On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 12:45:04 PM UTC-5, Jim White wrote:
The reason that UK competition tasks are generally set between 3 and 4
hours long (for most pilots) is that our scoring system devalues the day if
the task comes in less than 3 hours.

It also devalues the day if the task setter is a **** and lands a load of
people out in the first 40% of the task.

Task setters / competition directors seem to have the idea that they must
set 3 hour tasks. This is not actually so. On a **** weather day they can
set tasks as short as the defined minima for the class which is as little
as 80k (50Miles) in a regionals. I have seen many champions who have had a
challenging and satisfying day flying just 50 miles!

IMO whilst 3 hour + tasks are good, it is best to set a task that you
expect most competitors to complete even if it has to be short and
completed in less than 3 hours.

We have also had problems with turbos in the bigger classes. One task
setter said to me that it didn't matter to him that everyone landed out as
most had turbos! I didn't have one so abandoned the contest after 3
consecutive mass land out days.

Jim

In the US, the min time for the winner for a 1000 point day is 3 hours in nationals and 2 hours in regionals. There was a trend toward those being used as target times, however that trend seems to be going away, or gone.
We have a very small proportion of self retrieving gliders so the philosophy is to try to get all the journeyman pilots home.
We also understand that devaluation is a way to get a short task when appropriate, in without giving it too much value in terms of scoring. There is always some debate over these issues.
Reality is that we don't want gliders in fields. Field landing lead to more broken gliders. If we break a glider here, it is likely we are done for the season due to limited repair resources and backlog.
I'd say we are pretty much the same in major respects.
UH