Hi John,

I agree with your premise (gaggles and leeching ruin gliding competitions, and should be reduced), but I think the reasoning is not entirely correct regarding the event marker start.

If a leading pilot has a bunch of people flying behind him, waiting for him to start, the event marker (EM) start can be a great tool to shake them off.

Basically there are 3 versions of the event marker start floating around:

- Push the EM 10 minutes before you want to start. After those 10 minutes a 1 (2?) minute window opens up in which you can start. You can repush the EM as often as you like, resetting the 10 minute countdown timer every time.

- Push the EM, and immediately a 2 minute window opens up. You have to start within that 2 minute window. After pushing the EM, you have to wait 15 minutes to push it again.

- Push the EM within 1 minute after you crossed the startline (as a startline crossing confirmation). Once the EM is pushed, you have to wait 15 minutes for a possible restart.


The first 1 makes it impossible to know when the leading pilot will leave. When the leeches see him start and scramble to push their own EM they have to wait 10 minutes before they can take their own start.

The 2 last ones make it possible for the leading pilot to make "fake" starts, letting his leeches take their actual start, flying back to the start line, wait, and then take his own real start. If the leeches return with him, they have to wait 15 minutes. In that way, the leader can get rid of them.

Which one is best is unknown, since they are all untested. This year, some contests will try some of these concepts and we will get valuable initial data to see how they work in practice.

(It's my main beef with a lot of the new rules that are proposed to the IGC: they are untested in practice. For a Y1 proposal that's of course fine, but for a Y2 proposal it should be mandatory to have been implemented in at least 1 contest)

I agree that the EM start in itself increases pre-start workload. The Belgian proposal includes therefor another rule: a coupling between start and finish altitude. You have to finish at most x meters lower than your starting altitude (and of course above a lower limit). For instance, x=800m. If you start at 1200m, you have to finish above 400m. If you start at 1400m, you have to finish above 600m (our finish circle is 15km radius, by the way. Probably the easiest rule change possible to significantly reduce accident rates, but that's another discussion). By doing it this way, the concern to start as high as possible falls away, making starting much easier and you only have to focus on 1 number again (the clock instead of the altitude).

I think all the new proposals are a great sign. There is a tremendous urgency to reduce accident rates and to improve gliding competitions. That sense of urgency is now shared by many pilots in many countries. I hope that good debate, testing(!) of the proposals, and rational decision making will improve our sport.

Tijl