2005 Nationals Reminder

[Grow Pattern]

Ron,
        The answer was already in the reply below. I brought it up to the top of the document for you so that is easier to find. Please refer John to me will do my best to answer any of his questions.

Regards,

Eric.

A big grumble/complaint from the past was that if you got stuck in a group with top seeded pilots you had to fly with them every round, every day! This year the only definitive grouping that will be pilots on the same frequency. [This is why it is important to have a second or even third frequency with you. With 17 frequencies for the Masters class most of pilots will be in frequency groups of 2.]

This is a difference from last year. When you group the pilots in units of 2 or 3 you can make substantial changes to the mix of the site groups per day. This year we will change around the players in each group every day. [With the exception of those on the same frequency] This should have the result of giving a more equitable amount of exposure to the four judging panels each day. The pilots will be "randomly" regrouped, not just rotated.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ron Van Putte 
  To: discussion at nsrca.org 
  Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 3:33 PM
  Subject: Re: 2005 Nationals Reminder


  I got the following from John Fuqua, after I forwarded the 2005 Nats Reminder note from Eric Henderson. John is not on the NSRCA Discussion List. I don't know the answer to his question and, rather than query Eric directly, since I thought others might also be interested in the answer, I decided to send it back to the Discussion List.

  Ron Van Putte


  On Apr 15, 2005, at 2:15 PM, John Fuqua wrote:


    What about seeding?  In the previous years we seeded the top 8 pilots into the 4 groups-2 per group.  With this system will the top 2 seeded pilots stay in the same group every day or will they be scrambled with everybody else?  
     
    John


    From: Ron Van Putte [mailto:vanputte at cox.net]
    Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 10:16 AM
    To: Fuqua John D Contr AAC/YAP
    Subject: Fwd: 2005 Nationals Reminder

    John - FYI.

    Ron



    Begin forwarded message:

    From: "Grow Pattern" <pattern4u at comcast.net>
    Date: April 15, 2005 9:41:52 AM CDT
    To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
    Subject: 2005 Nationals Reminder
    Reply-To: discussion at nsrca.org

    It may seem early to be thinking about the Nat's but rooms go fast and the sooner we know you are coming the better we can plan the contest :-)

    Here is my Na's update the next K-Factor as an FYI.

    Regards,

    Eric.

    Nats News. I received more than one note asking me if there were going to be fewer rounds at this year's nationals and if the matrix system was going to be discontinued.

    The challenge that we face this year is that there will be no rain-day on the fifth day, usually the Friday of the week. This does not change how many rounds we plan to run. Last year, Tony Stillman contacted and advised Dave Guerin (our 2004 and soon to be our 2005 event director) to make sure that he planned for the loss of the rain-day. Dave has taken this problem by both horns and made contingency plans to manage all of the permutations of potential bad weather situations.

    What does that mean to you as a Nationals contestant? You will still see the same basic contest six round formula as we have done in the last few years. Where there are more than 25 or so pilots in a class we will use the Matrix System. When there is less than that number in a class we will run the more familiar and conventional best of "Four out of six rounds" formula to select winners in 402 and 403 and finalists in 404 and 406.

    Nothing really new there! If we have weather problems that cause us to lose rounds the usual "worst-round" discard formula will be used: 2 rounds out of two, two rounds out of three, three rounds out of four and four rounds out of six. (Because the rounds are flown in parallel pairs on each site you tend to not get a four rounds out of five rounds flown scenario.)

    The Matrix System will be used for large groups of pilots. Once again nothing really new there. The Matrix System is used when you can't fly all of the pilots in front of the same panels of judges in one flying session. A session is usually in a morning or an afternoon.

    With a Matrix System at the Nationals we usually use two sites and have two flight lines with three judges on each line per site. The pilots are divided between the two sites. One group will fly in front of the judges on that site while the other group does the same on the other site.

    This way we get two rounds in for each site/group. This exposure is the essence of a Matrix System. It is a compromise of the ideal situation where all pilots fly in front of the same judges in one session. This year the on the second day the pilots will be organized into new groups and jugged again in the matrix format. After three days of this exposure a group of finalists is then selected. This finalist group is then given the full "treatment" and judged with full exposure and comparison of pilot to pilot in front of the same judges.

    A big grumble/complaint from the past was that if you got stuck in a group with top seeded pilots you had to fly with them every round, every day! This year the only definitive grouping that will be pilots on the same frequency. [This is why it is important to have a second or even third frequency with you. With 17 frequencies for the Masters class most of pilots will be in frequency groups of 2.]

    This is a difference from last year. When you group the pilots in units of 2 or 3 you can make substantial changes to the mix of the site groups per day. This year we will change around the players in each group every day. [With the exception of those on the same frequency] This should have the result of giving a more equitable amount of exposure to the four judging panels each day. The pilots will be "randomly" regrouped, not just rotated.

    The thinking is that if you can't give completely equal exposure to judges you can definitely give much fairer exposure of the pilots to each other. This is what a Matrix System should do for you. The plan is to have all of the groupings and site allocations, judging and work assignments etc. ready and in your contestant packets when you arrive at Muncie.

    Any questions please write to me on Pattern4u at comcast.net or call me on (856) 988-9184.
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