"Stewart Kissel" wrote...
It's starting to get a little gray now, to summarize...

The rules are ambiguous, which is not at all surprising given their history.

If u declare a Start Point...one can either use release
or Start Point for initial altitude for penalty caluculation.

It's more complicated than that. According to SC3 Annex C.3.5, "the start
height and time may be selected after the flight from the *most favourable
fix* within the OZ before crossing the start line or OZ boundary." This is
in addition to SC3 1.4.7 which states that "A distance flight starting as
defined in 1.1.8b (a declared START POINT) may be claimed where the LOSS OF
HEIGHT is measured from the release height to the elevation of the finish
point."

And then you can compare this against altitude at Finish
Point observation sector?

Perhaps, but does "elevation of the finish point" above mean the actual
ground level elevation, or the altitude of the finish point? SC3 is in
serious need of a rewrite...

Marc