The Transcontinental Offical Thread

[MM]

This is a thread for official pronouncements from the Transcontinental Committee. It will include the official rules, updates, and NOTAMS. Please leave this thread clear.

Please do enter comments and questions and general banter in the thread labeled "The Transcontinental Discussion and Questions" in this forum.

[MM]

The official rules for this years' Transcontinental are now released. They are available at the Dropbox account here: Transcontinental Rules.

You can find a version (of the same rules) with changes from the pre-release draft marked in red – to make it easier for you to see what has changed. This marked version is available at the Dropbox account here: Transcontinental Rules Marked.

[MM]

If a pilot should land on the ground, but not at an official MSFS airport, the pilot may continue by noting the event with a forum post something like: "Landed in a field." The pilot may optionally refuel and reposition the aircraft for takeoff within about 1,000 feet or a fifth of a mile. (Luckily, a nearby farmer, with a ton of AVGAS in his pickup, passes by and helps reposition the aircraft.) The incurred penalty requires that the pilot must wait on the ground for 10 minutes after the landing post. He then posts, "Taking off from the field." And then he takes off from the rough ground and proceeds in the race.

This ten minute penalty applies to situations where the pilot lands safely or crash lands (see the rules for a definition of a crash landing). A single penalty keeps things simple. The normal Duenna authentications will be required to authenticate the off-field incident.

[MM]

The official start is set for 0800 PDT (1500 UTC) at Long Beach Daugherty Field KLGB.

0715-0750. Please line up on either 7L or 7R west of Rwy 16/34. You may choose your spot, with priority going to pilots in the order that they registered. (Willy, jt_dub, robert41, falcon409, and so on.) The order should not matter much. Everyone must have "collisions with other aircraft" disabled. (If all is right, you may simply fly right through another plane.) TeamSpeak3 participation would be helpful for all concerned.

0750. Everyone must be online (IP 72.233.79.242, port: 23456).

0755. Reset the MSFS default weather so that everyone has the same weather at the start.

0800. The organizers will post on the SOH Forum "Official Start. Begin the Race." They will visually confirm the post and then announce the same "Official Start" over TeamSpeak. (Please, no one else verbally confirm the Start post.)

You may post "I have the baton" and then take off once you see the Start post on the forum or once you hear the confirmation from the Organizers on TeamSpeak. Do not post or take off until after you see the official Start post or hear the official TeamSpeak call. Any pilot who jumps the gun will be asked to reset, repost, and restart while the other pilots continue on their way.

To be clear, you post your initial "I have the baton" in your team thread on the SOH forum. Your other posts go there as well.

[MM]

It is the pilot's responsibility to ensure connection to the server. Besides verifying via the local software (FS9 Multiplayer or FSX Host Clinent) each pilot may make a test communication with Race Control (RaceCon) via the FSHost Chatbox. As multiple pilots will be doing so, chatbox communication should be kept to a minimum once the first aircraft is enroute from KCLE to the finish.

The finish line is an imaginary north-south line at the intersection of Runways 14 and 19 of Long Island Republic Field KFRG. If you install Roman's "Transcontinental 2013" scenery, you will see the tall finish line towers. The recommended scenery is available here as well as on the forums.

We shall conduct a "flying finish" for the first three prize-winning pilots. (The official observers can discern who first crosses the finish line even if the race is closely contested.)

Procedures.
(1) At 20-30 nm out of KFRG, you should announce in the MP chat box "20 miles out." RaceCon will confirm contact, and thus establish that the MP server is working properly. Your notification will also alert the official scorers of your arrival – they cannot "see" 20nm out.

(2) At 10 nm out, you may announce your arrival via chat box. RaceCon will confirm if possible.

(3) You then dive down between the pylons marking the intersection of Rwys 14 & 19 and cross the finish line eastbound at an altitude of no more than 300 feet AGL (378 MSL). You may retain your speed throughout.

(4) Then you circle and land – quickly and safely. (Please take care of the pylons…they are hard objects.) You must land and post your arrival for your final leg to count. Then clear the runway immediately (perhaps through slew) and park on the tarmac away from the finish line. Finally, post your authentications in the normal fashion.

(5) After the first three pilots have passed the finish line, the organizers may either continue with the flying finish or, if a gap appears, they may end the flying finish and revert to the normal landing finish. Once RaceCon announces the landing finish, you approach KFRG and land straight away and then post your arrival. No need to pass the pylons first.

After sufficient time has passed to allow the organizers to review the data, a provisional winner will be declared. A further review of all enroute flights will be required before the final granting of prizes and awards.

