D4 Champs - Unknowns

[Thomas C. Weedon]

Mark,
It sounds like a good idea, but do you think those D5 fellows are up to the
challenge???
The Saturday night party may be too much and they will just sleep in on
Sunday and miss all the excitment <g>.
Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Atwood, Mark [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On Behalf Of
Atwood, Mark
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 10:21 AM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: D4 Champs - Unknowns



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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