Sorry John, I don't like it. It is my job as the pilot in command to
not jeopardize my safety or the safety of people and things on the
ground (or in the air, for that matter). Just because I'm final
gliding in a race does not excuse me from that responsibility.

And anyone who doesn't fly that way is going to ignore any "safety"
rule, anyway. I can just see the stall/spin accidents at the finish
line/cylinder/gate as Joe Bagadonuts in his still-fully-ballasted
(forgot to dump, of course) DGLSASW-69 desperately pulls up to get
over the 500' penalty wall, and finds out what it looks like to be
pointing straight down at 400 ft and 40 knots. Yee Haa - that'll have
em cheering in the cheap seats!

As an individual, if you are convinced by John's arguments, then by
all means use his guidelines for finishing - it probably won't hurt
your score one little bit, and might even help.

But a rule is not the answer to stupidity.

BTW, a Garmin GPS 3 Pilot can be setup to take you to exactly 501 ft 1
mile from the finish, or whatever point in space you want, around
multiple turnpoints - with an "ILS glideslipe" display to guide you
all the way. Do you really want to be staring at a display at that
point in the flight? Not me!

Lets go back to long and relatively low start gates, small turn
cylinders, and geographically significant finish gates.

In an AST, of course.

Kirk Stant
66