen every point counted.
Please enter your all of your flights on the OLC!!
| Position | Points | Aggregate Speed | Club |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 221 | 3,144.81 | Gliding Club of Victoria(VIC) |
| 2 | 219 | 3,400.82 | Darling Downs Soaring Club(QLD) |
| 3 | 197 | 2,633.03 | Beverley Soaring Society(WA) |
| 4 | 185 | 1,711.07 | Geelong GC(VIC) |
| 5 | 168 | 1,902.61 | Murray Valley Soaring Club(VIC) |
| 6 | 164 | 2,143.36 | Gliding Club of Western Australia(WA) |
| 7 | 151 | 1,143.47 | Bendigo Gliding Club(VIC) |
| 8 | 140 | 1,380.16 | VMFG(VIC) |
| 9 | 130 | 1,383.67 | GlideOmarama.com |
| 10 | 121 | 1,283.78 | Lake Keepit Soaring Club(NSW) |
| 11 | 111 | 1,020.67 | Hunter Valley Gliding Club(NSW) |
| 12 | 105 | 1,621.41 | Kingaroy Soaring Club(QLD) |
| 13 | 78 | 644.97 | Adelaide Soaring Club(SA) |
| 14 | 77 | 654.19 | Wagga Wagga GC(NSW) |
| 15 | 65 | 658.68 | Bathurst Soaring Club(NSW) |
| 16 | 65 | 619.43 | Gliding Wellington |
| 17 | 62 | 366.24 | Wellington |
| 18 | 60 | 493.56 | LS Racing |
| 19 | 56 | 458.97 | Canterbury Gliding Club |
| 20 | 51 | 532.51 | Narromine Gliding Club(NSW) |
History
In September 2008, the OLC created a Southern Hemisphere OLC League for clubs from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.
The OLC League is a club-based competition, based on the 3 fastest flights for each club each weekend over the soaring season. Unlike the OLC Classic which uses distance as the scoring, the OLC League uses a speed calculation for scoring.
The OLC League Worldwide has been around for a couple of years but as its scoring season was the Northern Hemisphere summer, Southern Hemisphere clubs didn't feature well. The current Southern Hemisphere OLC League season commenced on 25th October and ran through to 1st March 2009 (19 rounds).
All flights for clubs registered on the OLC are automatically entered, and the 3 fastest flights contribute to the scoring. Results have to be viewed separately in the OLC regions i.e. Australia/Oceania, South America, and South Africa.
The OLC would like clubs to send weekly reporting that includes a short analysis of the weather conditions, which may have impacted the results. You can send this to info@onlinecontest.org. Rules and scoring are below. It is interesting to note that the more clubs that participate, the more points the round generates (up to a maximum of 20 points).
Individual GCV round results
THANKS TO EVERY PILOT WHO ENTERED!
| Round | Position | Points | Speed | Pilot 1 speed | Pilot 2 speed | Pilot 3 Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 11 | 10 | 68.03 | Tobias Geiger (68.03) | (0.00) | (0.00) |
| 6 | 5 | 16 | 242.82 | Nick Woods (85.63) | mike cater (79.51) | John Millott (77.69) |
| 7 | 3 | 18 | 268.74 | Tobias Geiger (107.06) | Nick Woods (81.61) | mike cater (80.06) |
| 9 | 1 | 20 | 259.57 | Craig Blunt (95.38) | John Millott (84.59) | Nick Woods (79.59) |
| 10 | 1 | 20 | 281.45 | Tobias Geiger (111.80) | Craig Blunt (87.89) | Louise O'Grady (81.76) |
| 11 | 1 | 20 | 302.99 | Tobias Geiger (107.85) | Peter Gray (99.50) | Craig Blunt (95.63) |
| 12 | 1 | 20 | 304.80 | Bruce Cowan (105.63) | Tobias Geiger (100.34) | Max Kirschner (98.83) |
| 13 | 2 | 19 | 279.11 | Tim Wilson (98.19) | Max Kirschner (94.69) | SHAUN DRISCOLL (86.23) |
| 14 | 2 | 19 | 232.53 | SHAUN DRISCOLL (84.64) | John Millott (81.68) | Peter Hokkanen (66.21) |
| 15 | 1 | 20 | 373.84 | bob nicholls (133.08) | Nick Woods (122.87) | Max Kirschner (117.89) |
| 17 | 1 | 20 | 258.29 | Tobias Geiger (107.85) | bob nicholls (104.97) | David Farmer (45.46) |
| 18 | 2 | 19 | 272.65 | Tobias Geiger (97.83) | bob nicholls (90.99) | Nick Woods (83.83) |
1. Goals
The league system is achieved by using a round based formula-one scoring. It allows the clubs to compete in a league system where the positions can change during the whole season based on the relative formula-one scoring. Like in other sports this is a very exciting competition during the whole year and the decision who will be champion can come down to the last round of the year. The basis for scoring is an OLC Sprint task which is to be flown in a 2½ hour weather window. The optimum weather window for the sprint task is automatically being calculated by the OLC software based on the submitted IGC-file.
2. Participants
The OLC League is a team competition for clubs who participate in the OLC.
3. Formula-one scoring
Each round, the sum of the three fastest XC speeds on the OLC sprint task per club will be scored. The speeds will be index corrected according the gliders handicap. This sum is called the 'OLC-League-average-speed per round'. The clubs are ranked in a list according the achieved 'OLC-League-average-speed per round'. The club with the highest speed receives 2 OLC league points for each participating club in that round to a maximum of 20 points. The following clubs ranked 'n' receive (n-1) points, but each participating club receives at least one point per round.
4. Rules for the OLC Sprint task
4.1 Task distance
The scoring distance is calculated on OLC-Classic-Rules. Sprint start point and sprint end point are positioned such that the sum of distances between sprint start point and sprint end point becomes as large as possible.
End of sprint may be chosen a maximum of 150 minutes after start of sprint. Sprint start point and sprint end point must each be recorded as GPS fixes on the flight track.
Sprint turnpoints correspond to 3 turnpoints of the OLC-Classic-scoring, which must be positioned between sprint start and sprint end.
4.2 Altitude difference
- The sprint start point can not be higher than the sprint end point.
- The sprint start altitude is the altitude at the sprint start point.
- The sprint starts after the beginning of engine-less flight and corresponds to the time at the sprint start point.
- Sprint arrival height is the altitude at the sprint end point.
- The sprint ends after the end of engine-less flight and corresponds to the time at the sprint end point.
4.3 Scoring
The average speed (points) of each individual flight is the sum of the distances from sprint start, around up to three turnpoints, to the sprint end divided DAeC index increased by 100, multiplied by 200 and divided by 2.5h [Points = km / 2.5 * 200 / (Index+100)].
The OLC-League-average-speed per round for a club is calculated from the sum of the three highest average speeds of all different pilots of a club. Only flights with an average of min 20 km/h will be scored.
5.0 So now we know how it works, let's play
Last year we did not compete in the first three rounds of the competition. This year let's ensure that we enter as many flights as we can. It's good fun and gives us all a goal to strive to achieve. Mine is to beat my score from last year, and to see what's the highest speed I can score.