[ARDF] Ouch!

[Dale Hunt, WB6BYU]

Bruce wrote:
> 
> Matthew Robbins wrote:
> 
> >Check out the route from 3 to 2.  This is a 2m course.  Wow.  That
> >looks like no fun at all.  (I'm certain the approach to 2 is the line
> >east of 2, and the exit from 2 is to the north.)
> >
> >http://www.ardf.no/resultater2004/142_4211t.jpg
> >
> >Very few people got 4 first.
> >
> >
> True !  (Unfortunately for me).
> I went up over the hill 3->2 instead of the huge zigzag shown, and
> luckily I didn't go as far afield
> to the South as this one shows (but I did make a significant westerly
> excursion). In 4 minutes you can very quickly
> muck up a good route with just one poor bearing.
> 


    Yes, I was the juror at TX #2, and we saw both confusion and
    exhaustion as the competitors came by.  I don't remember the
    numbers, but a noticable percentage of the competitors looking
    for that transmitter never showed up.  But given the layout and
    nature of the course, that (or perhaps #4) was the appropriate
    transmitter to skip if you were going to miss one.
       One competitor ran by within 8m in pretty open forest - the
    operator almost had to move his legs so he didn't trip - and
    continued off down the hill without seeing us or the flag. 
    Took him about 12 minutes to find his way back.  (Ahem... 
    I do have to admit that I passed my first WC transmitter by
    3m or less, but got it on the next cycle.)

       Certainly the road was probably the quickest way back 
    to the finish from there, but 2m #5 was in the SE corner
    just outside the finish exclusion zone, so others might
    have continued east from #2.

        - Dale WB6BYU

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