(Original Message): ...I don't like...normalizing the scores. The idea of giving one man 1000 points for a
flight while giving another flier half as many points for flying twice as long in a different group is morally wrong....In seeded MOM, normalizing isn't needed. That's already done by making you fly against your peers. ======================== If you don't normalize, it isn't MOM. It's called-flight-order, with all the ills of that ancient format that MOM was designed to cure (and does cure). The essence of MOM is that your skill is scored against the guys who launched at the same time. Ya know, this time of year there's always a lot of chatter about this or that contest rule. But the Nats, WSM, OVSS, F3J, and other big MOM contests have all settled on a pretty consistent format: 150 - 200 meter lines, seeded MOM, 10-minute targets, etc. Whether or not skegs are allowed never has the slightest impact on the scores of the top guys, although without skegs there can be some pretty scary landing dives and some damaged planes. The consistent growth of seeded MOM contests and the increasing standardization of the contest format is not necessarily a bad thing. The guys who fly a lot of contests seem pretty happy with the world of competition as they find it. The bottom line is, if you can outfly your group and you don't do too bad around the LZ, you'll do okay; and if not, not.
