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World Pilot Ranking
Organisers of competitions request sanctioning for their competition; the events are put on the FAI calendar; the results are then sent to the CIVL Coordinator (paula@fai.org) and entered into the WPRS. Pilots are given scores according to formulas (see below) you can study. The rankings have between 10 and 30 competitions added each month, usually around the beginning of the month. These results are included in the rankings immediately. However, every 3 months (every quarter) in March, June, September and December the rankings are recalculated and older competitions begin to be gradually devalued so that at the end of 3 years they count zero. This 3 months rhythm allows competitions to be grouped together in the same season. The best 4 competitions for each pilot count towards his total score and his ranking. Arrows show whether the pilot has moved up or down since the previous quarter. The top 3 pilots’ scores are added together to make the nations ranking. In paragliding, this sets how many pilots will be allowed to comprise the team in World or Continental Championships.
Attention!
Competition class factor - Cc Either = 1, for Cat 1 comp, or 0.8 for Cat 2 competition. There needs to be a starting point for the ranking of the event, like a sanction value. At the moment, FAI has two "sanction levels", Category 1 and Category 2. CIVL policy has given these different categories different importance; this factor determines the starting point of the available ranking points that will be on offer at the competition. The system currently uses the existing philosophy of CIVL in this respect, but it can also produce different "weightings" if deemed appropriate. Pilot quality factor - Pq This factor is derived from the quality of the pilots attending the event. This is the means of getting rid of "Mickey Mouse" competitions that otherwise would have given ranking points to pilots who did not deserve the points. The old system simply uses pilot numbers as the measure of validity, which means that if a competition has many competitors of poor skill, it will score more ranking points than a smaller competition with all the worlds best pilots (for example, the Florida comps, the Bogong cup). That in turn means that to score ranking points, avoid comps with good pilots! (obviously not what we should be trying to do!) The Pilot Quality factor is derived such that a small competition, which attracts a quality field of pilots, will still produce high-ranking points, while a large competition with a poor quality field of competitors will not produce high-ranking points. This factor is critical to the success of the system. It must effectively devalue competitions with poor skill represented, while maintaining high points for competitions, which deserve the points. |
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This graph shows the sum of the pilot weightings of all the pilots in the competition. The pilot weightings are allocated according to each pilot’s position on the current WPR (at the time of the competitions last scheduled flying day). Small competitions will not be relegated to irrelevance as there is a minimum pilot quality standard. The lowest Pilot Quality factor that is possible is 0.2 and the highest possible is 1. The actual numbers are: |
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point, which needs to be considered, is the fact that if a small number
of the top ranked pilots can influence the points that a competition
eventually gains for the pilots in attendance, then that small number of
pilots may purposely alter the points available to other pilots by
agreeing (as a group) to attend, or not to attend a particular
competition. To reduce this risk, the model uses a series of steps to group pilots into equal categories, hence spreading the high Pilot Quality points amongst a larger group. |
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This makes it
difficult for a group of top pilots to devalue a potentially high
scoring competition by choosing not to participate.
The actual numbers are: |
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Task amount factor - Ta | |
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This factor only affects the points outcome if the weather
is significantly worse than expected. Once four valid rounds have
been reached the competition is deemed to be valid. if less than 4
rounds are held, then the competition is progressively devalued.
The actual numbers are: |
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Pilot points factor - Pp The basic points a pilot gets according to his result in the competition. The old ranking is based on the philosophy that pilots only get ranking points if they finish in the top two thirds of a competition. This is a policy that
came about because of the Cat 1 entry requirements. The new system makes
this obsolete as the new system calculates Category 1 competition entry
requirement separately, according to whatever rules that CIVL care to
produce. |
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The example here is of a competition with 200 competitors. The actual numbers are: |
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Time devaluation factor - Td The factor devalues pilot’s points according to how old the results are. |
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The competitions
are grouped into "seasons". These seasons can be altered so
that competitions that are run close together will be in the same
season.
The underlying curve is a power of 4, while the steps represent the seasons with which the competitions will be grouped. All the competitions within each step (season) have the same time devaluation. The seasons can be altered to make sure that competitions that are run close together are always counted as being part of the same season. These steps (seasons) are present because a competition held later in a group of competitions should not be worth more points than an earlier one. For example, there are typically two Florida Aero Tow comps. The second one should not be worth more than the first one simply because it is held later. |
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The formula for the time calculation is: fulltime = 1096 (365.25 days * 3.0, which is 3 years) Const halftime = fulltime / 2 (365.25 days * 1.5) timediff = Time Difference between the step in the "season" and the last scheduled day of the competition If timediff < 0 Or timediff > fulltime Then
TimeDevaluationFactor = 0 Scoring factor - Sf Normally = 1 This last factor in this system would not normally be an issue, with GAP scoring formulas, this factor equals 1.The factor will only change if a different scoring system is used and the results are deemed to be less reliable. The amount of devaluation will be decided if and when a different competition scoring system is proposed to be used in a category 2 competition. Competitions with unknown scoring systems have been scored with a Scoring Factor of 1 in this current database, however they may (or may not) be devalued in future. There are two additional calculations done to determine WPR points.
Country rankings are determined by adding the scores of the four best pilots of each country. The World Pilot Ranking System needs to fulfil two goals:
The ranking database has been set up so that the category 1 competition entry requirements can be entered into the database and all the pilots that fulfil the requirements are then listed. World Pilot Ranking - WPR WPR = Cc*Pq*Ta*Pp*Td*Sf |
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