It is highly recommended that you practice the flying finish to get a sense of the location of the "finish line" in the context of your own scenery situation. (There may be some tall buildings near the field that will help you locate the right approach – take care to avoid hitting them.) The "Transcontinental 2013" scenery might help as well. On final approach, you may see a mass of "aircraft red markers" at KFRG. However, you should know your precise target rather than rely on the red markers because they may be scattered anywhere on the airfield.

[MM]

The scoring system is slightly complicated because we want to employ the real time "flying finish" for the prize winners and then use the normal "landing finish" for the later-arriving aircraft whose scoring will be less critical. (And, more complicated still, we shall use the "landing finish" system as a backup procedure to score pilots if the MP server system breaks down.)

The first three finishers will be judged by the live official scorers at the "flying finish" at KFRG. Arrivals who come just after the third place finisher may also be scored by the flying finish. Thus, we have a first-across-the-finish-line scoring system that will give us a decisive winner. (We hope that these prize-winning pilots are not carrying penalties for overweight fueling during the race.)

After RaceCon terminates the flying finish, arriving aircraft will land and post. Their rank order will be determined by the forum post times. Close cases (within one minute on the forum clock) will be decided by the Duenna server clock time (not the local Duenna time on each pilot's machine) for the pilots' full stop at KFRG.

If we have trouble with the flying finish, the top prizes will be determined by the pilots' landing finish times. RaceCon will keep the pilots informed of any events that might change the scoring system.

Summary. Thus, the prize winners' finish order will be determined by the real time flying finish. The remaining pilots' rank order of will be decided by their forum posting times (with ties broken by the Zurich Duenna server time).

[MM]

The Transcontinental "Flight Time" is the elapsed time from the Long Beach start at 1500 UTC and the Long Island finish at xxxx UTC. Adjust that for not-yet-served penalties (if any) and you have a Transcontinental "Race Time".

Note that the normal Duenna "Flight Time" that we have often used in the past will not determine the rank order. We might keep those Duenna flight times in our records (taken from the individual legs' Duenna records) so that we all can study the pilots' performances in the air and on the ground.

[MM]

A coordination note. As a courtesy to your fellow pilots, might you please enter your aircraft title in the Google spreadsheet set up by Roman? Your aircraft title lies in your aircraft.cfg file. It is typically the second line in your aircraft's entry and looks something like this "title=XXX YYY ZZZ".

Your letting other pilots know the exact title of your aircraft will enable them to set up a precise equivalence in their FS9/FSX system and to set up a "proxy" or "AI" visual representation. They want to see your aircraft rather than a fast Cessna Skyhawk!

The spreadsheet location is here.

If you are interested, you might find informative the brief discussion in the "Transcontinental Discussion and Questions" forum, posts #34-#38.

[srgalahad]

This is the view from Race Control. Mike will post a few reminders but note that we are set up to view the intersection, with aircraft approaching ALONG Runway 14.

In the attached screenshot, Eamonn (Bottoms Up) Watson executes a pass. The lower portion of the image shows the secondary scoring view (top-down)

Attachment 94670

[MM]

If you cannot connect to the MP server, please try a second time. And then use TeamSpeak to ask for help. Or post in your team thread that you are not able to connect. We shall try to see what we can do in the limited time available.

If you simply cannot connect (for whatever reason), then go ahead and run the race. You can start in the normal way (after seeing the Start post). And everything until the finish will be standard operating procedure. Go ahead and use TeamSpeak for all of your communications.

However, at the very end you won't be able to do the "flying finish." (You might try to reconnect for the last leg. Things may have cleared up by then.) If you are not on MP for the final leg, just go ahead and do a "landing finish." You will be scored properly as such.

[MM]

The "flying finish line" is at the intersection of Republic Field (KFRG) Rwys 14 & 19 and between the pylons in the optional scenery. You want to be within 500 feet of the intersection and at an altitude of no more than 378 feet (all approximations). All this is the same as before.

Additionally, to make the scoring work better, YOU MUST FLY DOWN THE MAIN LINE OF RUNWAY 14 when crossing the finish line. This new restriction will help the observers get a solid look and screenshot of your accomplishment!

The "landing finish" asks you to land anywhere at KFRG and post your arrival. You need not pass the finish line pylons before landing and posting.

[MM]

- The official Start will be posted in a separate "Transcontinental Start" thread on the Sim-Outhouse Multiplayer Forum. The message will be brief, indicating that the race is under way.

