I think I asked @srober10 this during the planning course but I cannot remember his answer!
How many controls (for a QOFL with Brown) is manageable and sensible?
For the course I am planning, my White and Yellow courses currently follow different routes which of course increases the number of ‘path’ based controls I need.
Given the various constraints, for a QOFL, I go for as few as the area will allow, while keeping course quality acceptable. Could be as low as 12 controls.
For all courses White to Brown?!!
I meant for the longest course! Sorry. Overall between 30 and the max which I think is a few short of 50, again depends on the area, those with few control features, especially point features, typically leads to fewer legs being possible or desirable.
I got this very helpful reply from Steve via email:
Total number?
$64,000 question.
Depends on the area.The obvious answer from a planning perspective is as few as possible since they all need to be put out and collected.
Assuming all are functioning, QO has 60 SI boxes. I would not expect more than about 50 for a QOFL standard event. As examples – the October SWOL/SWOL I am planning has 49 controls and the first draft from Ollie for his November event has only 31 controls.
There was a tendency, at one time, for planners to consider that ‘more controls is better’ but remember the idea of orienteering is navigation not bagging the highest number of control points.
Since you indicate that the White and Yellow are separate then I would expect your number to be towards the top of the range.
Agree with the above. I would try to keep it under 40 for a first draft. The number usually seems to creep up as the event evolves. Obviously you want to minimise the total number to reduce the effort on the day, but its the distant controls on long courses that you want to keep under review as these take longest to set out.