Ben and Marcel...thank you for your responses. It is great to get input
from pilots that have flown at the Worlds and know the way things worked (or
didn't work) there.

It seemed to me that pilots in the last 3 world contests were being asked to
fly exceptionally long days with respect to the conditions each day. I
admit to not following each day closely so my perception could be wrong.
The point of this "new" task (it is much like other new and old tasks at
least in the US) is to force pilots to fly during less than optimal times of
the day or conditions. Currently the way tasking is set in the US we are on
task for the minimum time only (or close to it) and flying when it might be
weak is discouraged by the rules. Maybe the worlds tasking is simply a
function of calling very long tasks in terms of time or distance and the way
to narrow the gap is for us in the US to just call longer times.

Re the "AST" that was confusing Andy....in the US the official designation
for what the FAI rules call a "racing task" is what we term an "assigned
task" but used to be known as an "assigned speed task" aka AST. It looks
like what Ben is calling an AST is what we call a TAT or in the FAI lingo
Speed Task with Assigned Areas. Is that correct Ben? For those that may
not have had a look go to the following link to view the FAI World rules:
http://www.fai.org/sporting_code/sc3.asp

There are lots of pilots here in the US that would prefer having only racing
tasks as well but actually the TAT has been accepted better than some
thought it would be. There are lots of arguements both ways here but no
doubt that the TAT introduces a bit more luck/chance but also may test pilot
skills that may not be tested in the racing task such as ability to select
the best routes. Even more so for the Speed Task-Pilot Selected or what we
call the MAT here in the US.

In my opinion it is good to have ongoing discussions and debates re the
rules whether at the international or local level. Thanks again for your
comments.

Casey