Control Codes

[Gross]

Since it's polling day in the UK ans p***ing wet in Vilnius I thought I'd conduct a little poll to follow on from the BOC knoll discussion.... beware though... some of you may find the title a bit arrogant

[ba-ba]

where's ' as I leave the control I check the next 2 control codes and repeat them as a mantra, check them again just to make sure if I have a bit of a boring path run, then check again as I punch and check the next 2' as an option?
as for checking the CD's - normally only in urban racing to check side of feature

[NFKleanne]

I was told at my very first event to check the control code was correct. I have been known to check it, think its wrong, gone away and come back to check it again

[easternmost?]

Here is an article I wrote for Chasers attack Point a while ago (with a couple of updates).

Control codes.

How often have you been talking after a race and heard some one say “I didn’t check the code and miss-punched” or “I miss-read the code, ran off and finally re-located back to the same control”. Here is a quick checklist that might help you avoid such mistakes when you are confident you have navigated to the right feature..

You think you have reached control 8 but the code doesn’t agree with your descriptions ; consider this :-

• Re-check the code on the control and descriptions.
• Check the control number on the map, If you are at number 8 are you looking at the code for 8 ?
• Is a number for a different control printed close to the circle for number 8 and causing you to look at the wrong description.
• Have you been looking at the wrong bit of the map ; say legs 7 to 8 and 11 to 12 are in very similar bits of map it is possible that you have been looking at the map for 11 to 12 but managed to fall upon control 8. But the map says 12 so you think that is where you should be and the code doesn’t match. (It is possible, I have done it)

OK, so you must be at the wrong control, but don’t run off yet.
• Have you missed one out ? maybe you are stood at number 9 looking for the code for 8.
• Have you gone backwards to number 6.
• Turn the map over (if it’s a two part course), is this control on Part 2 of your course. If it is you can re-locate instantly ?
• Conversely was it on Part 1 and you don’t recognise being back here again?

Still lost ? It seems like it might be time for some conventional relocation.

Allan Williams

[seabird]

Can we have an option:
I only check control codes when I have some doubt about the soundness of my navigation.

In the past I have sometimes managed to get the wrong control code in my head and left without punching to look elsewhere when the code was apparently wrong.

[Gnitworp]

I tend to neither check the code nor visit the site if it doesn't look like the described feature

[IanD]

I do check control codes, otherwise I would still be wandering around Cannock Chase looking for a knoll.
(and I would have been disqualified yesterday for punching the wrong thicket)

[Gnitworp]

Ditto (what a hypocrite I am!)

[Gross]

I do check control codes, otherwise I would still be wandering around Cannock Chase looking for a knoll.
(and I would have been disqualified yesterday for punching the wrong thicket)

[mappingmum]

Always check in a forest but have been known not to in Edinburgh urban-O because I was absolutely certain where I was on the map and there was no doubt in my mind that the control circle/feature/map all indicated as such.

[Monte]

I guessed the knoll was hiding but the dry pond almost fooled me into going elsewhere.
I am sometimes guilty of standing next to a control having realised it's the wrong code -the carefully pre-planned route out is obviously no use.

[ryeland of doom]

I always check control codes, except when I forget - like Blue 3 at Dalbeattie. Often however I just try and memorise the number.

You can get caught - once had a vegetation boundary running down the line you would draw when mapping a reentrant - there were two controls, reentrant and veg boundary and guess which one I punched - yes the other one.

[graeme]

Always check codes unless I made them map?

[madmike]

A few years ago at a low key event in Norway I complained (politely) to the planner that the number on the loose CDs and, indeed, on the map was not the same number as that printed on the control - his response was: there is only 1 crag in the circle you must have known where you were so what does it matter if the number is wrong

He did deduct 2 mins from my time though - apparantly I was the only person who noticed and no one on my course mp'd

[mikey]

A few years ago at a low key event in Norway I complained (politely) to the planner that the number on the loose CDs and, indeed, on the map was not the same number as that printed on the control - his response was: there is only 1 crag in the circle you must have known where you were so what does it matter if the number is wrong

Which sort of begs the question of whether we need control codes at all (except maybe for beginners' courses). This of course assumes that the mapped feature is recognisable for what it is....