US SSA Contest Pilot Opinion Poll

Thanks, Ken! Lots

Wow, the TAT/MAT proposal is a tough one! "Favoring" long-distance
landouts over short-distance finishers would be an interesting change
of philosophy. Right now all tasks are set up so that finishing the
task that is assigned to you is the top priority, and your decision-
making flows from there. This proposal seems to introduce the idea
that completing the task is NOT top priority; scoring at least a
certain distance is top priority, with a good finish being a secondary
objective. Hrmm...

If this applied only to MATs I might be cool with it; but I'm inclined
to say "no" simply because TATs comprise the bulk of the contest tasks
I've flown and it seems odd to put a premium on distance instead of
finishing the course. I don't like giving short-distance finishers
too much credit for "wimping out"; but sometimes getting home and
making a good finish is the smart/commendable move! Encouraging
people to fly into iffy weather or risk landing out more often in
order to lengthen their TATs

I've only been racing for two seasons. The poll description is brief
and doesn't really describe all of the ramifications of the scoring
change. The examples don't show much of the scoring change in terms
of long-landouts beating short-finishers (only 1); it mostly shows how
the change increases the points-spread between finishers when people
finish under-time or with a short flight. If no one had finished
under-time in example two, would their scores have still been spread-
out by a similar amount, under these new rules? Is this someone's
idea of bringing back the "distance tasks" of the old days?

Does anyone with more racing experience than I want to provide clarity
or more info?

Thanks,

--Noel