Thanks for the clarification. Sound like something that needs to be included in greater detail in the pre contest briefings.



On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 8:31:49 PM UTC-4, Sean Fidler wrote:
The way both of these great pilots handled the penalty was some of the most sportsmanlike and gentlemanly behavior I have ever seen in sports. Both pilots addressed the others at the next morning's pilots meeting, explained their mistake in great detail using SeeYou to illustrate, and made several suggestions on improving the interface/task programming to make the semi-circle (no turns allowed area) more visible in the flight computer. CD John Godfrey did an excellent job handling as well, and the whole group (pilots and others) learned a great deal as a by-product of these penalties. The suggestions were partially simply improving our understanding of the SGP starting rules "intent," but also discussed methods for avoiding the risk of the penalty in general.

Bottom line, gliders must not turn when close to the starting line (time & distance) and a "perfect start" means very little to nothing in the grand scheme of the SGP competition format. The idea is to have a safe start. The race begins with strategy decisions out on course, well away from the starting line. All the pilots must find a way to beat their competitors without the luxury of choosing to start well behind/in-front of their competitors or by flying in vastly different areas to gain an advantage.

For those of you interested in the SGP rules, here they a http://sgpstorage.blob.core.windows....rules-v8.0.pdf