How does Winscore calculate finish altitude?

On Jul 26, 10:20 pm, Tuno wrote:
On a serious note, could you explain to me how a lower altitude is
safer than a higher one ? All other things being equal.

It's a matter of energy, not altitude.

Ask Garret Willat!

2NO

Yeah, but more altitude == more energy, for the same speed.

Todd
3S

On Jul 27, 7:41 am, toad wrote:
On Jul 26, 10:20 pm, Tuno wrote:

On a serious note, could you explain to me how a lower altitude is
safer than a higher one ? All other things being equal.

It's a matter of energy, not altitude.

Ask Garret Willat!

2NO

Yeah, but more altitude == more energy, for the same speed.

Todd
3S

Todd,

First of all, this is about racing - so lower = faster is the concept
at hand. Safety is always the responsibility of the pilot in command,
and depends on a lot of factors that the rules cannot be expected to
cover.

Imagine a rule in NASCAR that said that if you got within a certain
distance of the wall, you would lose a lap, but the distance changes
based on your speed and you have no way of telling what it is until
after the race is over. Yeah, that would make sense! You would spend
all your time trying to figure out how close you can shave the
"distance" better than the other guy - it's a race, after all!

And since it is about racing, there should be a finish line that can
be determined by the pilot in real time in his cockpit, not a to-be-
determined-after-you-land finish line. I understand fully why the
500' finish rule was implemented. I don't agree with it, but you race
with the rules you get. My problem is that this rule (like the
quickly abandonned "extra 15 minutes on time tasks" rule, is badly
implemented and can cause some unfortunate unexpected consequences.

I have a couple of suggestions to make the finish cylinder better:

First, require the CD or a delegate on the field to have an accurate,
current (I mean right now) altimeter setting (from the center of the
finish airport, not the closest FSS) available to be passed to the
finishing pilot when he makes his 4 mile call. That would allow the
pilot to reset his altimeter and have a better shot at knowing his
altitude within 100' or so (check the spec on altimeter tolerances!).

Second, change the way the "low finish" penalty is scored. Off the
top of my head, if the pilot finishes below 500' agl but above 300'
agl, then add "penalty" time based on the time it would have taken to
climb the altitude required to get up to the 500' finish altitude
(using the average climb rate in the pilots last thermal). That would
take away the advantage of finishing low intentionally, since you can
either spend the time climbing or get it added back by finishing low,
but remove the "all or nothing" penalty that now exists, and would not
require as much clock-watching when approaching the finish in a
crowd. If finishing below 300 ' agl (and most of us can tell the
difference between 500' and 300', most of the time - and with a good
altimeter setting, can hit that altitude window), then use the current
scoring penalty - since at that altitude the pilot will probably want
to do a straight in anyway.

I really love racing, I just hate to see it munged with poorly thought
out and difficult to comply with rules.

Cheers,

Kirk
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