My experience is th low finish line is worse in these conditions,
because the pilots are NOT being "funneled" (brought along a small
angle
sector) to a precise point: they arriving_ spread out more or less
along
the line from many different directins, including 180 degrees apart,
with some hooking the gate and doing a very non-standard pattern
entry.
I've even seen 180s after a finish, with the glider landing back into

the oncoming finishers.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

I'm still on the fence on this one, but here's my "philosophy" on
rules. I think the primary purpose of the rules should be to protect
me from you (the imperial you - not any of the current posters :-), not
to protect me from myself. With that in mind, I feel like mid-air
collision avoidance should be the primary purpose of the finishing
routine, whether it be gate or cylinder. Given my very selfish goal,
which finishing routine does a better job? I have to say that in my
first 15 years of racing using a high speed gate, I really never had
any close calls. I found the situational awareness to be relatively
manageable given good radio ettiquette and a reaonable level of
professionalism among the other competitors. I have a lot less
experience with the cylinder, but my recollection from the few that
I've flown was a slightly increased nervousness about people
approaching from numerous directions, resulting in more slumped
shoulders (ie. trying to make myself feel like a small target).

So, which finishing routine does a better job of facilitating the
avoidance of a midair?

Erik Mann
LS8-18 (P3)