Ágúst Guðmundsson <<ag>>
writes:

As you know, FS is a CIVL-driven project and it has become a very
important tool for both hang gliding and paragliding. FS is free and is now used
in the vast majority (80-90%) of Cat 2 sanctioned competitions and in all cross
country Cat 1 since it was approved by the Plenary in 2009. Race is not used
much any more for sanctioned competitions (only three comps this year) and it
lacks GPS support, so it cannot be used standalone.

The activity on the FS forum/blogs has reduced in the past year. There are no
major bugs known in FS. There are a couple of outstanding tickets, and these
will be addressed. Due to other activities, the developer has had less focus on
FS over the past year, but any major problem would be fixed right away, but
there were none.

There are a number of other scoring systems available, like yours with SeeYou,
Compcheck, Cargol and some locally developed scoring software. CIVL welcomes
these initiatives, and encourages competition scorers and scoring system
developers to communicate with us via the FS forum/blogs, or directly, we want
to help as we can. Meanwhile, FS is evolving and CIVL is aiming for more
functionality (support for different types of tasks), a better user interface
and integration with GPSDump.

One of the most important recent developments is the use of pilot live tracking
in competitions. Some systems have already been adapted for GPSDump use, so
tasks can be scored when the last pilot has landed. Live tracking was used very
successfully in the FAI European Paragliding Championships this year, tracking
all pilots, although it was not used for scoring. Afterwards, the live tracking
data was compared with the actual scored tracklogs and they gave the same
results for 80% of the pilots (so the organisers told us).

The devices used in Austria did have 10s between points and no buffering, so it
would not store trackpoints if there was no GPRS coverage. Audience on the
internet was over 3000 spectators for one task, showing new opportunities for
PR/Media coverage and potential sponsorship in future competitions. Pilot live
tracking is an important development in our sport.

Regarding your comment on GAP documentation, this is a complex and critical task
and progress has been made. The final document will include detailed
descriptions of scoring procedures, the scoring parameters, options, and how
they all interact. We are hoping to publish key elements of this before the
start of the next (northern hemisphere) competition season. Regarding the
proposal on scoring stopped tasks, we anticipate that this will be raised and
discussed again at the next Plenary.

I hope this clarifies that FS is alive and well, and gives you some insight into
future developments. Apologies that we have been remiss in posting news on the
website.