But that's the rub. Again "not too bad" is a relative term. With
high workload and stressful conditions, I've seen plenty of people
lose the ability to do even simple math. My thought is that just
having one number to worry about (e.g. 10 miles and 1550 on the
altimeter) makes it much easier. I can't see any scenario where it
would be worthwhile to go to, say, 7 miles and then try to climb up,
especially when the conditions warrant a safety finish at 10 miles.
No?

I'm just guessing here, but isn't the point behind the downward slope
to the cylinder to keep pilots who are below the floor from having to
glide all the way to the airport to get a finish? With a flat floor
you end up having to find a thermal (possibly under an overcast) to
reach the floor or do a normal finish at ground zero. So say the
safety cylinder is 10 miles and 2000' and you are at 1900' with no
possibility of climbing. What would you do? The temptation would be to
try to get home.

I'm also guessing that the reason the safety cylinder wasn't
originally conceived with the possibility for a larger radius is to
keep from catching too many pilots between the safety cylinder and the
finish line when it is invoked by the CD. I can imagine all kinds of
protests in that scenario.

9B