Let me tell you where I'm coming from on this gate issue. I was CD'ing
one of the Montague nationals and we were using the finish line. The
only practical location for the line was the edge of the X'ed-off
runway, but there were several competitors tied down there (read cars,
wives & kids) One of the wives complained about the low finishes coming
right over her motor home and asked if there wasn't an FAR about that?
I didn't have an answer, I still don't. As I understand the FAR's we
are not allowed to fly over people below 500 feet unless we are in the
act of landing. When we are driving in on the 50-foot gate, we are not
in the act of landing, but we are over people at Montague and the same
situation exists at Minden. If we were to move the line, say 500 feet
away from the people, we would end up with a low and slow finisher
landing in the sage brush.
God forbid, if we were to have a mid-air and the wreckage went into the
line, I guarantee you the feds would come down hard on what we are
doing.

The finish line seems to work OK at places like Hobbs, but I did have
an incident there last summer. I was driving in hard toward the 50 foot
finish line when a pilot from the other class called a rolling finish,
coming from the opposite direction. We didn't even come close, but
let's assume for the sake of discussion that we did run into each
other. One pilot is below 500 feet and in the act of landing. The other
pilot is below 500 feet and not in the act of landing. I know who's
going to lose this one, old JJ.

I have flown the finish cylinder at Reese, Parowan, Minden, Montague
and Ephrata without a hitch. Everybody pulls up, slows up, and enters
the pattern in an orderly fashion; low man goes in first. Based on my
30 years experience of using both gates and running contests, I would
estimate the finish cylinder to be on the order of 2 to 3 times safer
than the 50-foot finish line. Good management involves identifying
problems and taking corrective action, before we have an accident.
There is a better way to do this, let's bury the Neanderthal gate, once
and for all.

JJ Sinclair
PS. It's not widely known, but you don't need to make the 500 foot
minimum exactly at 1 mile. You will get a good finish anywhere inside
the cylinder, just as soon as you pull up and climb above the 500 foot
minimum. No penalty will apply, your clock just keeps running for a few
more seconds. This interpretation has been blessed by the rules
committee and the Byars scoring program works this way.