D4 Champs - Unknowns

[Atwood, Mark]

Question for all the D4/D5 and any other guys that may be attending this years D4 distrct championship Pattern/Nightflight pyrotechnic targeting contest.

There has been some interest generated for bringing back the famed "unknown" sequence that we use to fly at this event.  In the past, we (Bob Pannell and I, who both flew Masters then) created and FAI unknown in an attemp to challange and entertain a bored set of FAI/TOC flyers that attended in our area.  We had found that the existing FAI crowd (Mike Klein, Dave Von Linsowe, Geoff Combs, etc...all TOC flyers) treated the contest rather loosely and the unknown spiced things up a bit.  

This year there has been some interest in having an unknown for ALL the classes.  This poses some interesting challenges, but could be fun.  So while Bob and I will make the final decision, I'm interested in some feedback and ideas.

First, we will be flying at least 4 NORMAL rounds regardless.  This is our district champs, and for some of the classes, these points are critical. That will be the primary focus.  But IF we decide to play with unknowns, AND the weather are patrons cooperate to allow 5 or 6 rounds, we may fly the last one or two with Unknown sequences.  These rounds would NOT count for district points, but WOULD count for the overall contest winner. I.e. we would, should we do this, determine district points based on the 4 or 5 rounds flown with normal schedules.

Ok...all that said...I have a few options.

Option #1 - Create an unknown schedule for all classes.  This entails a LOT of work, and requires a fair amount of work during the contest as Callers become that much more critical.  Judging is also tricky as no one is familiar with the sequences.  Lastly, I'll need a volunteer from each class to practice ANOTHER classes unknown so that a demo can be flown.

Option #2 - the other extreme...We create ONE unknown sequence, and any and all that would like to fly it, may.  This would likely be more of a Masters/FAI event with a few Advanced flyers taking a shot.  We would probably run Adv/Int/Sportsman as normal.  The advantage here is a lot less prep work, though I would need two volunteers to create a 1/3 of the sequence (I would create the last third) so that none of us know the whole thing. (FYI if you think you can create these without flying them, you've never created a sequence.)  The primary dissadvantage is not everyone can participate, and, by mixing Masters/fai/Adv flyers, it almost has to be run as a seperate contest (though I could easily just compare Masters with Masters, etc.

Option #3 - Similar to Option 2...create one sequence of moderate difficulty, and substitute 5 center manuevers based on class to alter the difficulty.  In this case, the primary challenge is the concept of an unknown itself...not the individual manuevers, with a few class level difficulty manuevers thrown in to seperate things.

This is sort of a blended approach...advantages and disadvantages are the same but to a lesser extent.

Thoughts??  Interest level???  Ideas??? I'm open to anything.  Just want to have some fun, and yet stay fairly true to the contest.

Fire away (not you Verne, you take that phrase too literally!)

Mark



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