TAT scoring question

Jonathan Gere wrote:

It did not count for a finish, because you didn't announce it on the
radio. If you did call a finish, you are done after one lap and can't
go on later. I'm not speaking of what WinScore will say, only of what
the rules require.

No, this is what the rules requi

11.2.2.4.4 If all claimed turnpoints are valid, and the pilot obtained
a scored start time, a finish time prior to finish closing and landed at
the contest site, then the pilot has completed the task.

Please notice that this rule does NOT contain the phrase "and announced
his start and finish on the radio".

It is unambiguous that S's and F's "shall" be
announced on the radio.

No, it is unambiguous that start *times* shall be reported within 15
minutes of a start, and it does not have to be on the radio (see rule
10.8.8.3). Finishes are announced by the pilot only when a finish
cylinder is used. With a finish line, the pilot only announces his
approach: "(Contest ID) four miles".

Maybe it can be a finish, but you take a
penalty for not announcing.

Now you are getting closer. It *is* a valid finish, and *maybe* you will
get a penalty for not announcing it on the radio. If a pilot repeatedly
refused to follow the radio procedures defined in the rules, the Contest
Director could make a good case for awarding a penalty for unsafe
flying or unsportsmanlike conduct. But I would have a low opinion of any
CD that handed out such a penalty automatically on first offense without
considering the circumstances.

On day 7 of the 2002 USA 15m Nats at Tonopah, Bill Bartell experienced a
double battery failure while on task: his primary battery became
unplugged, and his backup battery had a low charge. He turned off his
radio, his only vario, and his flight computer, saving his few remaining
electrons for the flight recorder. Bill finished and landed silently,
winning the day and moving into first place overall. Would you have
given him distance points only, or a penalty for not calling "four
miles"?

One day at the 2001 USA 15m Nats at Uvalde, the finish was so crowded
that the radio was squealing constantly from multiple pilots stepping on
each other trying to call "four miles", and Charlie Lite trying to
acknowledge each call. During the less than 2 minutes it took me to fly
at redline from "four miles out" to the finish line, there was not one
moment of clear frequency in which to announce my approach, and I chose
not to step on some other pilot's announcement. Would you have given me
a penalty?

Suppose S(tart)=F(inish)=TP C. No designated turn MAT. You fly
S-A-B-(FSC)-A-B-(FSC)-A-B-(FSC)-A-B-F (i.e. 11 TPs - 4 times around a
triangle) then after landing claim the best scoring of any one of 10
combinations of consecutive laps:
1,1+2,1+2+3,1+2+3+4,2,2+3,2+3+4,3,3+4,or 4.

Will this work? Can you openly announce all 4 S's and all 4 F's on
the radio to avoid the penalties for not doing so, and choose which to
discard by leaving them off your landing card?

There is nothing in the rules to prevent this scheme, but practical
considerations make it a useless strategy. Firstly, any of the lap
combinations that took significantly less than the minimum task time
would likely score very low.

And since maximum start altitude and minimum finish altitude are never
the same, in order to make an efficient finish and an efficient start
between each lap, you would have to finish at minimum finish altitude
and immediately pull up into a good thermal, climbing to maximum start
altitude before exiting the start cylinder, all without wasting time
searching for lift.

It is therefore unlikely that any combination of laps other than 1+2+3+4
would have both an efficient start and an efficient finish. And if any
number of laps less than four is sufficient to use up the minimum task
time, you will be beaten by the pilot who did a better job of
"bracketing" the day by not flying as far as your four laps.

If so, why do so many pilots go undertime on no turn MAT's, when they
could easily bank insurance laps during the start gate roulette?

Perhaps those pilots are not as adept as you are at mis-interpreting the
rules or devising poor racing strategies.

Gary Ittner P7
"Have glider, will race"