On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 3:54:48 PM UTC-7, John Cochrane wrote:
I would love to see this adopted in SSA contests. It makes great sense to me.

We tried to get some interest in this proposal a year or two ago. I had the same reaction -- on a reasonably consistent day in which most people can be ready to start, it would get us all out on course and end a lot of leeching and start roulette.

To be clear, the proposal is that the CD announces a "last start time" half hour or so after gate open. You can still start whenever you want, but if you start after last start time your start time is the last start time.

This was in part to accommodate the then groundswell for Grand Prix, as well as the big concern over gaggling and leeching that we see boiling up in the flarm debate. However, it died on the vine somehow with no interest. Perhaps we'll try again and see if anyone can be talked in to running a regional this way. A poll topic for sure.

John Cochrane BB

I'd suggest a small modification that would make this more palatable: After the "last start time" expires, let's begin taxing the contestant at say 10% instead of 100%. That would be 1 second tax per 10 seconds transpired. It seems like 10% is enough to get most everyone out on course yet not completely shaft the poor sap who can't get up or has a relight or has an instrument problem and is late starting. I believe that I read a variation of this idea on a previous post - I think it was 9B.