- Each Team (solo or multi-member) sets up its own separate thread on the SOH Multiplayer Forum. (Give it a name so that everyone can recognize you as the pilot(s).) You post your "I have the baton" and "The baton is free" messages in this thread as you go along. (The departure post for the first leg goes in this, your Team thread.) Remember, solo and multi-member teams make the same posts. One for each departure, one for each landing. You legally don't have to identify the landing airport or the destination, but good form suggests that you give the landing airport so that everyone can follow your progress. For example, "The baton is free at KCLE" will do nicely.

- The SOH Multi-Player Server is at (IP 72.233.79.242, port: 23456).
- The Sim-Outhouse TeamSpeak3 server address is www.sim-outhouse.net

- We are using the default MSFS real weather with 15-minute updates. Please "reset" the weather at 0755 PDT. (If you cannot connect to the MSFS weather, you may run the race using another real time weather engine. Just post your difficulty and announce the weather engine that you are using. Note that your results will be scored as unofficial because the differences in a weather program might be decisive.)

- Please use your Duenna to "synchronize time" so that you are in real time. (And be sure to have "Enable online flight tracking" activated on your Duenna settings page.) The Event Name is "2013 transcontinental". Don't forget to start your Duenna when you begin the race!

- Remember that the fuel-on-board limit is 2,000 pounds per engine. This limit applies to every stop and refueling – so take care when you are rushing through your pit stops.

- If you have a crash landing, you wait on the ground for 10 minutes after posting your "Crash landed at KXXX" message. After the penalty delay, you post your departure and then recommence from the current airport. If you simply crash, there is no penalty but you have to restart your leg from the invalid leg's original departure airport.

- If you are uncertain about the validity of a leg (say you don't understand the meaning of a Duenna error message), just go ahead and continue. We can examine your Duenna records after the race.

- As long as your flight is being properly tracked by the online Duenna server, you may post your Duenna authentications at the end of the race rather than after each leg. We expect that most pilots will take advantage of this convenience.

[srgalahad]

THE RESULTS ARE IN!!



First across the line: 339^th Fighter Group -- in a time of 5:29:00
Second:

Pilot	Pilot	Time	interval
jt_dub (Jeff)	MM (Mike)	5:29:00
Bry		5:29:12	+0:00:12
Wombat (Ed)		5:30:58	+0:01:58

The remainder of positions will be posted shortly.

Special mention to Ratty - winner of the Accu-sim Award in his first event!

[robert41]

Congrats everyone.

[MM]

Here are the final standings compiled and confirmed by Rob our official scorer. This coast-to-coast race produced a surprising and thrilling finish, with only twelve seconds separating the first two finishers and three minutes separating the first four. The flying finish surpassed the excitement of the 1948 Bendix in which Paul Mantz won by a minute and nine seconds.

Pilots	Aircraft	Racing Time	Interval
jt_dub & MM	P-51B	5:29:00
Bry	P-51B	5:29:12	0:00:12
Wombat	P-51B	5:30:58	0:01:58
Rgo & arrvoo	P-51D	5:31:58	0:02:58
Lowflyer	P-51D	5:35:53	0:06:63
Spokes2112	P-51D	5:41:36	0:12:36
Salt_air	P-51D	5:54:04	0:25:04
Ratty	P-51D	6:05:09	0:36:09
RedGreen	P-38L	6:09:01	0:40:01
Epwatson	P-51D	6:16:13	0:47:31
Dark Charizma	P-51D	6:24:33	0:55:33
Dangerousdave26	P-51D	Abandoned to officiate finish
Willy	Fw190D9	DNF (Computer failure)
PRB	F4U-1D	DNF (Computer failure)
Taco	P-47D	DNF (Computer failure)

Special awards.

• Best Accu-Sim finish goes to Ratty in his Rookie year.
• Best solo entry goes to Bry who came within seconds of the win (and flew faster in the air).
• Award for stylish flying finish goes to Dark Charizma for his patented "Comet" landing style.
• Special recognition to RedGreen for the fastest non-Mustang aircraft.

Congratulations to all the pilots for completing the day-long event in such a determinedly skillful manner. Everyone, including the Accu-Sim-limited entrants, managed to finish within an hour of the first aircraft.

[MM]

We have compiled an informal set of analytic numbers from the 2013 Transcontinental. Clearly, the winning team had an advantage of "teamwork" in airport transitions. In pure "racing-in-the-air time," Bry and Wombat would have led the race. You may find the details interesting. They are available at a Dropbox account here.