Visulalizing the Finish Cylinder

It isn't meant to address the known problems of the finish gate, but to
explore the unknowns of the cylinder. A final control turn point is a
good idea in my opinion. I don't think the rules exculde its use. It is
a choice... easily implemented by a CD who listens to the opinions of
competitors.

The decision to fly through the gate or roll is hardly split second. If
you are below your safety altitude at four miles out and less than 100
knots, the decision has already been made. That's when you should be
calling a rolling finish and navigating appropriately. A rolling finish
needn't be used only when a belly flop onto the nearest bit or runway
is your best option. My rolling finishes usually involve an application
of spoilers so I'll land well short of the traffic around the gate.
There are situations where we are pulling up on the stick during the
last several thousand feet to the airport fence, but this has
absolutely nothing to do with finish gates.

The band of energy you need to be in to complete a safe pattern
insertion from 50 feet agl is pretty wide, from 100 knots up to
redline. If you find yourself unable to measure this until you are
already within the airport boundaries, you need to work on this skill.
Clearly, we are discussing this because there are pilots attending
races who cannot do this.

I can hear the argument. Why should I get better at the finish gate.
It's an unsafe artifact from an earlier era of the sport. Fine. But the
lack of skill demonstrated in today's finish gate will find its way to
the finish cylinder - same cause, different effects. I guess I'm making
the argument that guns don't kill, people do. Pretty hard to swallow
for a captial "L" liberal like me (please, not to be confused with a
Democrat!).

Marc, I guess it comes down to this... CDs can solve one of the
problems. The other, to me, is like making the decision to land out.
You can either admit at some safe altitude that the risk of continuing
the search for lift is too great and get on with making a safe pattern,
or you can wait until a safe landing is nearly impossible. Same type of
judgement for the finish gate, slightly different set of skills.

OC

Checking out again for the next few weeks. Back channel if you come up
with anything inspired.

Cheers,
Chris

wrote:
The band of energy you need to be in to complete a safe pattern
insertion from 50 feet agl is pretty wide, from 100 knots up to
redline. If you find yourself unable to measure this until you are
already within the airport boundaries, you need to work on this skill.
Clearly, we are discussing this because there are pilots attending
races who cannot do this.

You're right, some of us who attend races cannot, or will not, do this.
I haven't made a pass under 300 feet in at least 10 years. Part of it
is the fact that, as with many, this "skill" was of necessity
self-taught (the closest I've ever come to being killed in a low pass
was when a CFIG was flying from the back seat). Part of it is the fact
that the vast majority of my glider flying is now at airports where
there is a mix of traffic, and low passes are simply not appropriate.
When I honestly looked at my past history of low passes, the number of
minor "incidents" (near encounters with other aircraft that I had not
previously been aware of, ending up with a less than expected amount of
energy, not remembering an important checklist item, etc.) ended up
being just too large a percentage of the overall total. So, I came to
the conclusion that I should no longer work on this particular skill...

Marc