2019 SSA Contest Rules Pilot Opinion Poll Now Open

Tim Taylor wrote:
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.

Tim: I think this is a very basic misunderstanding. IGC scoring definitely does spread out the scores by a factor of 2x (so a pilot with 90% of the winner's speed gets 900 points under US rules and 800 under IGC rules). But the reward for flying faster doesn't change.

This is because under both systems finishers' scores are linear with speed - the speed difference you need to catch the pilots ahead of you on the scoresheet is identical. In a contest with a high percentage of completions, the final positions will be exactly the same under the two systems.

The actual effect of the "2x factor" is to make outlandings (especially short ones) less harmful - in effect, only 500 points are "up for grabs" each day (as compared to 1000 under US rules).



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.

Not true for a pilot who is slow enough that he will finish close to two-thirds of the winner's speed. His team will have informed him of what that speed is.



... the white paper appears very biased and contains a great deal of
conjecture and inaccurate information.

Hopefully this means you will soon be providing the accurate story.



At the Pan American contest this year we saw significant changes in scores
due to pilots ability to fly fast than the gaggle.

I don't think there's any dispute that flying faster typically yields better scores.