The mandatory post-race rules complexity thread
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Thread: The mandatory post-race rules complexity thread

  1. #1
    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    The mandatory post-race rules complexity thread

    Dear Rules Committee,

    I know the subject of rules complexity comes up after every race, usually by me. Until this year I thought I was the only ignorant dunderhead who felt this way, but if you haven't read appollosmith's post at FlightSim on this, you really should do so... To echo what he said, I know you guys work very hard at this during the “off season”, and it is appreciated. Like every set of rules, it grows as situations arise which require a new rule. For example, “You canna no more fly at latitudes greater than 80 degrees north or south!” (hehehe). But that's simple. You read it once and you get it. You don't have to study it to understand it. You could have a hundred such statements and it wouldn't make the rules document, as a whole, any more difficult to understand. The problem, for me, comes when you start “mixing and matching” rules to construct entirely new rules which, in order to understand them, you must first understand the “root component rules” that make up the new rule, which require looking them up in other places in the rules document(s) and/or the FAQ(s). This aspect of the rules could be “reformed”.

    To illustrate, I will restrict my rant (this year) to the jets.

    This year, jets are allowed. Yeah! We love jets. So, what jets are allowed? We have four [4] (yes four) different lists:

    1. White List Jets: A large list of jets.

    2. Sponsored Jets: Same list as the White List, but adds the Boeing 757, Lockheed F-80, and North American F-86.

    3. Regional/Continental Jets: A subset of the White List Jets, to include only those with two engines, and the F-80 and F-86.

    4. Cold Warrior Jets: A list of early generation military jets, including the F-80 and the F-86.

    When can I fly these jets?

    Please be seated...

    Any Sponsored Jet can be flown on wild card legs. This includes the 757, the F-80 and the F-86, which are not on the White List. Speaking of the The F-80 and F-86, they can also be flown on normal legs, but are classified as a subset of the “thoroughbreds”, and have slightly different restrictions than the “normal thoroughbreds”, and are further restricted to specific flight simulation models. Continental Jet Legs can be flown using a Jet listed in the Regional/Continental List, which is subset of the White List Jets, to include only those with two or less engines, but not the F-86 or the F-80. Cold War Jets can be flown only as a “Special Leg”, unless you're flying the Section 8 F-86 or the Virtavia F-80, in which case the “Special Leg” can also count as a normal leg or a Team Flight. But the “Cold War Jets” include other models of the F-80 and F-86, so if you're flying one of those, or any other “Cold War” jet, then that leg could only count as a “Cold War Special Leg”. You have to see the FAQ, not the White List, to find out exactly which specific simulation models are eligible as “Cold War Jets”.



    Why not something like:

    Put all the authorized planes, including jets, all of them, on the White List, period. One list, please...

    If we want to restrict jets to wild card legs and continental jet legs, or whatever other special type legs, fine. But, in legs where jets are allowed, any jet on the white list is eligible. If you don't want me to fly a three engine jet, then don't put it on the white list! I'm not likely to pick the F-86 for a 2000 mile wild card leg, and if I do, that's my problem. What possible purpose could have been in mind when you restricted continental jet legs to twin engine jets? This is a good example of a “gotcha” rule, IMO...

    If team and formation flights are part of the race, why can't any leg be a team flight or a formation flight? Who cares? Can the team combine a team flight with a wild card leg? Sure, knock yourself out. What about formation flights? Why not? The point is, the team can make the combination if they wish, when they wish. They don't have to scour the rules trying to figure out what combination of leg types, aircraft type/model/sim model are 1) allowed, and/or 2) required, and/or 3) specifically disallowed.

    Ok, I'm done. It was a fun race this year!
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  2. #2
    I would like to see the rules, whether simple or complex, written clearer. It was hard to understand without several re-reads.

  3. #3
    Excellent points Paul!

    You are very good at parsing all these tidbits. I do not have the patience for it.

    Would you be willing to draft a rewritten set of rules as you think they should be.

    Copy/paste ... edit.

    It would be a great draft for a new, simplified version and a first step to actually getting there.

    That would be sooo refreshing.
    Milton Shupe
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  4. #4
    I wonder if there is a way to encourage the use of more variable types and models of aircraft without making this way too complicated? In the "Got Gammel dags" of the race a great vareity of planes were flown, and we had a lot more crashes. People most likely didn't have the huge number of planes and we just weren't hot sim pilots as yet. This year, except for Paul's KMRY fog we had really good weather, not floundering in mile smog in India for an airport with no navaids, hidden amongst the city buildings.

    Given all the practical limitations of sims, team sizes, peoples other obligations etc, the race was remarkably fun!

    Cheers: Tom

  5. #5
    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Milton Shupe View Post
    Excellent points Paul!

    You are very good at parsing all these tidbits. I do not have the patience for it.

    Would you be willing to draft a rewritten set of rules as you think they should be.

    Copy/paste ... edit.

    It would be a great draft for a new, simplified version and a first step to actually getting there.

    That would be sooo refreshing.
    A reasonable idea, since I started this...
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  6. #6
    Thanks for the thoughts Paul. I do agree, one whitelist.

    However, I don't know where you got the idea that the F-86 could have ever been used for a wildcard?

    To quote the rules;
    "Pilots must fly an aircraft with atakeoff weight of 30,000 pounds or more, they may not exceed the maximum grossweight, and they may choose either a normal race eligible aircraft or a sponsored Jet."

    You have to significantly overload any of the cold-war Jets to achieve that weight.


    - Joseph
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  7. #7
    Senior Administrator PRB's Avatar
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    Hi Joseph,

    You made my point, sort of... I knew it was illegal to use the F-86 for the wildcard leg, for the reason you mentioned. As written, the rules make me dig around the aircraft config files and other places to make sure I'm not breaking the 30,000lb rule, which, by the way, is yet another subset of the white list I forgot to add to my list above! So that's five lists of planes, implicit and/or explicit, overlapping with other lists, we had to deal with...

    If there was only one white list, and a rule that said jets are restricted to wild card legs, it would be up to me to find a plane that can make it. The difference is that now I'm looking at aircraft specifications and capabilities, which is fun, rather than examining a rules document to make sure I'm not in violation of Rule 8.7, paragraph 12.5, sub-paragraph 12.5.iii(b), which is less than fun. The rule "writes itself" in this case, in that I won't choose an F-86 for a 2000 mile wildcard leg, because it can't make it. If I do choose it, I will fail, not because I missed a rule in the 63 pages someplace, but because I failed in my airmanship and flight preparations.
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