The GAP 98 scoring document gets updated to
GAP 2000.

The overall point allocation is given like this:

This is the distribution of points by type of points available to pilots. This
is not the distribution of points between pilots. Those involve more pictures.

Still the GAP authors were not satisfied with the GAP 2000 program, they wanted:

The departure and arrival bonus system is there to reward the
pilot who leads out. If you lead out, you make decisions yourself, and you take
more risks of bombing out or being slower. If you follow other pilots, you might
get to goal with a fast time, but your points will be less than the pilot who
flew with the same time (or maybe a slightly slower time) but who flew in front
of you. The GAP formulas are designed to reward the pilot who makes the
decisions.

That's what they hoped to get from GAP 2000, but they would be
disappointed as pilots continued to find the lure of the gaggle much more
inviting than the lure of a few measly Departure or Arrival points. Notice that
Departure and Arrival points are worth a constant forty three percent of what
speed points are worth. They rise from three percent of the total to nineteen
percent as more pilots make goal. If twenty percent of the pilot make goal they
are worth eleven percent of the total points.

If all pilots start at the same start time (as they do in paragliding
competitions and often in hang gliding competitions), the departure points are
just a function of the pilot's speed points. And, in that case the arrival
position points are also just a reflection of the individual pilots' speeds, so
in this case there are just distance points and speed points (counted three
ways). Here is what the GAP 2000 document says:

Departure points are a percentage of your own speed points. If all
the pilots start at the same time like in a pure race, departure points will
still be different, because the fast pilots (who will get more arrival points as
well in this case) will have the same percentage of a higher number of points.
You could say that in tasks with a single start time for all pilots, speed
points are effectively increased.

The point of Departure and Arrival points (despite what the
paragraph from the GAP 2000 document above states) it to get everyone going
together and as early as the first ones make a break for it. One or two pilots
heading off on their own won't be enough to encourage the others to follow as
these points are just not enough to bother about given the fact that those
pilots will likely be caught as they don't have the advantage of the gaggle and
are probably not the naturally fastest pilots to begin with.

The release of GAP 2002 was the next step in the evolution of the GAP scoring
system You can find the documentation
here. GAP 2002 replaced the Departure points calculation with the "Pilot
Leading Bonus" point calculation, leaving the point allocation between point
types the same as GAP 2000:

The available "leading" points with GAP 2002 are the same as the available
departure points with GAP 2000.

The GAP 2002 document states:

Pilot Leading Bonus. Better known as the "early bird bonus" is
provided to encourage the pilots to take off early and rewards the risk involved
in being in the leading group. This bonus is the only modification from GAP2000
and now accurately rewards the pilots which are leading and using better the
earlier part of the day (not to waste useful thermals waiting on takeoff). Now
pilots will get points even if landed before the Arrival line.

Of course, departure points were also provided to encourage pilots
to take off early but apparently they weren't encouraging enough. In fact the
GAP 2000 document stated:

Pilot Departure Bonus. Known as the "early bird bonus" but better
defined as the "leading bonus" is provided to encourage fast pilots to take off
early and rewards the risk involved in being in the leading group.

The most obvious change (not obvious here yet) is that the pilot
doesn't have to get to goal to get "leading bonus points." Whether that amounts
to much is another issue.

Notice all the semantic confusion around what to call these points: departure,
early bird bonus, pilot leading bonus, or as they came to be known, leading
points.

Next up, I'll discuss "leading" points.