Obsolete: revised on 11/7/04
for archive only
West Coast Challenge
The Longest Flight
On the Shortest Day
Original posting 11/3/05
Updated 11/4/04
This is obsolete Rev A, superseded by Rev B dated 11/6/07
Our South Coast Flying is some of the best to be had on short days. To
demonstrate, we offer a challenge to all unpowered aircraft on the West
Coast. The winner will be determined by the formula:
miles times x
- Where
- Miles = Total straight line miles between two points over-flown by an
unpowered aircraft that was foot launched from anywhere in one of the USA states that borders the
pacific ocean (California, Oregon, and Washington)
- x = Ö((cos(day/2))2)
- The square root of the square of the cosine of (the day count divided by
2)
- The formula is actually easier than it looks. Simply divide the
day of the year by 2 and take the cosine of that number (in degrees).
Taking the square root of the square simply forces the result to be
positive, otherwise the cosine would be negative in the fall, so you can
skip the extra math and just make the result positive.
- Day = the number of calendar days starting with Jan 1 as day 1
Examples
- a 50 mile flight on Jan 1st
- Day = 1
- x computes to 1
- 50 times x = 50 points
- a 100 mile flight on May 1st
- Day = 121
- x computes to 0.49
- 100 times x = 49 points
- 50 mile flight on Dec 21st
- Day = 355
- x computes to 1
- 50 miles times x = 50 points
- a 55 mile flight on Feb 1st
- Day = 32
- x computes to 0.96
- 55 miles times x = 53 points
- Rules:
- Aircraft: any unpowered aircraft, but the launch method for the
flight must be unassisted foot launch
- Entry Fee: None
- Registration or prior declaration: None Required
- Documentation:
A reasonably descriptive article must be posted to the SCPA flight
discussion forum under the thread titled Challenge (thread
date:11/3/04). Flight articles must be posted by the end of January,
2005.
- Contest period: From Jan 1st
2004 through Dec 31st, 2004
- Prizes: To be awarded by The Sundowner
at the February SCPA general membership meeting (attendance not
required)
- 1st place flight $100
- 2nd place flight $50
- 3rd place
flight $25