Thursday, June 24, 2010

Black boxes

The pilots carry battery powered GPS flight recorders which record the glider's location every few seconds.


At the end of the day, the data from each flight recorder is analyzed. The Scorer checks the data to make sure that the competitor started correctly, completed the assigned task, and crossed the finish line. The distance and time on course are determined and the pilot is credited with an average speed. Actually, the Scorer's computer does all the work; it takes only a few seconds for each pilot's data to be analyzed.

The fastest finisher gets 1000 points, and everybody else gets points proportional to their speed.

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