John

I have flown quite a few contest days with the 2 mile 500 foot finish.

Here are my comments:

1. On a purely emotional level, I miss (and I'm sure the spectators
do too) the 50 foot speed pass finish line. I know that you can still
do one after you cross the ring but in practice most people just come
in and land.

2. On a practical basis, it leads to more heads down flying. Most
people do a 50 foot speed pass finish completely heads up (maybe an
airspeed check once in a while). The ring puts your head in the
cockpit. The optimum finish is still at 501 feet and max airspeed.
You just can't judge this 2 miles out without a lot of heads down
work.

3. On a global perspective, this rule is just a bandaid that
necessitates more bandaids. I did not like it when Charlie started
adding 3 minutes to your time for rolling finishes under the ring and
now you are adding another bandaid by saying you don't get speed
points if you go under the ring. The bandaids go on and on. What
about the contestant that has the fastest speed, crosses the ring at
110 knots but does it at 499 feet. Distance points only? The harsh
100 point turnpoint penalty had to have its own bandaid for missing
the turnpoint by 15 feet, that will have to happen here too. The
bandaids keep going on and on for the finish ring.

As you can see I am against the finish ring.

I do, however propose a different solution for low energy finishes.

Bring the exciting heads up speed pass finish line back and solve the
low energy problem with some sort of finish line groundspeed minimum
or minimum altitude to achieve after the finish line. Don't have
harsh point penalty steps in the solution either. After all the main
reason people are tempted to do a low energy finish is the harsh point
penalty associated with a landout. Maybe thats what should be
addressed!

Just my 2 cents

Dale Kramer
K1