Pattern Growth & the K-Factor

[Bob Richards]

Larry, 
 
Very good input. Thanks.
 
When I was District VP, I saw two types of "prospects" for NSRCA membership. 
 
The most obvious were the people that had never flown pattern. Two things I felt could attract those: Pattern Primers (or a special contest just for novice/sportsman). The other was the KFactor, and as you point out there must be some "meat" in there, in the form of how-to articles. The buyers guide was the greatest!!
 
The second kind of prospects are those that fly pattern but are not NSRCA members. I know how everyone likes to read their names in the KF, so I felt that contest results with blow-by-blow descriptions were enticement enough. And then there were the district points championships. Not an NSRCA member, no year end trophy. If a novice or sportsman contestant were in the running, but not a member, I sure let them know it!!! Most of the advanced and up flyers were hooked already.
 
I wrote some how-to articles for my column, I have most of them online at http://www.toprudder.com/hobbies/pattern.html for anybody that is interested. Some of it is dated, but a lot still applies.
 
Bob Richards.
 
 
 
 

Larry Caldwell <4larryc at bscn.com> wrote:
As a relative newcomer to NSRCA, and pattern as well, I have over the 
last few months read everything I have been able to find on the subject, 
including this discussion list. One of the main things that have come 
to light is the fact that there really isn't that much information 
floating around that the average sport flier will run across that might 
get his attention and peak his interest. So, I thought I might add a 
few thoughts and ideas out whatever they are worth.

First, it doesn't matter what we do, only a very small percentage of 
sport fliers would want to pursue pattern flying. It's work. It takes 
practice. Example: One day at the local club field while I'm flying 
one of the locals walks up and asks why I'm doing so many loops. After 
telling him my answer that I want them round, he responds: why worry 
about it?

You guys, the current pattern fliers, are the best asset we have for 
growing pattern. I understand that when you only have an hour or so to 
practice that you don't want to spend all of it talking about how great 
pattern is. But two minutes might go a long way with a guy that is 
interested. I personally have so far had only good experiences there, 
and am very fortunate to have a couple of very good pattern folks only 
100 miles away that have extended the invitation to fly with them when I 
can. Those are the closest people to here that have any interest in 
pattern.

On to the K-Factor.
There are maybe two people in our local club that are prospects to get 
interested in pattern. One of them flew back in the Dirty-Birdy days 
and burned out. The other has never flown pattern at all. Recently, I 
was looking through a few K-Factors that have been accumulating looking 
for a couple of issues to give to these guys. I was looking for issues 
containing articles that might spark their interest. The magazines 
aren't bad, but they didn't have a lot of meat in them.

I have the December K-Factor. It's what we need if it can be kept up.
At least three articles that had some substance are worth mentioning.

Lance Van Nostrand - battery backup
Robert Kane - table & Temptation
Don Atwood - mixture carb.

The K-Factor is the best place for all of the scores and contest 
reports, but IMO some content each month that new guys can sink their 
teeth into will get more attention. It's easy to suggest things when you 
aren't the person that has to do the work, but I know that a number of 
the people on this list are knowledgable and have the writing skills to 
keep some articles coming.

The problem here is that the K-Factor is preaching to the choir. It 
isn't seen by the potential newcomers unless we give them a back issue.
This, to me, seems to be where we need to look for some new ideas.
I understand that printing is expensive, but if we could perhaps have 
some limited free distribution at a few selected events (non-pattern),
it might make a difference. I'm sure others have more ideas.

Sorry to ramble so long.

Larry Caldwell

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20041221/82e9fd49/attachment.html