Get the claims in as soon as possible as there is a 10% penalty if flights are not submitted within 14 days of the flight.
Preferred method is to enter the details yourself onto the BGA ladder.
Second choice - email flight details to the Bidford office and they will forward them to me, I need:
Pilot’s name, task date and glider type including configuration.
Task details: start, turning points and finish.
Time taken to fly the task.
Declaration if made.
Details of task flown if different from declaration.
Last resort - fill in a claim form in the office.
For 2008 there will be no variation from the National Ladder rules or scoring, except that we will award trophies in the following categories.
Novice – any pilot who hasn’t flown a 300 or completed in a BGA rated competition at the start of the ladder year.
Intermediate – any pilot who hasn’t flown a 500 or competed in a full Nationals (not Junior) at the start of the ladder year.
Pundit – Any pilot can win this trophy
The full rules and scoring are held here http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Rules.asp but below are a few that we need to make sure we observe correctly to keep our claims legitimate.
Two-seaters – the claimant should officially be the P1, but we take this to mean the pilot generally accepted as more proficient.
Height
Loss – The difference in height between start and
finish must be less than 1000 metres (3281 ft.) or 1% of the distance flown if
less than 100k. This means that if you intend to have a racing finish near the
ground, the start must be below 3281ft. Please be fastidious when observing
this rule as with modern gliders quite big advantages can be gained by pinching
a few hundred extra feet, particularly on short tasks. If you start above 1000
metres make sure your finish is a similar amount above ground level.
Declarations – These must always be made before take-off, either electronically, on a piece of paper or even verbally. If claiming an uncompleted declared flight, all the original declared TPs must be entered even if not all were reached. This is because declared flights are scored on a percentage of completion.
Undeclared flights – These score at 60% of the rate of declared flights but often allow the most to be made of the soaring conditions. There is no penalty for abandoning a declared flight if the weather doesn’t suit, and getting the most out of the day using undeclared TPs.
Logger files – Ideally these should be uploaded to the ladder site when the claim is made but this is not compulsory. If you don’t want to upload them it might be worth keeping them as they may be useful to back up a disputed claim.
Glider configuration – Please make sure you choose the correct configuration when entering your flights.
Land outs – officially these need to be actual land-outs or backed up with a logger file if you want to score to engine start or task abandonment. I will accept technical land-outs at the nearest BGA TP that is back up your last leg and reasonably close to track.
Numbers of flights – Please enter all your flights to showcase what’s going on at Bidford. Only the best six flights count for the racing and height ladders.
Distance ladder – There is a new distance ladder that counts all the flights for the season. This is a good reason to make sure all your flights are entered and also allows you to benefit from undeclared flights.
Maximising scores - there are no secrets here.