Rules Changes----Advancement

[Bob Richards]

When I was DVP back in '95, I had this very situation
happen to me.

A person flew Novice in '93 and won most of the
contests that year and easily pointed out. With a new
pattern plane, he started practicing the Sportsman
schedule, and crashed trying to do three horizontal
rolls. He was a good pilot, and should have continued
practicing (with a sport plane) until he got it right.
But, it spooked him. He did not compete in '94.

He decided to start flying again, and petitioned the
AMA to allow him to fly in Novice again. He had a
friend that had a CD license to sign off on it, and
the AMA contest board member for the district approved
it without much knowledge of the history, nor without
asking me about it. 

This person proceeded to win almost all the contests
he flew at in '95, and was easily winning the district
points championship. I made the decision to not award
him the DC trophy. At first this upset him, but he
immediately got over it and had no problem with it.

I would like to think that all of the people in the
district thought I did the right thing (at least those
that spoke to me about it). I did get a couple of
emails from people OUTSIDE the district saying I did
the wrong thing, this guy went through the prescribed
procedure in the rules to allow him to do this. I
believe this is where the real problem was.

AMA has a rule about advancement that can't be
enforced. Troy was right. There is no official
database, there is no tracking of points. The only
people that keep track of points are the ones getting
beat by someone in their class -- they count the other
guys points!!!  In my case, the AMA allowed this
person to move back without finding out all the
background information. I spoke with district contest
board member later about this, and he agreed that he
would not have allowed it to happen if he had all the
information.

The NSRCA, IMHO, does not have the authority to
enforce this rule since it is an AMA rule, and AMA
does not have the ability to enforce it.

I think there needs to be some type of advancement
rule, but it is useless and worse than nothing if it
can't be tracked or enforced. Perhaps the best
motivation to move up is peer pressure, that seems to
be the only thing really working right now anyway.

I also think that there needs to be an allowance for
someone to move down if they have been out of the game
for a while. I think I read where that rule has
changed? Lets see how that works.

The person that I spoke about did not stay in pattern
long. Interestingly enough, the other person that
ended up winning the Novice DC trophy that year has
become a very important and central figure in our
district since then. I find some satisfaction in that,
maybe I did make the right decision.

My 2cw.

Bob R.


--- Rcmaster199 at aol.com wrote:

>  
> Mark, although most people don't park in a class, I
> have experienced  a 
> couple instances where a guy actually wins the DC in
> his class one year,  takes the 
> next year off for whatever reason, then he returns
> back in his old  class. I 
> appreciate the fact that he returned and like the
> added attendance, but  some 
> of his fellow competitors may not agree.
>  
> What I am saying is a Checks and Balances system
> needs to be in place such  
> that this type of situation is controlled. I admit
> it doesn't happen often and  
> may not be viewed as a big deal by the higher class
> pilots, but it raises the 
>  eyebrows of the guys it affects. At present the
> policing is supposed to be 
> done  by the DVP. As a past DVP, I didn't care for
> the idea of telling someone 
> when to  move. 
>  
> The DVPs need a better tool. At the same time, the
> tool needs to be  flexible 
> enough so that that the guys without enough skill
> aren't forced up.  I've 
> seen this situation also. 
>  
> Careful schedule design and more frequent change may
> alleviate some of the  
> concern. The parkers could, in effect, start fresh
> every year, just as the new  
> guys entering a class. That places different burden
> on the group designing  
> schedules and on the AMA CB approving them. 
>  
> regards
> MattK
>  
>  
> 
=================================================
To access the email archives for this list, go to
http://lists.f3a.us/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/
To be removed from this list, go to http://www.nsrca.org/discussionA.htm
and follow the instructions.