Is the 200ft below Min Finish Height Rule Working?

On Friday, January 24, 2014 12:52:06 PM UTC-6, Eric Bick (1DB) wrote:


What everyone is blowing off is that the finish is NOT about YOU and having a thrill at the finish, but the safety of the other pilots and ground personnel that your actions impact. Let's keep our eye on that ball.



Wow. This whole thread is fascinating - I'm looking at flying my first competitions this season, and finding I'm in way over my head. My comments are a bit off the main thread, but relevant to me and perhaps others that aren't competition pros.



The idea of thermaling at 500' AGL or lower is beyond my comprehension at this point in my soaring career, and entering a landing pattern at 500' - 700' from a mile out contrary to all my student piloting lessons (even though I can calculate that it is readily doable in my glider).



The rules themselves seem straightforward, even though I have little idea of how they play out in a contest. And the start and finish cylinder concepts seem straightforward. All I'm really interested in for my first tries is finishing each day, flying safely, not doing anything stupid, leaving plenty of margin, scoring some points, and having a challenge and fun (i.e. wanting to do it again).



I expect as time goes on, flying more contests will lead to my learning and appreciating the strategies and tactics discussed in a lot of this thread - but my main concerns are whether the current rules are in fact safe for a neophyte to contests and a relatively low-timer. From the discussions, I'm not getting a clear sense of whether they are or not (specifically as related to the finish).



I understand we are all subject to sometimes making dumb decisions, or the weather making our plans (and margins) vanish - but the rules should basically enable safe flying in contests, even accounting to some degree the wide variance in risk different pilots are willing to take under varying circumstances. Reassure me that the rules do enable basically safe flying in contests. I have to assume they do since the fatality rate doesn't seem to be something that draws headline attention.



Eric Bick

Eric,

The minimum finish height is a minimum and there is no maximum. So there is no reason that the rules regarding the finish especially should force you into an unsafe position unless you choose to go there personally.

I have only flown 4 contests but I think I can count on 1 hand how many times i've finished anywhere close to the minimum. Usually my problem is just getting down. 3 of those four have been at sites without particularly inviting landable terrain near the airport (Llano, TX and Moriarty). I was at my first contest in Llano and didn't really know how to use the final glide stuff on my Oudie anyway and finished ridiculously high most days. At Moriarty I usually wouldn't set out on final glide unless I had a 1000 or 1500 foot pad over minimum to hopefully account for dynamic air on the final glide.. I can think of at least one time in Moriarty where that wasn't enough. At Llano I landed out one day after finding a nice river of sink on the final glide.

Your approach is smart and should lead to years of fun flying contests. I take a similar approach: don't do anything i wouldn't do in "normal" flying, bring the glider back in one piece, have fun, etc. and I have had a great time so far.