Is the 200ft below Min Finish Height Rule Working?

On Friday, January 24, 2014 10:02:49 PM UTC-6, wrote:

What if the first guy has minimal energy and ends up in the middle of the runway?

You have to plan for that - which is why you keep extra energy in the pattern until committed to land. In this case, until the guy can hop out and get his glider off the runway, you now have 2 choices - land long (same as before, just a shorter runway to do it on) or land short (not a good choice unless you are last in the gaggle landing or are also low on energy, then probably best to land on brick one and get off runway as soon as possible - anyone following you should be able to see that soon enough to land long.

Maybe we need a Condor mission made up that simulates this situation?

Kirk

I read this RAS with thread as a non contest pilot and outside observer. The flying community will never be able to tell a pilot what he/she can/should do to mitigate risk (instructors can only suggest) - a competitive pilot will find a way to work the rules. However, I think the simple flight test would help change the risk taking out of the program.

You are found circling looking for lift (subject to trace) below 700 ft any where on course (ridge maybe lower) you are scored as a landout with a small bonus for making a good landout with downwind final pattern. No pattern no bonus. period. (hard deck)

If you have not started the task (i.e. relight scenario seen in Ionia) in start cylinder below 500 your DQ'ed (why not land a relight?)

You are found looking for lift between 1 mile and 2 miles from finish below 500 FT - scored as a landout with bonus for airport landing and/or bonus for making a pattern good landout.

I my mind all everyone is saying is "Hey PIC - Make a good risk free landing judged by a good pattern for any landing pattern - no crap short cuts - considering each ship has different flying performances - it has to be hard to determine a MFH with balanced equity. 500 ft might be easy for some and harder for others. So just complete a good pattern.

ZEN

On Saturday, January 25, 2014 9:01:08 AM UTC-8, kirk.stant wrote:
On Friday, January 24, 2014 10:02:49 PM UTC-6, wrote:

Maybe we need a Condor mission made up that simulates this situation?

Might be interesting to see what potential issues are. I've only done a little Condor flying and I don't know if it's all that great at "head on a swivel" spontaneously trying to set up landing sequencing from 300 feet.

The only reason I'm curious is that I'm guessing a CD would really want to know what the finish would look like before calling it under GP conditions. It's a bit of a speculation as it remains to be seen how much it gets called.