Folks,
Please share your opinions with the rules committee before January 10. Here is my feedback:

Hank,
Happy New Year.

The 2018 rules changes look good with the exception of the finish penalty which is only a minor improvement over the previous -200ft land-out scenario from a competition fairness perspective.

With the proposed rule the following penalties apply to the maximum 600 speed points:
100ft low - 25 points
200ft low - 50 points
300ft low - 225 points
400ft low - 400 points
401ft low - 600 points (on a 1000 point day)

Any big non-linearity in the scoring acts as a big deterrent, for those impacted, to return to future contests. The FAI system of a linear penalty to the ground is far more favorable and in my case a major reason to favor a transition from the SSA to the FAI scoring approach sooner than later. A 400 point low finish penalty will often control the results of the contest for a pilot when, in climb, it's often only 2 minutes of additional circling - this doesn't feel balanced.

I hope you and find a way to adopt a more balanced and ideally linear finish penalty in 2018.

Thanks again for all your efforts over the years.

Cheers,
Bob Fletcher 90