It does
seem as the US comps are set up to only use the peak 2-3 hours of the
day, versus 3-5+ hours of the whole day's soaring weather used
elsewhere.

Part of this, I think, comes from task-setters not really understanding
the nature of TAT and MAT tasks. In an AST, if you set a task that
takes the winners 4 hours, there is a good chance that the bottom half
of the fleet will land out after 5 or 6 hours of struggle. Task
setters get used to these as the "right" length of a task.

In a TAT or MAT though, you can set a 4 hour task, and the slow pilots
get to land at home after the same 4 hours. I've heard task setters
refer to the 75% completion rule while setting a TAT or MAT, which
obviously makes no sense at all.

Gentle reminders from competitors that 4 or even 5 hour TAT and MAT
tasks are perfectly allowable on long soaring days may help. It is
especially sad to be flying 2-3 hours on some 750 k + days.

John Cochrane BB