Hello All,
Hi Anthony,
That's exactly what it is about!
Back in '89 I had to throw out a round at the Team Trials in which I placed third!
Any statistics based on a single data point are junk ... It's fundamental!
At the time, I proposed that normalization be done over the group of fliers for which you want the judging panels to be evenly weighted ...
for example:
I suggested that in the prelims it would be over 1+"the number of flyers who go to the Semi-Finals";
then in the Semis it would be over 1+ "the number of pilots to go to the Finals";
then in the Finals it would be over the top 4.
Why 4 ??? Think of it this way, there are two important decisions in a Final: 1) who is the World Champ? and 2) did we get it right between the last pilot on the podium and the first one off it?
Of course back in late '87 when I wrote this up, there was no Semi-Final.

The "top half" arrangement may not be ideal but it beats the living daylights out of normalizing to a single top score.
Take Care, All
Dean Pappas