CHCCS ARDF
2019-09-07, Fall #1
80m Classic
-
Carolina North Forest - East

Island Creative Time
The family website of Kelly and Patrick Sears




The day was beautiful for our first CHCCS ARDF event of the fall. We were at our usual base area on the east side of Carolina North Forest. We had a total of 16 participants: two high school students, three middle school students, two elementary school students, and nine family members. So it was a good turn-out and we're especially excited for interest in ARDF growing in the high schools.

The courses were setup as usual for our 80m classic events. Once again we had the timer beep box at the start for those who wanted championship timing. Three of the foxes were pretty close in for beginners. These constituted our orange course with a straight line distance of 1.6 km. The ideal method for getting them was to follow a clockwise arc getting 5, then 4, then 2. The other two foxes (1 and 3) were at a good distance and the red course had a straight line distance of 3.3 km. On the red course, it was important to pick up some of the close in foxes while heading for the first far one. The longest distance across the course area was 1.7 km. Radial exclusion zones for foxes, the start, and the homing beacon were all 300 m. Once again we had the fun two sided finish shoot.

We had three new groups. Naomi (SmMS-6) and Jon. Charlie (SmMS-8), Jean, and Mark. Sam (es) and Robert. They arrived in sequence and we had a kind of rolling class that slowly edged onto the course. It was a bit slow going for those who arrived first and a bit confusing for those arriving toward the end. But everyone was super understanding and made the best of it. We didn't work on strategy until passing the clearing and edging out of the exclusion zone. At that time, there were still a few participants figuring out how to get bearings on the foxes. Soon after, several people had been able to get a bearing on each of the foxes we were looking for. The strategy now revealed itself. We wanted to do that clockwise arc and fox 5 was the furthest to the East. So getting that fox was our first goal. Almost everyone was starting to work at it on their own and so the group spread out. We mostly all made it to fox 5 around the same time though. After that, individuals separated pretty fast. Very cool : )

We also had quite a few experienced participants. Toby (ECHHS-9) and Jason. Owen (SmMS-7), Scott, and Sarah. Malcolm (ECHHS-9), Theo (es), Peter, and Mary. Mary was here for the first time but every one else had been to several events. They all went for the red course. Excellent!

We used our course timing system again. It was greatly improved. The field boxes were mostly the same. But this time, the download box was connected to a Raspberry Pi. The Pi acted as a wireless access point and had a web server posting the results as they were downloaded. We had a tablet there and for the first time we had live results. That was super cool. With all the new participants we were pretty busy. So, we only got the results server running as the last few participants returned. There was one small glitch. The problem was in the configuration for fox 2. It was confusing because most on the long course went for fox 4 after fox 2 and it gave fox 4 a crazy long time. Fortunately, it wasn't a coding error. Back at home, we eventually identified the faulty configuration and were able to retrieve the original data. Happy time : )

The results summary section has been completely replaced by the results from course timing system (CTS-Evpro). Now that CTS-Evpro has been tested at several events, we are confident with using it. Check out how you did at the end of the web page, after the pictures. They appear mostly as the live results appeared except that we added names where we didn't have them preconfigured and we fixed the fox 2 error.

Thank you to all our helpers.

Thanks to all the middle school and high school teachers and staff who helped get the word out to the students: Rachel Hopler (Science Teacher, Culbreth Middle School), Christine Lippy (Science Teacher, McDougle Middle School), Al McArthur (Technology Facilitator, Phillips Middle School), Haley Wamble (Science Teacher, East Chapel Hill High School), SaCola Lehr (Media Specialist, Chapel Hill High School), Libby Diesel (Library Assistant, Chapel Hill High School), Femi Jayeola (Librarian, Carrboro High School), Margaret Devetski (Library Assistant, Carrboro High School). Thanks to Greg Kopsch (Park Manager at Carolina North Forest) for the use of CNF.

Pictures.

Clicking pictures will bring up original full-sized versions. All participants are listed as seen in the picture from left to right. Pictures are generally listed in chronological order trying to keep groups together. If you took any pictures during the event, we would love to post them. If you would like that, email us your pictures.

Thank you to Jason Reed for the pictures labeled *JR.



Getting equipment, getting ready.

Theo, Malcolm, Mary, Peter, Kelly. Getting their equipment ready.

Mark, Jean, Charlie.



On course.

The group going out on course after the class.

Mark, Patrick, Charlie, Jon, Robert, Sam.

Jean, Mark, Charlie, Naomi. I think this is by fox 5 just before the group really split up.

Sam, Robert.

Jon, Mark, Jean.

Jean, Charlie.

Charlie. At fox 4. It was in a pit surrounded by white rocks.

Toby. *JR

Toby. I think this is at fox 1, one of the two far ones on the red course. *JR

Toby. *JR

Toby. *JR

Toby. *JR



Back at base camp.

Theo. Coming down the finish shoot.

Owen. Coming down the finish shoot.

Naomi. In the finish shoot, just after hitting the homing beacon.

Jon, Naomi. Just coming to the finish punch at the end of the shoot.

Naomi.

Charlie. Just about to hit the last punch.

Toby. Coming down the finish shoot.

Toby. At the finish punch.

Jason.

Sam, Robert.

Jason, Toby.

Charlie, Robert, Kelly, Sam. At the main base after returning. The usual post-race discussions.

Owen, Sarah, Scott.






CTS Evpro Results.

The cts-evpro results are listed here mostly as they were recorded during the event. There is a separate listing for each RFID card used but participants are free to run the course individually or in groups. For this reason and because we don't have enough participants to create meaningful categories, we're not providing a ranking. Mostly, everyone is competing against themselves, seeing how they can improve : )

ToC is the time on course. HB is the homing beacon.

For each control, the information is presented as follows:


Classic 80m course.

Students are listed with their school and grade. We use the following schools abbreviations: PhMS Phillips MS, SmMS Smith MS, McDMS McDougle MS, CuMS Culbreth MS, CHHS Chapel Hill HS, ECHHS East Chapel Hill HS, CaHS Carrboro HS, es elementary school, s CHCCS student (no school info), f family or guest friend, t teachers and staff members.


All the pictures we took are free to use as you wish. The web page (text and layout) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Link to License. This means that you can copy anything you want, use it and alter it as you want, as long as you give credit to us for the original work, provide a link to the license, and explain any changes you made. We try to make sure all other content we display is also available to use. But check the sources we list before using them.