Inaccurate Contest Scoring

On the second day of this year's 15 Meter Nationals, Karl Striedieck
chose the best direction for his flight and smoked the rest of the
field. He made 63.7 mph, 8 mph better than the second pilot and 14 mph
better than the third. Did he get 1000 points for this outstanding
performance? No, he received only 852 points. The reason was that some
other pilots chose less favorable directions for their flights and
landed out. That devalued the day and Karl's score. The more poorly
Karl's competitors did, the lower his score became. Karl should have
stood by the finish line and urged his competitors to come home so
that he could have received a better score!

In racing sports world wide, an individual's score is determined by
his performance alone. Soaring is the only racing sport that allows an
individual's score to be affected by the performances of his
competitors. It should not be this way. It can be changed.

It is possible to make a rational analysis of scoring systems rather
than just accepting "the way things have always been done." Any one
interesting in doing so could start with my posting on r.a.s.,
10/2/2003, "History of Contest Scoring."

Bill Feldbaumer 09