2019 SSA Contest Rules Pilot Opinion Poll Now Open

While John and Hank have written an interesting white paper, it appears to have some significant misunderstanding of how the differences in the rules actually work. The FAI scoring does not compress the scores, it spreads it out by a factor other 2x for speed. It actually rewards flying faster most of the time. While there is much comments made about how pilots could could impact the overall daily scores by flying slower or not finishing; in reality this is only possible to know after the fact. In the real world if racing you must fly as fast as you can and try to finish every day.

From a pilot who has actually flown under FAI rules for the last two years the white paper appears very biased and contains a great deal of conjecture and inaccurate information. At the Pan American contest this year we saw significant changes in scores due to pilots ability to fly fast than the gaggle. I encourage you to review the daily scores in the 15m/std class on soaring spot.

The FAI rules are not perfect, but it is better for the USA to fly with the same rules as the rest of the world. We ae hurting our competitiveness on the international level and lowering the quality of racing in the US overall. If we don't like something in the FAI rules we are better off by using them and working from the inside to change them. The FAI is open to working to improve racing and safety. They have worked with start height limits and PEV markers this last year. If you have questions, I encourage you to speak to those of us that have actually flown with the FAI rules.


Tim (TT)