Pattern Fun / scribe / Judging

[Rcmaster199 at aol.com]

All,

This happened to us at this year's Nats: 

I, along with two others, judged F3A on site 3, the last day of preliminary 
flying. Things were moving right along, callers calling and pilots flying, 
and we simply judged as best we could. Some distance down the order, a very 
capable competitor, (all F3A competitors that I saw on that line were very 
capable), was given a maneuver out of sequence to perform, which he did. 

I felt something was off immediately, placed a dot at that maneuver, and 
continued scoring on my pad (RVP's idea and I like it). I was familiar with 
the PO3 sequence since I call it for my friend back home, but was not certain 
of what exactly the deviation was,  since the caller had called it that way. 
He got it wrong and the pilot flew it wrong. 

A considerable amount of my concentration as a judge was blown when I noticed 
the problem. I am fairly certain the competitor knew his flight was burned as 
well. Without full concentration, he stopped flying to his ability and I 
stopped judging to mine. In truth he needed to land the plane per F3A rules, 
but since I wasn't sure what he had done, I allowed him to finish the flight

My point is, judging is difficult to do well; it is a chore to be sure, but 
it is also the most important chore in a contest. Familiarity alone is not 
enough if we sit the chair. Having the caller call the maneuvers out loud is 
obviously not foolproof. This was not the first time this has happened and 
will not be the last. 

My answer to this is, PREPARE TO SIT THE CHAIR; one cannot simply be 
"familiar with the sequence" as the Certification class teaches. One must 
have a working knowledge of the sequence. It is our responsibility and duty 
to do the best possible job judging the people who have worked so hard to get 
themselves ready. Anything less and we are derelict in our duty. 

Respectfully submitted,

Matt Kebabjian


In a message dated 9/23/2002 10:28:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
tomanekw at saic-abingdon.com writes:


> Subj:RE: Pattern Fun / scribe / Judging 
> Date:9/23/2002 10:28:18 AM Eastern Daylight Time
> From:<A HREF="mailto:tomanekw at saic-abingdon.com">tomanekw at saic-abingdon.com</A>
> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:discussion at nsrca.org">discussion at nsrca.org</A>
> To:<A HREF="mailto:discussion at nsrca.org">discussion at nsrca.org</A>
> Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
> 
> Ok, we spend hours and hours building the planes (or work a lot at regular
> jobs and pay for someone to build the plane), setting the planes, trimming,
> and then practicing, and learning our sequences.  We also need to find time
> to learn the other sequences.  If there are no opportunities at local 
> field,
> pay attention to the sequences in the early rounds of a contest and maybe
> that will be enough to be able to judge the last round, or at the next
> contest. Use the contests to learn and not just hang out with friend.
> Scribing is a good way to learn too.
> 
> As a judge one has the responsibility to the pilot being judged and others
> in the contest to not only be familiar but know the sequence very well and
> easily identify small but crucial errors (say in the FAI  snap followed by
> point rolls in the OPPOSITE direction - wrong direction will earn you 
> zero).
> Reading the sequence is not enough, seeing it flown numerous times 
> correctly
> is a must in my book.  Eric is correct that some of the maneuver
> descriptions are too long to be announced just before the maneuver without
> interfering with the judging and the pilot's concentration.  My call sheet
> has certain words bolded in the description and I always ask the caller to
> only read the bolded stuff, so I only have to be reminded of what is coming
> up but not the entire maneuver description, for instance: 
>       "triangle" means "triangle with two out of four point rolls"          
> 
>       "square" means "square form the top with half rolls in first and 
> third
> leg"
> But that is certainly not enough for the unfamiliar judge.
> 
> The bottom line is that it is the judges responsibility to KNOW the 
> sequence
> he/she is judging.  If you are asked to judge and you are not familiar with
> the sequence - tell the CD that you are not comfortable judging this class,
> he will find someone else.  In the past I have declined to judge FAI when I
> was not familiar with the sequence.  If I cannot judge to the best of my
> abilities because I do not know the sequence I do not want to judge and
> should not be allowed either - there are no excuses on this issue. 
> 
> Wojtek

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