Cuppers

The Cuppers League is an internal competition, in which every matriculated OUGC pilot can participate on behalf of their college.

The format is similar to Varsity (and it is used as a way to practice for Varsity), with the exception that it is a year-round competition. On any given day, a member can perform a soaring flight and submit the GPS flight trace to the captains for scoring. Pilots can submit multiple flights throughout the year.

At the annual dinner, the Cuppers Trophy is awarded to the college/pilot with the highest scoring flight. Flights can only be made if the member is still matriculated at the time. However, if the pilot graduates between submitting the flight and the next Annual Dinner, the trophy can still be awarded to this pilot. 

In the 2018/19 competition all flights must be submitted to the OUGC President (president@ougc.org) by 9am on the 15th of May.

Rules

Pilots fly solo or with an instructor as safety pilot. The instructor cannot take control or give advice during the soaring part of the flight.

  1. Every pilot submits their best flight on the day.

  2. Both teams have to submit an equal amount of flights each day.

  3. Points are given for duration: 1 point per minute up to 50 minutes, and 6 points deducted for each minute over 50.

  4. Points are also given for height gain. For each climb maintained over at least 500ft, 2 points per 100ft height gain are given.

  5. Each day’s results are normalized by the median-scoring flight (which will be set to 100 points, and the other flights adjusted accordingly).

  6. The team with the highest combined score after three days wins.

  7. If weather conditions prevent soaring on all three days, then a spot-landing competition can be held as alternative format.

  8. At no part during the flight should the glider exceed Va (Max maneuvering speed).

  9. The flight needs to conclude with a normal circuit, and the final turn completed above 300ft QFE.

Flying with an instructor

Flying with an instructor is perfectly fine - all you need to do is to get the instructor to sign this form declaring that they didn’t help with the soaring section of the flight, and rather acted just as a safety pilot.

How to download your trace

  1. Get a micro-SD card (sold in lots of stores in Oxford - have a quick google for a computer accessories store). Make sure it comes with a converter so that you can put the SD card into your computer/have a means to read the trace once you’ve downloaded it.

  2. Turn the power in the glider off

  3. Put the SD card into the flarm device (make sure you don’t have a config file on the SD card as this will re-configure the whole flarm device)

  4. Turn the power back on (the flarm will do lots of flashing at this point)

  5. Wait for all of the lights on the flarm to go out

  6. Turn the power off

  7. Remove your SD card