On May 25, 2:17*pm, "John Godfrey (QT)"
wrote:
On Saturday, May 25, 2013 11:49:38 AM UTC-4, John Seaborn wrote:
The finish ring is a fine. The relatively recent addition of the distance points only clause if 1 foot below some imagined point in space is the problem. It violates the policy of a graduated penalty as applied by most rules in soaring.

Is the pilot who is 1 foot under the finish rings imagined point in space really several hundred points more dangerous? The problem is not typically related to gaming the energy but on those days with long, slow and perfectly safe arrivals with a few feet less altitude than needed to finish for speed points. Currently the penalty applied indicates the pilot who finishes at 499 feet rather than 500 has done some egregiously unsafe flying which he clearly has not.

The strategy being encouraged is to stop and climb at some point even it is directly on the final glide path very close to the airport at a tenuously safe altitude rather than take a several hundred point penalty for being 1 foot lower than some imaged point in space. A graduated penalty similar to turnpoints is a much less punitive approach to this problem.

My hats off to the Rules Committee members as they work hard on these issues and take a good deal of grief on occasion. As for contest flying generally the old saw about learning more about cross country soaring in an early regionals than a year of flying on your own still rings true, plus contests are a lot of fun.

John Seaborn

Just for comparison sake:

1. *Turnpoint
* * a) inside turnpoint radius - good
* * b) within 1 mile of turnpoint radius - graduated penalty
* * c) miss by more than one mile - landout

2. *Gate (line) finish
* * a) cross finish line - good
* * b) fall short of finish line but on airport - good, possible time adjustment
* * c) fall short of finish line but off airport - landout

3. *Cylinder finish
* * a) cross boundary at or above floor - good
* * b) up to 200' below floor - graduated penalty
* * c) below 200' below floor - landout

Graduated penalty should be all the way to the ground!

3 (c) should be deleted. I always come back above the minimum height
(not because of rules, but because I don't have any replacement parts
for my body). If one of these days I find myself scoring a landout due
to unforeseen major sink but make the 1 mile at 499 feet I will be
totally ****ed.

An unintended consequence of this rule is some thermaling at 500 feet
a mile out to avoid landout. Someone might think I can make the
airport so why not try it, right. I guess next year we will see
another rule to address that until someone comes up with another way
to "avoid" a landout score.

If one does not have safety in his/her brain no rule is going to help.
BB please understand this!

If you personally want to come at 700 AGL then do it. I suspect you do
but since you don't want everyone else to get ahead of you by 200 feet
you want to make everyone come at 700 AGL. This is what this rule is
all about. I don't care I bring the 200 feet extra every day and that
is my choice I don't want to force other pilots to do the same.

Regards,
Andrzej