On Feb 9, 11:48*am, "John Godfrey (QT)"
wrote:
If I was the CD or scorer (and I have been both) I would respond as
follows:

1. Expect to have your altitude trace closely compared against others.

That can't possibly be a valid test. The first season I had my
ASW-28 I had a convincing win on Day 1 on R9. The reason was that I
found a thermal climb in severe VMC to an altitude several thousand
feet above the best anyone else saw for the day. Similary in a local
club contest, on a day that everyone was struggling to even stay in
the air, one competitor found a huge thermal that enabled a glide to
the first turnpoint and a day win.

There is currently no practical way to ensure a competitor does not
enter cloud. There is currently no practical way to ensure a
competitor does not violate cloud clearance regulations. As long as
that it true competitive pilots will push as close to cloud base are
they think will give a competitive advantage. Some pilots are more
competitive than others but I doubt there is a single pilot on the
West coast that would break off a 10kt climb at 12,000ft because they
estimated that the cloudbase was 13,000ft

Andy (GY)