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- "Look what I found!"
I had just made my SG-38 flight and was chatting with Sir Snidley while waiting for the others to finish their own, when my good friend showed me this ancient illustration.

A Tale of Two Islands.
We know that in the old days, the people from Mogador and Vogel had a close and friendly relation. In the 16th century, they met often to discuss the skill of sailing and flying.
One day they decided to meet in a friendly competition and made a "sailboat on wheels" to race on the island of Vogel. Nobody knows who won the competition. Was it a sea-nomad from Mogador, or a flying-man from Vogel Island?
In any case, Sir Snidley and I decided to re-enact this competition. Being an able designer, he went to work at once to design something that went immediately to my heart. What fun to run! But what a new skill to learn!

So, we decided to share this experience with all our friends of the dESPair and organize ...

The dESPair Landsailer Match Race of 2001


The competition is open to all dESPair members and the rules are easy. Some skill must be gained in order to race these machines. This is why we decided that prior to the race, we all learn in teams. First, you will choose a partner to race in tandem networking. You will share with him all your discoveries about this new technique. But since he will be later your opponent, you might keep one trick or two for yourself, in the hope of beating him the day of the race. Courtesy and sportsmanship are the middle names of all dESPerados.
Rule 1: The weather setting is: 360 (true north) at 20 knots.

Rule 2: Both landsailers, one blue and one red, start each on one runway, either 09L or 09R, at Landsailing Field LSS0 "airport."

Rule 3: The winner of the last race gives the start signal as a message in XP. For the first race, a virtual coin is tossed.

Rule 4: Each participant chooses the route he prefers. There is only one mark to round, the smoke stack at the other side of the village.

Rule 5: The smoke stack can be rounded in any direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise. Once this is done, participants can choose the route back to the start/finish line, as they want.

Rule 6: The first participant to cross the finish line has to announced it by a brief message via XP.

Rule 7: Any landsailer that crashes in one obstacle, or tip around, has to announce it to his opponent at once. If both crash or tip around, the race is annulated.

Rule 8: To win the match, a participant has to lead by two races. It means that the minimum of races possible is three, with a winning score of 3-0. If not, the participants keep on racing until one of them leads by two races.

Rule 9: The winner of a match reports it to the racing committee. He will then qualify for the next round of finals and a new opponent will be designated.

Rule 10: The process will repeat itself until we end up with a final between two participants. Its winner will get the trophy for this year.

Note that we will most probably not start with a binary number of participants so, some leeway will have to be allowed for in order that we all have fun.

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The Race


This is the route of the race. You start from Landsailing Field, which is south of Silent Wings Gliderport, on Vogel island. You can take any route as you wish, as long as you round the mark, which is a smoke stack.
The finish line is the starting point. You can see it from far away as it is also marked with a smoke stack and a flag poles that mark the line. Once crossed this one, stop and send a message telling your partner.
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Download the package here.

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But first, you might want to have a look at this tutorial.