On Thursday, January 25, 2018 at 7:56:25 PM UTC-7, wrote:
"Hard deck" rules would effectively eliminate participation anywhere but Kansas (which is actually FLATTER than a pancake. There are more surface anomalies on your average flapjack than the terrain on the Kansas prairie.) In mountainous or ridge terrain, you can go from 100 ft. AGL to 3,000 ft. AGL in less than a half-mile. Does your scoring program recognize these factors? How good is your 3D terrain map? Whose terrain map elevation data do you use? When was the data last updated? Are you using pressure altitude or GPS altitude to determine aircraft altitude? And since when is it considered "unsafe" to run a ridge within a few wingspans of the terrain, with plenty of vertical clearance just to your left (or right)? The proposal to "stop scoring" when you are within 1,000 ft. (vertically or horizontally) from the terrain is laughable. You cannot ridge soar unless you are "on the deck" and close in. It's kind of like when they asked bank robber Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. "Because that's where the money is." In the mountains or ridges, that's where the lift is.

You want no-risk competition? There is always Condor and the regularly scheduled internet contests. Somehow, I don't see it making the Olympics, but then again, neither will real life soaring.

I believe the Air Force Cadets have a hard deck when they fly in contests. It is an altitude that, if they sink to or below while on course, they may not thermal and must land. Not sure how that really helps though if you are low over unlandable terrain.

Mike