Safety Finish Scoring

Karl Streideck worte:

'Extending the 20:1 minimum slope out another 5 miles
will not give any advantage because the scoring formula
uses a speed of 60mph from the safety fix home, while
most gliders would actually be doing 40%-80% faster
than this. There is also the time 'penalty' incurred
due to the requirement to climb higher than necessary,
so it's a double whammy. The pilot has to 'tank
up' but then doesn't get to convert the extra energy
to speed.'

Well, I thought it was 200 feet per statute mile, which
is 25:1, not 20:1. But anyway...

Since all this is GPS controlled, why are we giving
distance credit, at 60 MPH, to the finish point on
a safety finish? Why not end the flight (in miles
and time for scoring purposes), when the pilot turns
around inside the safety finish zone? Even progress
at 60 MPH boosts the speed a bit on a 45 MPH day, but
it slows you down if it had been a smoker. I think
if you are ending the flight for scoring purposes,
it should end there. Not continue on at some arbitraty
speed.

And I have never understood why we seem to think it
is safe to go down to about 1000 feet AGL, 5 miles
out with a storm on the field, get a finish, then try
and turn around so we can get away. Ever tried to
climb out from below 1000 feet near a storm, and not
in the inflow to it?

All this really just illustrates a point. Every rule
will have a corner on it. And if you go right to that
corner, you can put yourself in an unsafe position.
My favorite example of this is those that complain
that the Cylinder Finish is unsafe because it has a
corner 500 feet up, and one or two miles from the center
of the field, depending on finish point location.
Hitting that point at zero airspeed is not much different
than crossing a finish line, going the wrong direction
for landing, at 50 feet and 70 or 80 knots. Both are
'OK' by the rules, but both show very poor judgement.


As KS said, at some point, we all have to realize that
our lives are more important than a few points. Maybe
we should all be required to have a picture of our
wife and or family on the panel, looking us straight
in they eyes. Maybe that could cut back on some of
the corner cutting? I remember hearing Eric Mozer
say that he hit a thermal very low one day in his ASH-25
at Hobbs. He decided not to try and work it, as his
Dad was in the back seat. He said if he had been alone,
he probably would have tried to take it. They landed
out safely. Families are good. Do everything you
can to stay a part of yours.

My Nickels worth.

Steve Leonard
ZS