Top-tier sailplane contest pilots must have ice-cold salt water coursing in their veins.  They fly sleek long-winged engineless ships over courses hundred of miles long above brutally inhospitable terrain.  They race around downdrafts and cumulonimbus clouds and wind shear and everything else the immense engine named weather decides to throw at them.  These guys and gals are seriously intent on competing. That being the case, the Soaring Society of America has announced several contest rule changes in the interest of safety.  Changes include a “10-mile safety finish option” in the event that a really big storm lies over the contest airport.  That’s so pilots aren’t tempted to transit a thunderstorm to win more points toward winning the contest.  And this:  pilots in a midair collision will be scored contest points only to where they hit in order to eliminate the point temptation to keep going.  Yow! Most pilots if we ever had a midair and came away with an aircraft that still worked  would only want to find a place to land land and kiss the ground we landed on and thank our Deity.