On Saturday, January 25, 2014 6:26:50 AM UTC-8, Andy Gough wrote:
What if the first guy has minimal energy and ends up in the middle of the runway?

9B

Certainly if wishes were horses then beggars would ride.

But we are back to having to make rules again and god forbid... graduated penalties. If we have to accept someone will thermal at 500 ft on the edge of a 1 mile finish cylinder we have to accept someone will land in the middle of the runway and cause problems for everyone else that follows.

There are solutions but we won't like them because they increase organizer overhead or infringe on our sense of liberty. The simple solutions are lots of manpower to move the offenders or some straightforward hard discipline.

Operating in confined spaces requires much higher standards and discipline. When we have to ask the question: "What if the first guy has minimal energy and ends up in the middle of the runway?", it is an acceptance that we are unable to rise to the standards because we do not have universal and effective discipline, hence the rules to attempt to overcome these deficits.

The finish can often be an over crowded place. We need high standards and discipline to operate in this environment. The alternative is to spread the field out and give everyone more time and space.

Andy Gough

Well said - you have to make an assessment of the environment and the capabilities of the people in it. Then you try to set it up so that the odds of exceeding the ability of the entire system to operate within acceptable limits are low. Wishing the limits were different or that people's capabilities were different won't make either one true.