See this post from just a couple of days ago:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec....c/eWg9-ugkr8IJ

Then repeat after me: "AT/ASTs are NOT like pylon racing. They are NOT like Yacht Racing. I, [state your name], do solemnly swear to stop making bad/inaccurate analogies, and try to learn what skills are actually measured in a glider contest - and how."

Look, I get it. Some of you like the concept that your butt flies over the same exact spot on the ground as someone else. That makes it feel to you like a set "course" that you're all flying. But that is _not_ the reality of the situation at all! And flying to the same turnpoint in an AT has _nothing_ to do with how it is scored (relative to a TAT/MAT), or the flying skills that it measures.

If you desire a race like an automobile race or a yacht race, you want to advocate for a Grand Prix start. Because what you want is all the gliders in the same are at the same _time_.

The differences between an AT, a TAT, or a MAT pale in comparison to the differences in the air that you and I fly through if we fly over the same spot several minutes apart. This is a unique and challenging part of soaring competition: The course is not "set" and is 4-dimensional. How do you measure pilots against each other when the course itself is changing from moment to moment?

Again: You can make the case that many contests call "easier" tasks these days, and a 20-30 mile cylinder around every turn takes some of the challenge out of a TAT. But don't crucify the task type just because some task-setters don't call them the way you want. Instead, advocate for tasks to be called more-intelligently!

--Noel