Landing Direction; Spins, and Snaps. . .

[Bob Richards]

I have really been trying to stay out of the "scoring
TO and Landings" discussion since I voiced my opinion
way back when. However, I will add some real-world
data regarding time savings.

During one round at the '93 Nats, I had an engine that
would not idle down without cutting off. I did
eventually get airborne, but ended up zeroing the
flight since I took 10 seconds over the required time
to get airborne. I understand the time limit is to
keep things moving, but in this case it did anything
but. I flew the whole flight, and the judges judged
the whole flight, the scribes wrote down every score.
It was not until I landed that I found out the round
was zeroed, and only because I saw the scribes erasing
the scores. It wasted a lot of people's time.

The line judge should have immediately told me to stop
and let the next contestant fly, but I think he was
doing everything he could to be fair and wanted to
double check the rules. In fact, since I did get
airborne and was only 10 seconds over, he was going to
let it go until someone else not even flying in my
class complained.

This whole episode was a bad experience for several
people, and would have been avoided entirely and saved
a LOT of time if the takeoff had not been scored.

I learned to land/takeoff very well LONG before I
started flying pattern. However, I understand the
viewpoint of others, and I can see the point of
requiring scored takeoffs/landings in Sportsman and
Intermediate, much the way Novice used to have
straight flight out/back scored. It is an element that
is important and should be learned early.

FWIW.

Bob R.

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