Over the last two hang gliding competitions I have shifted, in two
separate waves, responsibility for downloading and sending to me (the
scorekeeper) the daily track logs from a person assigned that task (not me) to
each individual pilot. Each pilot is responsible now for creating their own IGC
file (track log file) on a computer and for emailing it to an email address that
has been setup to receive tracklogs.

While there is a bit of a learning curve, especially for pilots who have little
to no computer experience, it has for the most part worked quite well for both
the meet organization and for the pilots. Pilots are relieved of the
responsibility of being at a certain location at a certain time or time interval
to get their flights downloaded which means if they are far away they can stop
and have dinner, or they can pursue other activities without being tied to a
particular time and place. They also get to learn more about the process of
creating viable track log files.

It is a good idea for pilots to take responsibility for their own track logs as
that gives them more control over their flight and their flight instruments.
They can see the problems that occur when they don't clear their older Garmin
track logs, for example. I also noticed that pilots were spending some time on
the computers looking at the scores, looking at the flights, doing comparisons
between flights, and generally developing a better understanding of the
competition.

Making pilots responsible for downloading their own flights and getting them to
the scorer also makes running a competition easier and less expensive, thereby
reducing the future cost to competitors. Downloading everyone's flights every
night can get very tiresome, so spreading out the load really improves the
general working conditions.

Here at the East Coast Championship pilots were provided with a desktop computer
in the pilot lounge. Both the scorekeeper's computer and the desktop computer
had fast internet connections at all times. The latest versions of GPSDump and
FlyChart were loaded and configured on the desktop. There were links to these
programs on the computer's desktop (screen). A special Gmail account had been
created to allow pilots to email their track logs. There was a shortcut to the
Gmail account on the desktop as well as a shortcut to the folder where the
flights were stored.

I provided the cables, although I didn't have a Flytec 5030 cable. David Glover
let me use his. If you have a 5030 or Compeo (or other "different" GPS bring
your cable. You can also bring your lap top and download the flights yourself
(the preferred solution).

The Flytec 6030 and Brauniger Compeo Plus with the newest firmware updates
automatically create IGC files (using the menu) and those can be read by a
computer off the 2 GB SD memory card that you place in your flight computer. You
can then email them to the scorekeeper. This simplifies the process even more.
Go to http://flytec.com to
update your instrument. Getting the IGC file by email to the scorekeeper is
crucial.

We will be using this system at the US Nationals in Big Spring and at the Santa
Cruz Flats Race (so Jamie can fly without the burden of downloading). If you
have a computer and cables bring them.

I use SeeYou with
my
scoring program (which has been validated against FS) inside SeeYou to score
the competitions. Naviter, the company that sells SeeYou, also produces a nice
little free program,
IGCMail, that searches an email (in my case Gmail) server and downloads the
attached IGC files from the emails received at the provided address and stores
them in the appropriate folder on the scorekeeper's computer. SeeYou then
automatically grabs the IGC files and scores the pilots and automatically posts
the results up on the internet at the
Soaring Spot (if
you have everything configured correctly).

Of course, nothing ever works out to be quite automatic, but it is faster and
does help.

I will be writing up a pilot manual (short) that will take you step by step
through the process of downloading your track log and emailing it off to me.
Once you get the hang of it, you can start doing it with HOLC's.