F3J vs F3B

[rycomm]

I've been away from soaring for a while. All of the competition talk is of F3J. I remember the F3B planes of the late 80's (windsong ect). Has the trend just gone to J instead of B, or was there a specific time or event that separates the two.
I'll stay with the RES stuff, but would like to get back up to date, Thanks, Ryan

[Ollie]

F3B competition consists of speed, distance and duration tasks launched by winch. F3J is launched by hand tow and is just thermal duration. Few contests that are strictly to these formats are flown in the USA. Specialized and expensive winches provided by the flier are required. Two athletic tow men and the flier must practise together and work as a team for best results.

[fprintf]

I am new to the contesting thing, but will add my two cents anyway.

All I hear of in "contesting talk" is of Thermal Duration flying in the US, run in slightly different formats for each contest. F3J *and* F3B are extremely limited, although I would say except for the launch TD contests are much closer to the F3J FAI class than they are to F3B.

Do the experts agree with this newbie's observation?

[nuevo]

From a high level, you are correct. They are similar. The task is basically, make your time and land on time and on target.

Here are a few key features of F3J, contrasting with typical US TD rules.


F3J has a time slot. 10 minute time slot. You can't launch until the slot begins. Everyone launches at exactly the same time. Time on the launch line counts against your flight time, thus emphasizing faster launches. Mass launches sometimes lead to mid-airs, if anyone meanders on the line.

F3J is man-on-man scoring. Your score gets normalized against only the pilots in your group. In effect, you are competing only against them, during your flight window. Thus, a guarantee of several max scores per round. Someone has to get 1000 in each flight group, no matter how bad the air is. Man-on-man scoring is popular in some parts of the US for TD contests, but not universal.

F3J landing zones are generally more generous.
The timer has to keep two watches running. One for the time slot and one for the pilot's flight time.
30 second penalty for exceeding the time slot. Also no landing bonus at all, if you overfly the time slot. Thus you want to land early, but not "too" early.

There is a zero flight score if you land more than 75 meters from your landing spot.

reflights are allowed under certain circumstances
Power available on launch is completely different than a winch. Techniques for launch are slightly different.