On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 9:40:00 AM UTC-5, John Cochrane wrote:
Just to highlight Andy's excellent point: The issue is not height at finish. The issue is height in the last mile or so, and the competitive necessity to do occasional 55 knot final glides to just barely clear trees around the airport.

This is solved with a steering turn that has a minimum altitude leaving 25:1 or so glide, or 30:1 + 500 feet, or with a ring or cylinder at 2 miles or so imposing 600-800 feet, after which pilots can finish on a line, or buzz the airport to their hearts' content. The grand prix has steering turns with minimum altitudes, so that should even cheer up the "follow the FAI" set. (These are the real minimums, they must be higher if you want US style graduated penalties)

If what you want really is the thrill of buzzing the airport at the end of a long cross country flight, it is easy to do that without bringing back the historic litter of fiberglass (then) in the last mile or so.

John Cochrane

Also reinforce 9B and BB here. I am not one of the "pilots who feel that the ability to overcome the fear of a catastrophic crash is a "skill" that ought to be measured in glider racing."

And I continue to be amused about this "too stiff an altitude penalty" point of view. What it tells me is that for those pilots the task ends at the airport regardless of what the rules say. It also argues for awarding speed points when you land short of the airport. After all, I almost made it...