ORIGINAL: J Lachowski
Joe, bottom line, in Intermediate you do not have any maneuvers with long vertical up and down lines. You don't need braking. Just keep the low idle setting. I don't use it in Masters. Never did and never will. You can't go by what the big guns in FAI say or do. They have some complex tall maneuvers that can lend themselves to a little braking. Just concentrate on perfecting the basic geometry at your level.
I stand corrected. I might use it occasionally on landing.
Thanks Joe, Clearly your advice is right in line with that of Dave and Chris plus based on my performance last week; I need a lot more focus on simple items like centering my maneuvers, etc. before I worry about using brake. Having said that I will say that as always, I've got that "curiousity bug" that makes me want to understand my own equipment just for the sake of understanding
Joe