by Kim Crosser on Sun Jan 09, 2005 6:12 pm
I am proposing the following for comment:
Note - assumptions/preconditions:
Instructors are assigned only to the Red, White, and Orange run groups.
Students are assigned only to the Green, Yellow, and Blue run groups.
Students in the Blue run group have instructors in the Red run group.
Students in the Green run group have instructors in the White run group.
Students in the Yellow run group have instructors in the Orange run group.
Students with no corner working experience must be accompanied by their instructors during their corner working session.
Students with less than 4 (3?) AX's driving experience will need to have their instructors ride with them during the timed runs as well as practice.
Proposed changes:
1. Increase the sizes of the Red, White, and Orange run groups, such that there are 20-30% more drivers in those groups than in the Blue, Green, Yellow groups. (E.g., if there are 100 drivers, put 13-15 each in Blue, Green, and Yellow, and 18-20 each in Red, White, and Orange.) This will minimize the effects of early arrival/worker exemptions and spread the impact across more groups.
2. Spread the "usual suspects" (the consistent early workers and dedicated AX workers) across the Red, White, and Orange groups. Again, this will minimize the current problem of having so many of them be in Red and White today.
3. Unless impossible due to very small turnouts or very large exemptions, instructors who corner work with their students will be "exempted" from corner working their session, like with those who show early to help with tech, throw the track, etc. This will minimize the "double session" issue.
4. Change the current sequence of corner working and run groups -
Session 1 - Green works corners (with White instructors as needed). Run groups are Orange, Yellow, Red.
Session 2 - Yellow works corners (with Orange instructors as needed). Run groups are Blue, White, Green.
Session 3 - Orange works corners. Run groups are Red, Blue, White.
Session 4 - Blue works corners (with Red instructors as needed). Run groups are Green, Orange, Yellow.
Session 5 (timed runs) - Red works corners. Run groups are White, Green, Yellow.
Session 6 (timed runs) - White works corners. Run groups are Orange, Blue, Red.
This sequence has the following advantages:
A. All students ride with their instructors prior to driving the course (each time!).
B. During timed runs, instructors for students are available to ride with them if required.
C. At corner working switch points between sessions, neither the corner workers nor their instructors should be in a car just before their corner working session, nor will they be coming off corner working when they are scheduled to drive.
There are three disadvantages that I see:
D: The instructor/student run groups are back-to-back in each case, so when the instructors come off the track, they must immediately jump in the students' cars with no breaks (this happens now at some points). Note that with the larger instructor run groups, this shouldn't be a problem in pre-grid, since cars will be coming off the track while there are still 14-18 cars left to run.
E. The Yellow/Orange and Blue/Red corner working sessions are back-to-back, so if an instructor must go out with a student and then we must use the same instructor during their corner working session, that is a LONG time out on the track. The key here is to excuse those instructors who worked corners with their students.
F. The "rest" gaps between run groups are uneven. Orange and Yellow have to wait 8 run groups from the first runs until their second runs, while Red and Blue only wait two (and then the reverse is true in the second half of the day). Meanwhile, White and Green drive, then wait two run groups, then drive, then wait two run groups, then drive again. I don't think this is a real problem, but am open to comments/suggestions.
Please review this and see if it makes sense, if the current scheme is better, or if you can devise a better scheme. Note that the "preconditions" are how the assignments are currently made to run groups - this could be changeable if you come up with a better scheme.
For those who would like an Excel spreadsheet to investigate combinations, send me an e-mail to "kim@thecrossers.net" and I will reply to you with the spreadsheet I have been using to try out various arrangements. It automatically flags conflicts in assignments so you don't have to "eyeball" it for conflicts.
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