Pilot Assessed Record Penalty

CD John Good opened today’s pilot meeting with a discussion of a flight log submitted yesterday by Sylvia Grandstaff (XP). Winscore had flagged her for exceeding the Maximum Start Altitude because the log showed her crossing the Start Line at 2,147,483,647 feet.  Yes, over 2 BILLION.  (C’mon, Sylvia, did you think we wouldn’t notice?).  To put this into perspective, that altitude equates to 406,720 miles high, or 1.69 times the distance to the moon.  Winscore calculated the penalty for this to be 536,866,661 points.  John said he believes that Sylvia’s Penalty is greater than the sum of ALL penalties, from ALL pilots, at ALL soaring contests, EVER.

Also, a penalty of 25 points was exacted yesterday from Jim Lee’s score.  Always the sportsman, Jim self-reported to Scorer Ron Gleason that he had gone through the SSA Maximum Altitude of 17,500 feet.  Additionally, Jim wanted you to know how such a thing can happen.  He told me that he was enjoying a 10 knot thermal with John Cochrane late in the afternoon.  Jim got out his cellphone and made a short video of their rapid climb, hoping to capture the sun glinting off John’s wings.  Near the end of the video, Cochrane rolls out if his steep thermal turn, and Jim thought: “I wonder why he’s rolling out?” 

You can see Jim’s penalty on the Scoresheet, but Sylvia’s wouldn’t fit.  

Weatherman Dan Gudgel’s report noted his concern over the high altitude cirrus that will be flowing over the Minden Task Area from the southeast.  Also, atmospheric instability over the White and Inyo Mountain Ranges promised strong afternoon thunderstorms.  A look at NWS radar now shows those thunderstorms exactly where Dan predicted they’d be. 

After the weather briefing, John said “A close look at today’s weather indicates a low chance of conditions that would allow a safe and fair task.  Accordingly, flying today is cancelled."

DL