On Wednesday, August 5, 2015 at 7:50:45 PM UTC-7, XC wrote:
I've seen a pilot in a Regional who didn't practice all year and never was very good locate a top competitor pre-start using FLARM, follow him around the course and win the day in a FAI handicapped class because he was flying a 15m glider and the top competitor was flying an 18m glider. I started with the two of them split off and did my own thing.

XC

Mediocre pilots latched on to top competitors visually in the old days and followed them slavishly around the course. The only difference is now mr. mediocre can afford to get a few miles away, in the old days he had to stay 100 feet away so as not to lose contact. Ask KS how much fun this was.

I'm not convinced that the ability to find other gliders pre-start via flarm (especially without constest ids) is a significant help to a significant problem here. If you're worried about this, banning start announcements would be a bigger help.

Also we're talking about nationals.

John Cochrane