On Jul 27, 1:09 pm, BB wrote:
Yes, actually I did get caught out. I cut the margin a bit too close
(My altimeter showed me about 100 ft above the 500', but I suspect my
altimeter needs recalibration) so lost some points.

A good trick here is to look at the altitude that's being recorded in
the GPS rather than the aircraft altimeter. If you have a 302, the
altitude being displayed on the 302 is the same as being recorded on
the GPS so you know to the last foot exactly what's going on. Most
GPS systems can display altitude, you just have to find where it is
and look at it.

I should have listened to 44 and landed straight in. Less
safe, perhaps, but a better race option.

In most cases, it's the other way around: an early commitment to a
rolling finish is safer than arriving at 501 feet, 1 mile out, and 42
knots, much safer than staring at the altimeter for the last mile or
so if you're unsure you'll even make that, and far safer than
arriving at a finish line over the center of the airport at 50 feet,
50 knots. Was there something unusual at Ionia that turned this usual
advice around?

John Cochrane

Actually, I was crosschecking my SeeYou Mobile AGL readout with my
altimeter. I thought I was just barely above the line. It showed me
close to the 500', but there is a definite lag in the display. I may
have to reconfigure the display to show straight GPS altitude and
practice with that. Again, the problem is that if you are trying to
win, you have to spend precious time clockwatching at a critical point
of the flight. And on a weak day, 100ft could be as much as a
minute. Yeah, it makes a difference!

Of course, Winscore doesn't use GPS altitude, but pressure altitude.
So you have to hope that there isn't a significant difference between
your logger pressure altitude reading while stopped, and while moving
(I have yet to see a logger hooked up to a static port - have you? I
wonder what the static pressure is in my cockpit on final
glide...fast=more ram pressure=lower altitude? It only takes a few
feet...).

At this particular race, the CD did not set a rolling finish penalty
(and was asked to confirm it prior to the flight in question). I
would easily have saved 2 - 3 minutes (!) by ignoring the 500'
requirement altogether (even though I wasn't really low and slow
enough to need to), pushing over to the deck, pulling spoilers
crossing the fence, planting my glider on the first piece of runway
available, and coming to a screeching halt. Safe? Probably not.
Smart racing? Absolutely! That's one of the reasons I really question
this finish rule and think it needs to be re-addressed - it's got a
few huge loopholes in it!

I realize that to some this may seem to be arguing about angels on a
pinhead, but in racing, seconds really do count - so we shouldn't have
rules that introduce a large unknown in the scoring equation.

IMHO, of course ;^)

Kirk
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