A possible answer to lousy judging "Flash cards"

[RUDDERCABL at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/17/2004 3:06:08 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
Rcmaster199 at aol.com writes:
Mike Im not sure why everyone "needs" to see the scores each judge gives. The 
spectator sport is to watch the flying, not kill the judge if the spectator 
does not agree with the judge's scoring habits
and Don Ramsey wrote:

Maybe I'm missing the point here.  I don't think anyone needs to see the 
scores until the round is complete.  There are enough distractions for the pilots 
and judges from the spectators now.  

I agree with them. Scores shown to individuals that don't know the reason for 
them, mean nothing more than to establish a favorite in their eyes. I like to 
watch ice skateing and other olympic events where the judges hold up the 
scores afterwards. I have no idea the method by which the scores were acheived, 
but that does not remove my enjoyment of the event.

Now I must ask, ever notice that the scores are only shown after the 
performance? Why? I would assume it is to prevent the judges from being influenced by 
the crowd reactions. 

Lets say that Chip, or Sean or Jason were flying in front of a judge who 
scored them high becouse of who they are. Do you really beleive that it would 
change becouse the crowd saw the scores? I don't believe it for one minute.

As a pilot, I don't want my judges fumbling with cards or any other device 
that will distract them from watching the flight. Neither do I want them trying 
to contort their fingers in rapid fire motions while a poor scribe is trying 
to count them and write the results. In my flying years, I have scribed for two 
judges that used the hand and finger method. As far as I am concerned, it is 
the sorriest system ever devised, and I hope like hell that I never see it 
again! 

As a judge, I like to sit close to my scribe and whisper the score. That way 
I can keep my eyes on the plane and watch the whole flight. The K.I.S.S. 
system has already devised the best possible method however. That is the the paper 
pad method. The judge can use it without looking away, it keeps a record of 
his scores in case there is a discrepency and a legal pad is a lot cheaper than 
a PDA. I haven't been using the paper pad method at local contest, but I will 
start to. 

The original intent of this thread was to point out that we are not perfect 
and neither is our system. It has acheived that goal with me. 

Robert Gainey
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