Is the 200ft below Min Finish Height Rule Working?

I think Hank may have missed the main point of the article. The author is not proposing to lower the finish height, on the contrary, he would raise it. The issue centers on the penalty that seems to have the opposite effect of the intent of the rule.

I notice that all of the pilots in the examples started final glide with normal margins for safety. We can presume that the majority of pilots in these races finished above the MFH with no problems. The next crash pilot will not be among them, but the same could be said for a zero finish height. We all try to be safe in this sport and few start out to be low at the finish. The problem comes when we did everything right but conditions change in front of us and degrades the final glide to a point where we are faced with the conundrum of a big penalty or a hail mary.

Seems to me that if we make the penalty for finishing below MFH too high, we only increase the temptation to try the hail mary. Take the rule’s logic further and increase the penalty even more. Says the logic, “that will make people start final glide even higher and fewer people will finish low”. If we simply make the MFH high enough, there is little reason to have any penalty, since there would be little chance for an unsafe entry into the pattern. While that may be true, the problem occurs with those pilots who find themselves in deteriorating conditions that exceed their safety margin established in the final thermal. The counter logic offered by the author admits that the more valuable the finish, the more willing a contest pilot will be to try and pull off a save. Suppose the penalty for a 200´low finish was disqualification from the contest. Would not that cause more otherwise sane pilots to bow to the option of trying to pull it out with a low save?

On the other hand if the penalty were more modest, a hurt but still recoverable, discretion would drive one to accept the penalty and live to compete the next day. I agree with the author that the rule should include a higher MFH but with less of a penalty, thereby placing a lower value on missing the MFH. An additional point in favor of a less costly penalty, it helps the pilot focus on the pattern ahead rather than the altimeter.

There should be some penalty for a low finish but so not big as to give an incentive to attempt a last-mile save. Perhaps a bonus for finishing a bit high creates more value on that side of the line and promote more safety.