On Friday, March 9, 2012 9:34:34 AM UTC-5, Papa3 wrote:
On Thursday, March 8, 2012 8:21:02 PM UTC-5, Mike the Strike wrote:
Chip:

I was one of those in earlier discussions who made the very strong point that it is very difficult to tell if folks have flown near clouds and you certainly can't do it from an igc file. Cloudbase is not known with any precision and can vary thousands of feet over a typical contest task area. I have on at least one occasion flown over cumulus clouds without violating any FARs and know of several occasions where other pilots have done so. Comparing flight traces of pilots with each other or a reasonable guess of cloudbase isn't going to tell you very much.

An entirely different question is the practice of staying in thermals until you reach cloudbase and then exiting through the wispies. It's hard to judge when to leave a strong thermal and this can happen to the best of us. I see it a lot of this in both pleasure flights and contests. I don't know how you would make an enforceable rule to control this, unless you are going to add cockpit cameras and dew-point sensors (quite doable, by the way!).

Mike

There's a wonderful picture that pops up on the rotating SSA photo board taken during the prestart period at a Mifflin contest a few years back. The photographer and several others (including yours truly) were lolling around in wave a couple thousand feet above the clouds enjoying the warm sun while the masses engaged in thermal warfare down in the boundary layer. Not sure what analyzing those traces would tell you...

Found it: http://www.ssa.org/sport/PhotoGaller...p?PhotoID=1186