Computation-free and reliable time estimator for last flight in Poker

I have developed last season a method to determine the flight time nomination for the last Poker flight. The idea was to not use the timer at all, so that he/she can mainly focus on reading air and counting flight time. The method has worked to a 100% for me and since those who have timed for me know of it, I thought I can as well share it publicly. Please cite me though if you use and share it.

It works as follows:

1) Program a timer on your radio that counts down 10 minutes.

2) Start that clock 5 seconds before the start of the window.

3) When it comes to your last flight, the moment you have the plane ready to throw, glance at the clock on the radio and simply read (yell) whatever is displayed on it and throw the plane.

As the clock is 5s ahead of the working time, you will nominate a call that can be achieved. You do not need to subtract anything. Importantly, your helper does not need to count down the remaining working time either, which proved to be a big boon.

If you fumble the catch, just look at the clock once you are ready to throw.

For a tighter nomination, the 10 min clock could also be started 3 or 2s before the start of the window, but I prefer 5s safety buffer (i.e. if the official clock is lagging, etc).

As stated above, it has worked for me to 100% reliability past season and has taken a lot of load from my timers.

This method has evolved out of my previous method that estimated the last flight time when there was 1 minute left in the second-last flight. The old method however needed the helper to read out a working time during the second last flight, which was error prone and some timers got confused. The new method has proved to be vastly more robust and easier to apply in a contest situation. Further the old method required a perfect turnaround to work, whereas the new one is fully adaptive to mishaps.