Good rules have the property that it is easy to tell when you are in compliance (or not). Rules of the sort that Steve proposes are troublesome in this regard.

"Oh, but the penalty is small". Yuk. I followed FS through the finish cylinder at Perry, close enough to tell that we were at the same altitude +/- 3 feet. We were lower than we wanted to be having got crushed in the last 3 miles. He finished penalty free, I got docked 20 points (80 feet low). At least I didn't lose 40% of my speed points while still 850' in the air. The gizmos are not as accurate as some presume.

What happens if my flarm fails? DQ for the day? That's going to lead to unhappiness. There were some pretty well known, safety conscious guys flying at Perry that were having flarm problems.

Skeptically,
Evan Ludeman / T8