Task Setting Queries on FAI SGP in Gawler

[JBlyth]

I have been enjoying the difficult tasks at the Virtual SGP currently being flown at Gawler, Australia.

I am very grateful to the hard work put in by the organisers and task setters. I have a few questions, which are most certainly NOT complaints. I am seeking more understanding of task setting in Condor.

• I see that the "Season" is always set to WINTER, although the true season in Australia is of course SUMMER. Does this make any difference to the task conditions?
• Daylight Saving is currently active in South Australia. Is this taken into account by Condor? It seems the sun angles are rather low compared to what I have experienced during flying in the area at the same time of year.
• The days seem to die earlier than I would have expected, given the time of year and daylight saving, although I freely admit the current local conditions is real life aren't that great at the moment. Is this caused by the first two points?

Many thanks for any enlightenment you can give me.

John - in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia.

[wickid]

Sun angle follows the date setting in Condor. Next to the map in flightplanner you can see the date set by the task setter. It should be summer when setting it to Januari in the southern hemisphere. But be carefull as it defaults to 21 of june when setting a new task.

It may be that Condor.club reads a day in januari as being winter and reporting it as such. Don't know if Thierry takes into account southern hemisphere in his briefings.

At 12 o'clock condor time the sun will be at the highest position. No daylight saving taken into account.

[Bre901]

The date in the Gawler SGP tasks is identical to the RL ones

[Bre901]

But be carefull as it defaults to 21 of june when setting a new task.

Not in the Southern hemisphere where the default is 21 December

Don't know if Thierry takes into account southern hemisphere in his briefings.

Apparently not

[JBlyth]

Thank you gentlemen for your explanations....

That is probably why the sun seems to be lower than expected. The Virtual SGP races are started at the same time as the real life races (1500 hours Day Light Saving Time = 1400 hour "sun" time ), which I guess means that our races are really starting one hour later in "sun" terms.

My brain suggests then that the Virtual races should start at 1400 Condor time to match the real life "sun" starting time.

Or am I confusing things?

Cheers
John

[wickid]

Today (8th of januar) Local Solar Noon is at 13:22:27. So 12:00 Condor time is equivalent to 13:22 local. If you set the Condor time to 15:00, it is equivalent to the sun position at 16:22 local time.

If you want the sun angle to match the 15:00 local angle, you have to start 1:22 earlier in Condor, so 13:38 Condor time.

[JBlyth]

Thanks, Wickid. It is my understanding that one of the aims for the FAI Virtual SPG is to endeavour to mimic as closely as possible the flying conditions experienced by the "Real Life" SGP glider pilots. This is a valuable desire.

As we know, Sun Angle is critical to surface heating, and particularly for judging when the end of the thermal day may occur. This is even more important when soaring conditions are weak and/or blue.

Therefore, should we suggest to the Task Setters for the Virtual FAI SGP that they take into account the local Solar Noon time and compare that to the Real Life SGP and Condor start times? To use the current Gawler competition as an example, perhaps the "Condor Time" for the race should be 1330, instead of 1430.

This would make the Virtual FAI competitions more realistic, and make Condor 2 an even greater gliding training aid.

Cheers
John Blyth - Sunny Carnarvon, Western Australia