On Monday, February 5, 2018 at 6:39:44 PM UTC-5, wrote:
DISCLOSU This is completely self serving.

When people discuss what limits pilot participation in contests - TIME does pop up as an issue. (yes there are many others, but let's stick to TIME here)

Has anyone had experience with running a Regional contest that was 3 or 4 days rather than than 7 days? is that even allowed?

I was looking at scoring and ranking and noticed that 2 days of regional contest get a pilot 95% of the rating he would have received from a full 7 day regional.

For me (and several employed friends) - 1 to 2 contests a year is the limit. I need to keep a few days (PTO's) for the extraordinary flying days and a few so my family believes there is still hope for a vacation.

The model we have right now is fine for youth that do not need to work and retired /self employed pilots. We are missing the 25 to 45 year old pilot age group.

Weather is always a crap shoot,y so why not gamble that the first 2 days are the best, rather than committing to possibly sitting in the rain for 7 days. May also be less grueling on the organizing group.

WH

(With 0r Without a Hard Deck LOL)

It is allowed.
For many the logic is that once I've committed to time off, I want to maximize the benefit.
For vacation challenged pilots the split weekend regional is helpful. This favors locals and doesn't work so well for people coming from farther away.
R2N at Wurtsboro did the split the last couple of times and it has helped attendance. They will be doing it again in June this year. Stand by for announcement. It will be a non hard deck event.
UH