On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 5:46:30 AM UTC-7, JJ Sinclair wrote:
Looks like it is happening again at Truckee. One finisher gets 850, one land-out gets 239, everyone else gets zero!

Is this fair?

JJ

Is it fair? Based on the information we have, yes. If 25 pilots finish and 25 land out, is that fair? Well, so far, we've decided yes. This is no different. Half the pilots who tried finished. Pretty good by the standards of a lot of contests!

The rule "pilots who don't try don't count" was put in long ago, in (as usual) response to a snafu. As I recall, a large number of pilots looked at the sky, didn't even assemble, it turned in to a good day but horribly devalued. After that, you only devalue the day if you actually try. (UH will remember the actual story, which I'm undoubtedly getting wrong. But you see the logic).

What we don't know is why so many pilots didn't fly. Looking forward to the story

John Cochrane