2013 USA Competition Rules Published

On Friday, March 8, 2013 11:33:20 AM UTC-5, kirk.stant wrote:
On Thursday, March 7, 2013 3:29:09 PM UTC-7, John Godfrey (QT) wrote:

Um,



If a line is in use, you get speed points for a rolling finish (10.9.4)..



"Rolling finish" has no meaning wrt a cylinder finish, the finish occurs at the cylinder boundary.



QT - RC Chair



My mistake, I thought rolling finishes had been eliminated from both. Need to read the rules closer, obviously.



Which brings up an interesting point (and then I'll stop whining about finishes, I promise!) - if the whole point of the cylinder finish is to ensure a pilot has enough energy to fly a safe pattern, why not just make that a requirement? You finish when you cross the line, at least 50', but with enough energy to fly a safe pattern (whatever that is defined as). No rolling finish for speed, it's a landout. So finish at 700' and 60 knots, or 50' and 150 knots, energy is energy. Fly a dangerous pattern, and the CD gives you a 1000 pt penalty - you get that for an airspace infringement, so why not. Now my final glide and finish is easy - make it over the airfield with enough energy to fly a pattern and land safely. Same result as the circle finish, but less math or clockwatching, and if you overcook your final glide (and your crew is watching) and the pattern is clear, you can still do a nice flyby for the fun of it.



Kirk

66

The "whole point" of the cylinder finish goes beyond "ensuring a pilot has enough energy to fly a safe pattern." What this is certainly a necessary item it is not the whole story at all.

We rewrote the Rules Guide appendix on cylinder finishes this year to try and make this more clear.

A10.9.2 ‡ Cylinder Finish
A cylinder finish means that the race does not end at the airport, rather it ends at a defined altitude and distance from the airport. Use of the cylinder for a finish is desirable in a number of circumstances including:

1) The contest is held at a public-use airfield where the field is open to non-contest traffic during the finish

2) The contest includes a Regional Sport class

3) A finish line creates the potential for low energy finishes over densely populated or busy areas (e.g. roads)

4) Any other circumstance that creates safety issues for a line finish. (QT note: especially for "civilians" - think Szeged)

In setting the Minimum Finish Height (MFH), the CD should take into account expected weather, glider performance, pilot skill and experience and local traffic. The goal is for all pilots to be able to safely merge into the pattern, land normally, and roll safely clear.

Note that the MFH is the minimum height for a penalty-free finish. Because a valid finish (with a very small penalty) may be up to 200 ft below the MFH (to accommodate instrumentation errors), it is this lower height that should be considered when setting the MFH. Thus the MFH should normally be 700 ft AGL, which avoids creating the big step in points (landout rather than speed finish) at 300 ft AGL.

When non-contest traffic is allowed during the time gliders are finishing, consider a MFH of at least 1000 ft. AGL at one mile, plus 200 ft per mile beyond that with the goal that contest and non-contest traffic can be smoothly integrated into a normal pattern.

QT - RC Chair