Official RTW Race Website Launched, Rules Announced

[Guest JohnMueller]

Guys, maybe we need to wait and see what the special requirements and other "features" will be. Seeing the straightforward rules so far (I hope there won't be any "lets try it and see if it's legal afterwards" this year), I imagine the real work will come when they disclose the rest -- I don't think it will just be a "do one leg in a helicopter" :).Sure, there's only one pacific crossing possible, but 3 atlantic crossings + 2 possible continents to reach S45

[Guest]

there's only 1 Atlantic crossing John. The other one has 2 legs of over 1000nm each.Effectively there's just one continent to reach 45 South as well because the other one (unless the starting position is there, reversing the situation) would make for too much of a detour and force the team choosing it to make several illegal legs.That all forces a single route on everyone. There is no wrong or right route where there's only 1 route available.

[Guest]

Also, the wildcard leg is useless under the current rules.You're going 2 hours over the 2 hour limit, imposing a 6 hour penalty...

[Guest Matt Johnson]

Nope, the rules say that this isn't the case:d) Each forum has one wild-card flight of up to 1500 miles and 6 hours that is not subject to parts b and c of this rule.(Where part b is the 'penalty' rule and part c is the 'absolute limit' rule).Therefore, taking the fairly wild assumption that you're going to use this for one of the transoceanic legs... you get the picture. No more limitation on routes there.

[Guest]

This will lift the restriction on the Pacific crossing only, enabling that without a penalty.Still leaves only a single Atlantic route.Of course one could choose a 1 hour penalty over the Pacific and use it over the Atlantic instead.I'll get cracking on some planning, even though I still think things are too restrictive...

[MM 422]

Hi all,Good to hear this discussion. A couple of personal reactions (these are not official comments).1. The "triple-time" penalty (or whatever it might be called) is intended to allow some leeway from the 2-hour restriction but to discourage taking advantage of that leeway. In past years, we've had the 2-hour restriction but occasionally "broken" it with impunity. (People did mostly the right thing but the temptation to squeeze a few extra miles was always there). And, in particular, the "over water" loophole needed to be closed

[Guest]

I don't think anyone in previous years (at least not on our team) deliberately planned a route to go over the limit.As it is with this new rules you're going to have to plan for legs of no more than 1.5 hours at most in order to have some leeway in case of headwinds or goarounds.1 goaround or a few knots more headwind than anticipated when you're close to the 2 hour limit can mean you cause a setback of half an hour to an hour, especially if there's nowhere to divert (which can happen in many places, in effect anywhere except the USA and western Europe it's likely there's simply nowher in range that can take your aircraft).That's pretty hefty. And I DO consider the penalty to mean you're in violation of the rules and will plan accordingly, leading to very short legs and possibly long detours to make sure there's never a possibility of going over the limit.

[vcaptmattsmith 3]

Gentlemen-We're reviewing the rules. Jeroen has brought up some very legitimate points regarding routing. We're going to look at what our options are and try to revise things.This is really the community's race. When there's this level of outcry in the community, something needs to be done. It's not my role to sit up on high and govern. We're going to find something that everyone can agree on.I'll be back to you soon with a solution.Matt SmithOrganizerMSFS RTW Race

[Guest]

cheers. MM has my email address if you need to get in contact :)

[Guest EasyEd]

Hey All,Interesting set of rules. I support the keep it under two hours rule and like the possibilities the triple penalty presents. The penalty could be your friend and there is nothing wrong with using it to advantage. It's no different than an NFL team taking a delay of game to get a better angle on a field goal or a basketball team deliberately fouling and hoping the person fouled misses the free throws so that they can get the ball back. It certainly makes planning very interesting. If I go an hour overtime here do I save over 3 hours by not going that way? Plus it gives the teams a bit of a break. Should be fun!Take Care! -Ed-

[Guest dcc]

I like the penalty minutes etc. However, I actually think a 2-to-1 wait rather than 3-to-1 might open it up for more strategic use. To me, that's part of the fun of a challenging game -- balancing "playing it safe" against taking calculated risks; or even sacrificing something to gain a stratigic advantage. - dcc

[Guest EasyEd]

Hey All,Yeah DCC 2 to 1 might be better. The other thing I'd think about is instead of 45 S and 60 N I'd go 30 S and 70 N that would reduce the options for the north and still leave plenty as anybody going around via the Aleutians qualifies at 60N while 30 S brings 3 possible continents into play.Just a Thought!Take Care! -Ed-

[jt_williams 291]

Potential Problem Area with Time SynchronizationYesterday Sonar5 flew a leg 11 minutes longer than 2hrs resulting in a 33 minute time penalty. I happened to check in the forums shortly after he posted his Baton free w/penalty post. I looked at the time stamp of his post (6:50 EST), added 33 minutes and posted a plan departure of 7:23 EST. The problem is that the forum time stamp was 17 minutes ahead of the actual time. See the actual posts in this thread:http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...d=703&page=#718If I had departed based on the post time stamp my leg would have been declared invalid. I had to check Sonar's Duenna screen shot to confirm the Zulu time of his dropping of the baton. I added 33 minutes to that and my new departure time was 7:40. Sonar5 was on top of things and he immediately contacted me when I announced my intention to depart at 7:23. This error on my part was averted primarily due to the detail provided in the Duenna and the vigilance of Sonar5. My concern is that forum post time stamps are the official record of the sequence of events and time intervals but they are not sychronized to the real time or most users time. It is hard to use the forum time to determine when a time penaltiy has expired.Jeff Williams

[HiFlyin 0]

I experimented with the Duenna Utility version 43 during flight with all the proper settings. However, upon starting up the utility, it kept telling me that I did not have the proper realism settings even though I did! Uninstalled it and re-installed it. Same problem.Has anyone else had this problem.PS. I have the lastest version of FSUPIC version 3.45Sean.

[Guest Matt Johnson]

Forum time and the time that the rest of the world uses should now match up!--Matt