F3A judges for local comps

[Atwood, Mark]

OK...I'll jump in here....as I zip up my flame suit...

 

It's my belief, that our ability to fly pattern, and our ability to
judge pattern, improve together in part because our ability to "see"
what's going on with the airplane as a whole improves.

 

Bare with me for a moment as I digress into an analogy.  Chess...  A
beginner in chess, regardless of their intelligence, looks at each
individual piece on the board and has to examine what seems like an
infinite number of potential move combinations to evaluate their next
move.

 

A more advanced player, stops looking at individual pieces and begins
looking at blocks of pieces as a unit...they see "formations" and
immediately know the best options for those formations.  They play
quicker, make better choices of the available moves, and make far fewer
mistakes.

 

The expert player stops looking at blocks of pieces...and begins to see
the entire board as a single formation from which there are only a
limited number of optimal moves to get to the next "desired" formation.
They see the entire board as a snapshot, and evaluate it as such.  More
information, quicker.

 

In much the same way...as we increase our skill level in flying...the
top flyers start to view the airplane "differently".  I'm not exactly
sure how to describe it, but they start to view all the components of
the plane's position as a single "position"....attitude, airspeed,
vector, wind direction, current control inputs, throttle, etc etc...are
no longer individual components, but a single state of being, and then
evaluate what needs to be done to get from where they are...to where
they want to be.    It's less about fixing the problem and more about
anticipating it...and preventing it in the first place.

 

Our ability to judge is SIGNIFICANTLY improved in the same way.  It's
not so much "SEEING" that something was wrong, as knowing that there is
no way to get from situation A, to desired situation B.  It allows the
better flyer to see more things at the same time...which to be fair...is
a big part of what makes them a better flier.

 

Another analogy...   Watch Diving in the Olympics...you watch this
lightening fast blur of rotation and see a splash.  As amateurs we
"judge" the quality of the dive...on the splash.  Only to then hear the
expert announcer yammer on about how there was a downgrade because their
knees parted between their flip and twist or something...Something that
they didn't actually SEE in the blur...but sure enough...when you watch
the replay in slow motion...it's EXACTLY what happened.    They didn't
SEE it...but their experience tells them what MUST have happened to get
from one position, to another.    You see the same in figure skating...

 

There are exceptions to every rule...but I believe in general, it's
difficult to be an expert judge, and not be a reasonably accomplished
pilot.  TIME does help this...meaning watching a lot of flights
certainly helps and there are those that have been involved in pattern
for a long time that for various reasons fly in one the earlier
classes...and have likely developed these same skills.  But I think
that's the exception to the rule...

 

Ok...that's my .02 worth

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