From looking at the sports class nationals scores, And seeing that
their have been only THREE landouts in four days of a 42 glider
NATIONALS, I'm thinking CD McQuigg is not pushing his troops hard
enough at this huge contest.


It sounds like you misunderstand how time-limited tasks (MAT, TAT) are
supposed to work. Yes, on assigned tasks, if everyone finishes it's a
sign the task is too short, and the CD guide used to call for landing
out anyone slower than 75% (I think) of the winner's speed. But the
idea of a time-limited task is that everyone can come home when the
thermals quit, with slower pilots simply racking up less distance.
Fraction of landouts is not a good sign of how ambitious the task is.

It is possible, and quite common, for CDs to under-call time-limited
tasks. 3 hours at a nationals is supposed to be a minimum, with 4
hours a "standard" task, and the CD is supposed to use as much of the
soaring day as possible. The rules committee has been putting some
emphasis on getting this word out to CDs. It is very frustrating to be
at a contest on the best day in years, with 7 hours of soarable
weather, have a CD call a 3 hour task, finish and then watch the cus
go by for a few hours as a 750k day evaporates.

With this in mind, I note that there have been two 3:00 calls and two
3:30 calls. The contest reports also say that it has been late to
trigger on a few days, with gates open in the 2 pm range, so that may
well be reasonable. The sign of undercall is if we hear reports that
people are landing while the thermals are still going strong, with
lots of soarable day left. I haven't heard anything like that yet.

The "armchair" question: what are we doing wasting time on RAS when we
should be flying what seems like the best midwestern contest in
years?!

John Cochrane BB