Angle

Competition Ballooning – Angle

The rule (or information) for this task is set out in Chapter 15 of the Event Rules

This is the last and therefore newest of the tasks in the rule book; devised by Uwe Schneider of Germany it was first used in 2001.  It can be considered as an elbow where the first leg has already been decided and you are left to complete the second. This is often set as a follow-on task instead of a fly on and can be used with markers as well as the FAI loggers.  The task data gives you the “set” direction or angle and you have to try to ‘steer’ as far away from this direction as possible within the minimum and maximum distances given. In the example (Figure 1) the task has been set after a pilot declared goal (PDG). Point A will therefore be your marker drop for the PDG and not the PDG goal itself. In your flight planning you will draw the set direction from your PDG realising this may have to be adjusted should you not be able to get there. Point B will be your marker drop or logger point somewhere between the minimum and maximum distances given. 

The competition director may give the set direction midway between the furthest wind to the left and the furthest wind to the right such that you have to judge whether it is best to try to move left of the set direction or right of it. Just as in the Elbow (Aerostat Vol.47.2 April 2016) this task is best set when best wind is neither that closest to the ground or that at the highest altitude you can obtain in the competition area; in those situations, it induces pilots to fly very close to the ground with the possibility of annoying animals and farmers or climbing rapidly with the dangers of fast climbs in a competition. Also, as in the Elbow, it is best that this task is not set when you can achieve 180^o.  

One has to be aware that the forecast winds may well have changed between the briefing and the time you arrive at point A. If in a morning task, and the lower level wind is close to the ground then this may veer as the low-level inversion disappears as the sun rises. You may also have to consider whether your predicted track will take you over open ground or over built up areas, farms or powerlines where you will have to climb. You need to take note of whether the ground rises in front of you on your predicted track or whether there is a deep valley along the track that may be advantageous to drop into. For a track to the right at height you may find that, as in the example, you will move left to start with before you find the desired track at height. Therefore, the longer you remain at that ‘best’ height once attained the more the angle will increase from point A. In the example, you will note that the wind slowly backed once the pilot attained the ‘best height’ such that after 4 km the angle started to get smaller. It is important always to keep that line from point A to your position current to make sure that the angle does not start to deteriorate once in the scoring band. If it starts to deteriorate and you do not think you can improve further on it and you are between point A and point B then that is the time to drop your marker. In the figure, the maximum angle is reached after 4km and then starts to turn back. Always keep an eye on other balloons flying around you as you may find that the best wind direction away from the set direction may mean passing through a height where the wind was taking you in the wrong direction.  

Figure 1: The Angle Task; Set direction of 034^o 

This task was set both in the British Nationals and the Belgium Balloon Trophy last year. At the event in Belgium it was set as the last task in a four-task morning flight. Point A was separate from the previous task; it was the first track point (using the FAI loggers) after passing Eastings 70800. The set direction was 320^o. By the time we got to the line it was quite late in the morning and the winds quite light. There was a very narrow band of air that would take you just east of north, giving you a possible angle of just over 45^o. The difficulty here was that the wind would take you back over the line 70800 so it took most of us several attempts to just cross the line before dropping down into the narrow band and going back across (which was allowed) The narrow band was only about 50ft high while the wind above or below took you off in a north-north-westerly direction. The minimum and maximum distances were 5 and 6 kilometres so you had to press your next logger mark between those two distances.  It required intense concentration to keep your balloon in that narrow band. The task was won by Isamil Keremoglu, representing Turkey with Rupert Stanley second.  Most of the scores were all quite close though Ismail and Rupert were significantly better than the following pack such that Ismail scored 1000 points, Rupert 904, third place 842 and 18 of the remaining 22 in the top half scoring between 700 and 500. 

Fig 2: The British Nationals 2016, Cambridgeshire.  

Figure 3: Crispin Williams with observer, British Nationals 2012.  

Written by David Bareford