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Great Australian Air Rally 2009?


Divot

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Does anyone know if GAAR 2009 is being planned, and if so, by who?

This year's one was by Deer Valley, but I think they said it was their first and last.

It would be an excellent showcase for FTX and Ozx.

(posted in both FTX and Ozx forums)

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Essentially Deer Valley Flying club screwed the principle of the GARR by

1 Not understanding the proper way a handicap and applying it

2 Effectively forcing pilots to fly aircraft they either didn't have or ever fly. (in an effort to create a level platform)

3 Dictating how and when pilots shall fly.

The principle is great and gets Sim-Pilots into the Air together and fosters a sense of competitive yet friendly spirit, unfortunately the Deer Valley guys failed dismally in this respect.

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Is it based on a real event?  Or just one that's made up?  I wasn't part of the last one, so not sure how it was run, but would be interested in finding out more.

Not based on a real event, just a route that someone generated. Here's what I can remember:

- it was run over 4 weeks, with 4 legs per week for 3 weeks, and 5 legs in a 4th week

- there was a collection of different vintage planes incl DC-3, DC-6, Fokker tri-motor, Boeing 247, etc.

- there was an initial time trial that ran from Moorabbin to Avalon (appox 30 miles) in the different planes to set a personal benchmark for each plane

- we started in YMML Melbourne, and finished in YSCB Canberra (see here for route details)

- each leg was flown in a different plane

- the organisers calculated your expected times for each leg based on the benchmarks you set for the particular plane

- points were awarded to pilots based on how close they got to that calculated time. Even if you were early/fast, you could lose points.

- each leg was a packaged mission complete with sounds, airfield animations (fireworks flying in to Canberra), and "random" failures (ever flown a tri-motor on the left hand engine? lots of trim needed!)

My observations on the event were:

- plots were getting frustrated as the "formula" for calculating individual times was not really transparent - I didn't care, I just loved the challenge, but some of them were getting quite upset.

- I would not rate myself as a good pilot, but I managed to ace one of the legs by being 5 seconds from my target time!

- there were various sub-competitions, including sceen shots and video compositions that added another dimention to the comp.

- the planes that were supplied for the comp were lovely, but there was not enough time for players to get familiar with them.

- the site was closed fairly quickly after the comp - I think due to the amount of bad feelings some people had

- it would have been easier/nicer if AUBlue had been released, just for the additional atmosphere

- although base/stock FSX sounds, there were some very atmospheric moments, especially on take off!

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It's only hard if you let it be. A good Sim pilot will do a test flight to ascertain his/her average cruise speed for a set distance they can then use this figure to match to the calculated ground speed for each leg.

This then is a measure of how good the pilot is at maintaining a good state of trim and have performance up the sleeve if necessary.

The idea of the rally is to get Sim-Pilots to fly together and have some fun like real world events of the same ilk. 

It is in essence a test of Airmanship rather than an actual race. A bit like bracket racing where a know distance is set and eahc racer say "I will take 25min Ground to ground" and they have to fly from point a to point be and touch down within 10 Sec either side of the nominated time.

It is up to the pilot to factor in any adjustments allowing for wind temperature humidity etc so they fly the leg as close to the nominated time as possible so minimum penalties are applied for being early or late.

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The official website is up and registration opens tomorrow!

Looks like the focus is more VOR/DME/NDB navigation rather than straight line.

With the exception of East Timor, this will be a great showcase for AU_Green and the (much anticipated) AU_Red, and the event finishes at Jandakot.

http://bluegrassairlines.com/bgad/gaar_2009/index.htm

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