Hanging controls -- what to do?

[King Penguin]

Surely, any one control should have the same description on all courses ?
OK - maybe pictorial on some and text on others, but if planning in OCAD or CONDES why set / type the description more than once ?

[paul]

Surely, any one control should have the same description on all courses ?
OK - maybe pictorial on some and text on others, but if planning in OCAD or CONDES why set / type the description more than once ?

Not necessarily - if you're using two different scales of maps and the description of the control within the circle changes between scales e.g. re-entrant becomes west re-entrant.

[madmike]

What would people view as 'correct' in the following situation?

You're hanging controls for an event, reach the control site and there's no tag. After a quick look around you find the tag for that control in the wrong place, on a similar nearby feature.

a) Hang the control in what you feel/know is the correct position
b) Hang the control by the tag, and inform the controller that it is in the wrong place on return to base

This very Sunday I had an issue with the first control I laid. I was on the feature (small spur) and despite looking for 10 mins could not find the tape. Using 3 different attackpoints from 3 different directions I confirmed the location was correct and hung the control. Fortunately the controller caught me up a couple of controls later so I was able to tell him that I'd not found the tape. He was content it was in the right place and had checked the control location and that the box was awake - he hadn't looked for the tape. I did much thinking about what I should do given this thread

[Marco Polo]

Interstingly, there was a reinstatement at Bradenham where a the flag was hung at a different site from the tape. In this case the control placement was later considered correct by the controller. In hindsight this probably made for a better event, but still... ?!

One more reminder from that. If you do agree to move the control, remove the old tapes! (and when collecting in controls of course).

[Homer]

Interesting slant Homer - at a big event it is always worth getting someone you to trust to pre-run.

Is the individual concerned still a grade 1 controller?
If so what retraining did he undergo?

He has subsequently retired as he is no longer physically up to the job.
I guess I was effectively pre-running the course.

[AndyC]

One more reminder from that. If you do agree to move the control, remove the old tapes! (and when collecting in controls of course).

A few years ago I helped place controls for the October Oddyssey at Simonside and was instructed not to put out one control because it was no longer on any course.
During the event a competitor reported that his control had been removed. He'd found the tape for the "absent control" and assumed it was his (which was on a similar boulder some distance away). If we'd removed the tape (which did bear the control code for the original control so could have been rejected by a closer look) I presume he'd eventually have found the correct site

[andypat]

If "some distance" was more than 60m then he didnt really have a complaint in any case.

[Adventure Racer]

Even if it was less, I still don't see how he had a complaint. Whilst it's obviously good practice to remove tapes when collecting controls it doesn't always happen - I've not been able to find tapes when collecting controls. I've also found old tapes in the woods when hanging or collecting. I can think of one occasion when I found the control by spotting the tape, but it's certainly not something I'd rely on.