Landing Direction; Spins, and Snaps. . .

Tue Jun 14 07:49:32 AKDT 2005

Eric,
As you know, until the clean-up proposal works its way through the process, 
most of the peripheral rules have to be addressed at the pilots meeting. At 
the shootout it was kept very simple. Get the thing in the air without going 
off the side of the runway and it's a 10. Land the thing on the pavement w/o 
anything falling off and its a 10. The only rule imposed regarding turns 
after takeoff and before landing was that if you did any hotdogging, you 
were getting a 0. All the other stuff was out the window. It wasn't my 
meeting, but I'm pretty sure it was done this way to avoid a long meeting 
where every detail was beaten to death. Short answer to your question is 
that most planes DID roll a little when the helper let go and it was 
ignored. I'm not saying this is the best way, but it DID work very well.

Having said all that, I think it's important to remember that this rule, 
whether good or bad, doesn't give anyone a distinct advantage over anyone 
else. The playing field is still level. Clearly, we're revisiting this soon 
in the survey. My intentions are to listen to what everyone has to say and 
observe what I physically see at the contests I attend. My vote in the 
survey and ultimately as a Contest Board Member will be based on both of 
those things. The biggest plus I experienced so far is that it seemed that 
everyone was making a conscious effort to point the nose of their planes out 
on takeoff and this was in conditions where the plane crabs in naturally 
(crosswind blowing out). This is the first contest I've attended in quite 
awhile where I never got buzzed either as a pilot or a caller by someone 
taking off and that was most appreciated. However, that was only one contest 
and there's plenty more to look at down the road.

Verne

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Grow Pattern" <pattern4u at comcast.net>
To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Landing Direction; Spins, and Snaps. . .

> What is the rule this year if the plane is rolling as soon as the helper 
> lets go?
>
> Eric.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Verne Koester" <verne at twmi.rr.com>
> To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:28 AM
> Subject: Re: Landing Direction; Spins, and Snaps. . .
>
>
>> Bob,
>> I think your scenario is the hidden place where real time is saved, 
>> particularly on pavement where the idle has to be very low to keep the 
>> plane from rolling forward a little prior to takeoff. Last weekend in 
>> Muncie, over 125 takeoffs occurred on Saturday over the course of 4 
>> rounds. I don't recall a single instance where a plane quit out on the 
>> line and had to be brought in and restarted. It's been pointed out that 
>> there are other rules changes could accomplish the same thing and that's 
>> true. Right now, I'm just watching and trying to assess what's good and 
>> what's bad about the rules in place at the moment. My general perception 
>> after just one contest on pavement is that things seemed to go quicker 
>> and safer under the conditions we were flying in. There are many more 
>> contests to observe before the full impact can be truly evaluated.
>>
>> Verne
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Bob Richards" <bob at toprudder.com>
>> To: <discussion at nsrca.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 9:37 AM
>> Subject: Re: Landing Direction; Spins, and Snaps. . .
>>
>>
>>>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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