Before you leave, make sure you have an all controls map, a map with your planned draft courses, and some tape so you can mark the locations of the controls to make putting out controls easier come race day.

Walk around your event area and make sure that your proposed control positions are OK. Too often they are indistinct, too visible or just not there. If you can’t really find the position then don’t try and use it for a control location. Also look at the direction that people will be coming from or going to, is the proposed site too visible? Are there any objects on the horizon that may make the leg too easy?

Take a note of any map corrections while you are walking around and don’t be disappointed if the control site that looked so good at home can’t be used. Look for others and if necessary replan parts of your course. Novice planners will find it much harder finding the location of the control site without the control actually being there! Even experienced planners can walk around for quite a while making sure they are in the right place. While you are doing this make sure that the map of the terrain around the control is accurate. It is important that people who have overshot the control and are coming back to it also have a correct map representation. If you are happy with the control site, mark it with tape so that the controller can find it too. And so that you can find it when you are putting out the controls!