At 02:00 16 March 2005, Toad wrote:
Regarding the difficulty of sequencing gliders for
landing after a
cylinder finish, this is exactly what gliders do every
good soaring
day.

Never had a problem myself on a typical non-contest
day without a finish cylinder. So why do you think
problems arise with cylinders in contest situations?


My theory is that the modern GPS-enabled minimum-time
tasks compress finishers more than the old system and
the cylinder introduces just enough randomness to reshuffle
the landing sequence from the finish sequence. The
net result is a bit more 'pattern roulette' than I
knew from gate finishes in the old AST world. Not
a problem for pilots who exert good judgement and use
the radio - potentially an issue for those who don't.

9B