The problem is wallowing behind a tundra-tired bush bird doing 60-70knts. That is when it gets sporty, because your are gaining on him and have slow down even more to re-establish spacing. Cue the slinky effect. Full gross at 60knts is not in my happy place. And that is where I was last year before I bailed and went high. The high pattern was solid and disciplined. Everyone was on their marks. The low pattern was chaos.
The faulty assumption is that everyone is going to be locked on 90.
Does...not...happen.
Mike makes a great point here. As often happens, this thread was drifting from civil to argumentative, and admittedly, my opinion was leaning on the arrogant "if you can't fly an RV comfortably at 80 or 90 knots, we would all be better off if you didn't fly in, but rather drive from some other airport" side of things.
But Mike is spot on with the slinky effect. I was in that horrible mess last year. I had to make several swipes at maneuvering within the bee swarm around Ripon, trying to get into the conga line to Fisk. Each time I neared the "northeast corner of Ripon", there were so many airplanes merging from so many directions it was downright unnerving! Even after I was actually able to establish myself in "my spot" in the line, I had challengers pushing their way in well past the entry point. Much like the guy that races past a long line of merged traffic to force his way in just before the freeway turn off.
After I was well on my way to Fisk, even with the speed of the conga line considerably less than 90 knots, things were comfortable enough, but then, yet another guy who was apparently more important than me and the rest of the folks behind me, forced himself into the slot between me and the guy I was following, which was already less than the prescribed 1/2 mile.
Well, I'll be d****ed if I'm giving up "MY" space and starting over, so I slowed down even more to try to open the gap between myself and my new VIP leader...... With an accurately calibrated AOA system, I'm pretty comfortable slowing the airplane to just above stall while paying keen attention for any sign of a pre-stall buffet, upon which I'd push the nose down, jam the throttle forward and bail out below the other traffic.
Admittedly, I sure should not have slowed down that much. It sure wasn't fair to those behind me, and likely contributed to the already unsafe situation, but that's what happened. 2 or 3 times before I got to Fisk.
"Get there itis" is a strong motivator driving likely normally safe clear thinking pilots to do really dumb stuff.
In considering this along with Mike's points, I'm starting to think that the additional vertical merge of the high road is the lesser of the evils that Dan's cartoon eludes to.
While I'll not likely take the high road because there is some inner conviction that it's the wrong thing to do, I wonder if I'm not mistaken.
My plan for this year is to watch the weather more closely, and plan my arrival for the day before if there is even a hint of weather delays causing jam ups on Sunday.