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Discussion: yeah, UTM's are a pain....I...

in: toddp; toddp > 2008-07-08;

#  Posted 2008-07-09 19:35:22
O Steve!: yeah, UTM's are a pain....I dont like haiving to plot them on the clock...I dont do well with detail work under pressure...easy to make a mistake with drastic consequences if you plot wrong......

#  Posted 2008-07-09 19:43:45
iriharding: they are a pain for everyone .... when racers plot a point 10 or 20 km off they go 10 km or worse off course and basically cause a lot of grief for everyone. It could be worse when the military uses UTM's and screws up they blow up the wrong house !

When I have UTM's to be plotted in a race then I use them with caution with a cross check with a clear feature if possible (e.g. road junction, stream junction or hill top). Then put a UTM check plot 100m away for folks to use to limit the "one key digit wrong - 10 km away errors".

#  Posted 2008-07-10 00:34:52
toddp: mobiz said it is just another mental challenge to be disposed of, just another part of the race. I guess that's how you have to approach it if you want to do well and have fun.

#  Posted 2008-07-10 05:34:13
pfc: 1. Practice, practice, practice!
2. In a race, always have a second person check your plot. Avoids the 10 km mistakes.

#  Posted 2008-07-10 06:33:41
toddp: Dude, you *must* practice. You plotted 15 points in about 3 minutes! Any UTM plotting for PQ?

#  Posted 2008-07-10 09:39:37
pfc: PQ had 31 checkpoints to plot. I did take a break in the middle.

If you wanted to be a real hardass AR director, you could probably find a way to force UTM plotting under pressure. e.g. at race start, plot and visit five points (within a km^2 area) before going into a bottleneck section. Or a time bonus for getting there early. Maybe specify points in other ways than UTM, like bearing/distance or sighting problems. Have to think about that...

#  Posted 2008-07-14 07:50:10
Jerritt: I had the participants plot their 4 points after I said go, and with no verbal instructions. One team made a couple mistakes, but the guy who had the problem knew how to plot UTM's.
He was a former officer in the Isreali army, but I think he was thrown off by the extra digit in the northing. Thanks for explaining that one to me Pete. It made it easy to help him.

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