On Jan 30, 9:51*am, BB wrote:
If you blast through prestart gaggles above the start cylinder you
will still be eligible for unsafe flying penalties, just as if you
were blasting through gaggles on course. I

No disagreement here. Unsafe is unsafe and deserves the max penalty.
However in Western contest the bottom of prestart gaggles can be
thousand of feet above MSH allowing a back starter to bump gaggles
without any conflict.

I'm not sure I follow this. If you thermal through the top of the
cylinder, and you do not reenter, your start fix is where you cut the
top of the cylinder. You get credit for distance from this point to
the first turn.

Ok, that's what I would have expected but this situation is not
depicted in the diagram.

thanks

Andy