I got to agree with Marc, on this one. We are seeing a lot of MAT tasks and
about 3 hours after the gate opens, the sky is full of gliders coming from all
directions. They hit the 1 mile, 500 foot gate, pull up, slow up, get in the
pattern and start acting like gentlemen again. I flew 4 contests (one a
nationals) that used the 500 foot, 1 mile gate this year, I like it and its
much safer. At Montague the pilots were asked to get the winds form AWOS at 10
miles out and then switch over to gate frequency and LISTEN for finishers in
front of them. I knew who was finishing and where to look. Its a damned safe
way to run things. Any head-on traffic is seperated by 2 miles. I remember a
finish line at Minden nationals a few years back.I finished at 50 feet, pulled
up and banked over for a landing on 30. As I was turning final at 200 feet, I
saw 3 other ships, already on final for 30, so I slid over to 30 taxiway, just
before touch-down, someone slid in, right in front of me, on MY taxiway. When
we finish at 50 feet, we have given up most of our options, any conflict may
become a disaster.
JJ Sinclair