Hi Mike - Two thoughts.

1) It's hard not to have points on the table if you want to have speed finishers ALL earn more than the longest landout AND you want some points spread across speeds. The additional variable is how much gaggling is induced by a system where lone landouts take a 700 point hit and line finishers get zero credit.

2) How much are points the primary motive for pressing a marginal glide home versus a "deliberate" landout? I guess some, but my sense is there is a lower limit attributable to "get-home-itis". People want to get home for risk and convenience reasons no matter what so that's what plays against safety concerns once points are off the table. There's only so much you can do to discourage retreive aversion. IGC rules are particularly harsh on land outs if they are in the minority (up to 700 points) and mild if there are lots of finishers, but how is a pilot to know exactly which in a case where he MIGHT be able to get home but it's marginal. There will likely be gliders behind you who might get home, and who really gives up if they think they can make it? An uncertain number of points at stake (but probably some) and a desire to get home anyway.

3) The bigger issue for me is the complexity, misunderstanding, adverse incentives (gaggling, start-gate roulette and deliberate landouts to deny a competitor points - which has happened on rare occasions which is pretty bad) of the current scoring. Mostly I wonder about the appropriateness of a system where you can drop 700 points by landing 2km short. That seems pretty harsh. I question the whole system of using other pilots flights to determine my score. I get the rationale, but I don't think it necessarily holds water AND it's complex. I think all of this is worthy of some deeper consideration. John's proposal does a pretty decent job at addressing many of these issues, though a thorough pressure testing would be needed.

Andy Blackburn
9B