Hi Andy,
When I take my turn in the barrel and CD a contest, I never assign a
final turn. Why? Because I won't call a MAT in the first place unless
conditions are unpredictable to the point I can't say for sure just
where to send them. I always try to assign the first point so that
everybody must start making decisions at the same place. Only at 3:00
PM will I call a MAT with no mandatory turns, but to make them all hit
a final turn or two, late in the day with no idea what the conditions
will be is something I don't like. The final point in a TAT is bad
enough under unpredictable conditions, but at least you have a large
hunk of sky to get in that last fix before heading home. I have seen
MAT's with 2 first turns assigned and the pilot must decide which one
to use before calling his own. Bad idea. Choose right and your a hero,
choose wrong and you could end up being a zero. I do like calling a
whole bunch of turns, so many that some wont be able to do them all
and will be forced to quit and head home when their time's up. Call it
JJ's AT, a way to call an assigned task in sports class.
Happy, Happy
JJ

Andy wrote:
On Dec 23, 12:32*pm, Rick Culbertson wrote:
Yes, I too find myself guilty of very quietly
groaning under my breath (you can’t let the other pilots know) when a
MAT with one assign TP is called.

They know now Rick - they're watching you. ;-)

In all honesty I kind of like the MAT with no assigned turns (I like
variety so it's not to the exclusion of the AST or any other task). I
enjoy predicting the weather on the fly. The problem on really dodgy
days is that it can totally scramble the standings because things get
UN-predictable. These days tend to favor the bold - the pilot who
decides to "get out of Dodge" and racks up some miles going to some
far corner of the task area following the best weather. Some of my
most enjoyable contest flights have been these types.

Here's another idea: A MAT with a couple of turns at the start and a
couple of turns at the end to line everybody up again. Maybe 1/2 to
2/3 of the nominal task is assigned. Call it the "donut hole MAT", or
the "leech scraper MAT". You're not head's down with the computer all
day but you do have to make one significant weather call in the middle
of the flight and you break up the gaggles. The slowest pilots in the
pack might make no additional turns. You wouldn't want to make the
final couple of legs too long because it would make estimating arrival
time hard, but long enough that they weren't just final glide.

9B