OK, it's time to jump in here. Wish I didn't have to, but here goes. First, John, show me all the "many" and "lots of one mile short", "crash after crash" accidents caused by the finish line here in the US. Contest and date please. I know of several that you cite that were from dehydration and other factors, like thermalling too low, etc, not the line. As you and many other people know, dehydration has been the cause of many accidents and dumb stunts over the years. I propose we make a rule to do away with dehydration. Then lets make a rule to prevent flying below say 500 feet above any obstacle or persons within 1/2 mile, to avoid a "clear violation of AIM procedures" Your words in quotes. Yeehaa Mifflin! Lets just go through the AIM and make our rules conform more closely. John, you brought it up.

Let's cut thermalling off at a "comfortable" altitude of, say, 700 feet. That would have saved several lives over the years, contests and otherwise. Once you get below 700 feet, you're scored as a landout. They call it pattern altitude for a reason, right? Or, let's make a rule outlawing mid-airs. Lord knows we've had a few of those in recent years, so wouldn't you agree that it's worth having a rule or two? Lets say no thermalling within 500 feet of another competitor. That would have prevent some recent collisions.

We could go on with all these examples, but it's only purpose would be to show what we already know; this sport, as with most high adventure sports, can be dangerous if we're not careful. If we chase every potential problem area with a solution, none of us will want to compete because it will be boring. The cylinder, and it's AS%$%$NE penalties, have chipped away at the fun, adventure and skill factor in a sport that is very demanding by design.. How far do we go before we legislate it to death? Do we only let the most experienced compete at the National level? I always go back to the timeless sayings; "AVIATION IN ITSELF IS NOT INHERANTLY DANGEROUS. BUT TO AN EVEN GREATER EXTENT THAN THE SEA IT IS TERRIBLY UNFORGIVING OF ANY CARELESSNESS, INCAPACITY OR NEGLECT." And another; IF ONE TOOK NO CHANCES, ONE WOULD NOT FLY AT ALL. SAFETY LIES IN THE JUDGEMENT OF THE CHANCES ONE TAKES. So it is with our sport. We can accept that and try to educate new competitors on the dangers and solutions to problems, or we can further kill our sport with solutions that are looking for a problem. Problems that can easily be overstated and overregulated by the use of words like "many", "crash after crash", etc, etc.

John, you are clearly great with numbers, but if I looked at the safety numbers of this, or any other high adventure sport, I would go home and play checkers against myself. I would like to have an equation that would show when we totally kill the fun in this sport with rules, and how close are we to doing that?

I know the "what would you do?" question is coming. Let me say, just to be clear, I would not be satisfied with even one single fatality in this great sport per year either. Lets find the cause of each accident, or incident and educate, educate, educate.

Respectfully,

MK