Seniors USA 2009 Start and Finish notes..... # 711 reporting

On Mar 20, 1:21*pm, "
wrote:

I disagree (and this comes from 10 years of contest finishes, both
line and cylinders). *If there is no penalty to finishing within a
reasonable window, there is no incentive to pull up to reach an
arbitrary (and impossible to determine in the cockpit in real time)
altitude. *The objective is to make a point-neutral "finish window"
that is big enough that the pilot can fly through it with minimal
heads-down time. *You would probably have to have a pretty severe
penalty for finishing low (automatic rolling finish?) to discourage a
diving finish. *The current system does not encourage that - it still
rewards a perfect, 501' finish, but has less of a penalty for pooching
it than last year.

The old 50' finish line was a lot easier (and in my opinion, just as
safe, if flown intelligently) *But it does require a big airfield if a
lot of gliders are finishing at the same time. *I'm not holding my
breath to see it again, though, since it drives the safety nazis
absolutely bonkers!

Kirk - I may misunderstand your point, but it there were a 300-foot
window within which there is no penalty wouldn't you fly a faster
glide to shoot for the bottom of it? If you mean a window where the
penalty approximates the time it takes to climb the extra distance,
it's my understanding that is what the current rule tries to do,
though obviously you would need to set the climb rate low to keep a
pilot in a marginal thermal from taking the penalty over the slow
climb to avoid the penalty. That means the current rule has a penalty
that seems steep for someone who nicks the cylinder on an strong day.

I loved the old finish line, but as a practical matter we aren't going
to see it anymore. ASTs aren't called often enough to give pilots
experience with it so no CD would ever call it even if we kept it in
the rules as an option. I like the graduated penalty on the cylinder a
lot more that the old rule and I think this years mod does decrease
the likelihood of zoomies into the cylinder - I did a few over the
years if I felt the coast was clear - just to be sure I was high
enough to get a finish. Now you need to pull up just short of the edge
of the cylinder if you want to add a few extra feet for insurance. I
agree with the point that if you had a more precise and easy way to
see the finish you could hit it more precisely, but in all honesty all
the speed in the final glide is in how well you optimize the speed for
the last 20-40 miles. I know I ALWAYS climb too high for final glides,
but I hate being low if the sky dumps on me. Under the old finish line
you had no altitude at the finish gate so you carried altitude with
you until you had it made. This is why all the finishes were 120-knots
crowd-pleasers, but in general I'd argue that they weren't more
efficient form a task speed perspective.


Again, my personal experience is that yes, spouses/girlfriends/dogs/
kids will hang around if they are involved and there is some visual
feedback on how their pilot is doing. *Remember, you got the launch,
then gliders start going through the gate for a 2.5 or 3 hour task -
the starts may last over an hour, one a time, then in a couple of
hours or less the finishes begin, and go on for a while. *After the
rush to get everything done prior to the launch and working the start
gate, the crews were happy for a break to get lunch, relax, and get
ready for the finish show - when there were simultaneous finishes, it
even looked like a real race!

Sorta, kinda...

I worked my share of gates and only the guys with the binoculars got
much of a look at the starts. Under the TAT and MAT rules you get more
bunching of the finishes I think - so it make more sense for people to
scram until finish time - which is predictable within a few tens of
minutes the way things work today - just that there's nothing to see.
At one contest last year it was permitted to make a pass after
finishing as long as you were away from the buildings and people and
landing gliders - it was fun, if a bit pointless from a racing
perspective.

9B