On Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at 1:23:33 PM UTC-8, Tango Eight wrote:
What's the point of being exacting about the finish when our turns, even on an assigned task, have literal miles of wiggle room (and are scored to the pilot's best advantage)? Surely a minor tuneup to Winscore could choose the optimum finish point for a complete task, anywhere in a 15 mile radius circle.

/s

-Evan Ludeman / T8

There have been proposals to do that for starts - it would simplify a lot of pre-start complexity, but add some on course uncertainty, particularly on time-limited tasks since the pilot wouldn't know until after the flight exactly where or when (s)he stated for scoring purposes.

it seems a little superfluous to to it for finishes since most of the time the final glide speed exceeds the average speed on course up to the beginning of the final glide. Therefore, the optimal finish point would be at the end of the glide (remember the 10-minute rule? it was designed to eliminate the effect of the final glide on overall average speed on course).

Setting such a fines up as a circle around the airport would lead to some unpleasant brinksmanship as pilots overfly the airport and continue out into the boonies until they are either out of altitude and have to land out, or reach the limit of their comfort that they can turn around and still make it back to the airport at best L/D. That seems counter-productive to safety and not particularly a good measure of soaring skill.

Andy Blackburn
9B