Not to nit pick, but there is the issue of landing on the runway. Many, if not most, US glider fields are single runways and the options off runway heading are "varied" to say the least. We need to consider the altitude margin to get lined up on a runway so that you don't end up in a low, skidding turn to final at the end of your glide from the finish to the airport.

Why would you set a task that returns you on a heading other than for a direct landing? If you only have single runways why aren't you using control points to align pilots to them? Good safety concept regardless of finish height.


I think that is incorrect. I have a picture of a US junior team member's glider in a cut hayfield from a week ago - he stated that he was at the requisite finish height (no penalty) but had no extra energy to make the airfield and landed 0.8 mi short. Also, it was posted by the US Team captain at the WWGC that there was one injured pilot and separately a wrecked glider because in a close contest the pilots apparently ignored the very safety advice you mention in order to gain a few points by pushing it down to the top of the cylinder. This is not surprising in a world where team captains order deliberate land outs for less than 10 points "just in case".


Perhaps the penalty was not awarded immediately and they were not aware at the time (they took some hours to appear), but on that day (if I have the right one) they busted the finish height and were penalized accordingly - http://soaringspot.net/jwgc2013/resu...aily/day3.html

I don't think traces were published for the accident at WWGC so let's not speculate.


Back to my original question. What is the compelling reason to adopt IGC rules in the US? Which rules will represent the big improvement and why? Finish is only one out of many rules, but I've heard no affirmative arguments yet.

Are there affirmative reasons not to? If you want to be different you should have solid reasons for being so. I'm not convinced they're less safe (if you have a high finish, and someone arrives low but on glide, what are they going to do??) Learning new processes and procedures and how to fly them optimally is not something you want to be doing upon arrival at a world competition.