At 13:54 30 July 2007, Kirk.Stant wrote:
I think if you have a 'zero penalty' band pilots will
tend to use it. I can't figure the difference between
and 700' finish with a 200' band and a 500' finish.

Andy,

My point is that the current system encourages you
(the racing pilot)
to shave the 500' limit as close as you can, but at
the risk of losing
a lot if you miscalculate - or opt for a low altitude
dash to a rushed
landing to minimize your losses. Plus it encourages
expensive gadgets/
software (as I now realize that my SN10 will show the
info I need, for
example - priced one lately?) and clock watching at
the finish.

Providing an 'altitude-neutral' band to finish in should
remove the
incentive to aim for the bottom, since there would
no longer be a
benefit to be gained, while the risk of losing a lot
would be a strong
incentive to aim for the top of the finish band. The
band should be
big enough to hit easily with a properly set regular
altimeter (I
think 200' would work) without being so big the adjustment
for
altitude becomes 'gameable'.

Heck, how about adding one second for every 2 feet
below the top -
that works out to a 1.2 knot final climb - which wouldn't
hurt you
much if you were 20 ft low, but would still encourage
not finishing
199 ft low (who wants to give away time, after all).

The addition of 'no racing after the finish' (i.e.
if below the
bottom, the 'hard deck' in fighter speak, you get your
finish and
penalty right there and can forget about a straight
in finish and
concentrate on making a safe low altitude landing)
would additionally
discourage high risk finishes.

I know, I know, enough whining, this is pretty much
beat to death -
time to start bashing 2-33s again...

Cheers,

Kirk



I must be missing the point Kirk - if there is no penalty
for finishing at the bottom of the 'neutral band' then
I'd be inclined to shoot for the bottom of it to save
time. With the 30 seconds per 100' penalty band my
behavior changes - in that case I'd shoot for the top
of the penalty band but wouldn't worry too much about
a few feet of miscalculation or misjudgement. Are you
thinking of my 'penalty band' when you say 'neutral
band'? Maybe that's it.

9B