The opposite argument would be that allowing straight in finishes stops people from trying to thermal up from 200 feet a mile from the airport while a bunch of other finishers are wizzing by at 100kts. Not sure whats more dangerous, but probably the whole thermalling thing. Perhaps we need a hard deck?

2C

On Sunday, September 8, 2013 9:11:27 AM UTC-4, wrote:
This is a beautiful story..right up to the last two paragraphs. Read those again, carefully



"At the awards ceremony, he added that he was going to do a straight in to the

ground, options permitting, but he was NOT going to quit. He intended to leave

nothing "in the cockpit" so to speak. He was trying to make the field. Runway

18 has some powerlines on its northern approach, and a barbed-wire fence not

far beyond. He figured he could safely make it UNDER the powerlines...but

wasn't certain he could make it OVER the fence. He landed. He said it was the

roughest 1-26 landing he'd ever made. And that's saying something from a man

who probably has well over a hundred off-field landings in a 1-26, many of

them on dirt roads.



He said that after all the banging and bumping stopped, and after all the dust

had cleared away, and after he could see his flight computer, it showed he'd

come to a stop barely within the finish circle! Under the 1-26 rules he would

be scored with speed points!! He said he didn't care at that moment if he had

lost, he knew he'd done his and the day's best. That's what competition - and

life - is all about. Doing your best.