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JohnMitchell

Tracking contest

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I think you should combine it with a sunset swoop and chug. Arrange an alternate LZ off the dz or at the very far end of it, have a keg, exit over a certain spot, track like hell towards it, and whoever lands and chugs the first beer wins.
Only people on the load are the trackers, experience levels considered.
gravity brings me down.........

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Our DZ had one not too long ago. Flysights are a must, that is your data source.

Basics:
Exit at 8.5k
Turn off jump run
Tracking window is 8k to 5k
Keep tracking to under 5k to avoid slowing the track
Flare and pull :)

Longest track wins
Fastest track also fun to look at.

I hope this helps.

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I'd like to do it without flysights or any other electronics. Lodi did it for years without all that, basically an offset jumprun and a judge sitting at the finish line to see who tracked the farthest.

Why did you do it from 8,500'? I'd rather do it from 13K and really get some time and distance.

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I would say that the judging you are describing is fairly subjective. That is why electronics were involved. Tracking in a straight line in one group as a race may also create an increased risk of collisions. Lodi has done a lot of things differently.

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Slimrn

I would say that the judging you are describing is fairly subjective. That is why electronics were involved. Tracking in a straight line in one group as a race may also create an increased risk of collisions. Lodi has done a lot of things differently.

Seems that leaving from the same jump run at the same altitude and tracking perpendicular to the jump run would be a fairly objective contest. There would also be several seconds separation between each person, so that would make this much safer than many of the tracking dives I've seen. Of course, the low person has right-of-way and the high person would watch for traffic.

Thanks for you thoughts on this, though. They are good points to consider. I sure wish someone who's been in one of these competitions would chime in.

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Slimrn

You are welcome. To be clear, I was in the competition.

Oh wow, gotcha. At Lodi? :)
I know they did those contests, like 20+ years ago, when no one had the electronics we take for granted today. That's the kind of contest I was interested in, since I don't have all the gadgets for everyone.

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We do them every year at Byron, too. Normal jump run at 13k offset by an "average" tracking distance. No tracking suits allowed, everyone under an open canopy by 3k (IIRC), novice class & open class. We draw exit order by lot, and jumpmaster sends us out 1 at a time with a couple of seconds in between. Judges are positioned on the ground to spot.
It helps to note canopy colors prior to contest.

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The ones I participated in worked as follows:

Jump run was perpendicular to tracking direction about 3/4 mile from the DZ (we used the runway as our guide - plane flew parallel to runway 3/4 mile offset) Jumpers exit 6 to 8 seconds apart and track directly toward the runway. Judges were stationed on the ground along the line of the trackers at the end of the planned jump run (to see trackers from a perpendicular angle) to judge who made it farthest.

Deployment altitude determined prior to start. We used an honor system but today you could use digitals.
Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

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Rickendiver

We do them every year at Byron, too. Normal jump run at 13k offset by an "average" tracking distance. No tracking suits allowed, everyone under an open canopy by 3k (IIRC), novice class & open class. We draw exit order by lot, and jumpmaster sends us out 1 at a time with a couple of seconds in between. Judges are positioned on the ground to spot.
It helps to note canopy colors prior to contest.



I was with Reckendiver at the Tracking Byron contest. I'll add that the nearby roads were used as references for both the divers and judges on the ground. We tracked from full altitude to a predetermined pull altitude about 3,500 feet IIRC.

This link is the map of the DZ.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bay+Area+Skydiving/@37.8350153,-121.6371603,1962m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fe29769d5b49d:0xb4d6aafffac6bad8!8m2!3d37.8350153!4d-121.6327831

The jump run was offset from the normal jump run and parallel to the "Byron Hot Springs Rd".

The skydivers used "Armstrong Rd." going across the map as a reference point on the direction to go.

The judges were posted along road after it made it's turn. On that road were some electrical lines which could help as a reference. In practice it was subjective and some what open to the honer system.

Tracking for a full 60 seconds was a bit of a workout and it gave you time to tweek you body position to see what worked best. A great learning experience. I wish drop-zones would to contests like this more often.

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I've participated in several tracking contests at Lodi, and won a couple.

The jumprun was south to north, 1/2 mile east of hwy99. judges were positioned 1/2 mile west of hwy99. trackers exited about a second apart and tracked west. one load, one pass. open and intermediate trackers were on different loads.

judging was per honor system and visual by judges. never were there any issues as the difference in tracking styles creates ample separation. the winners were obvious.

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I was challenged once, this wont help for an organized event but it was fun.
What we did was take our phones with us, exit last at the same time from a skyvan and start tracking right away with the jump run. Deploy at 3000', farthest away from the DZ wins. Loser pays both slots. :P

HISPA #93
DS #419.5


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Since everyone has a camera on their head these days, you couldn't you verify deploy altitude from their video? (make em hold their hand in view for a second or two before pitching.) Would also probably tell you how far they got. While getting flysight gadgets might be going overboard, no sense not using the modern gadgets they already have.

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