[SPAM] Re: What constitutes an FAI flyer.

[DaveL322 at comcast.net]

>From the Masters perspective -
- From results of the last several surveys, I think it is pretty clear Masters do not want to fly the same schedule as F3A, or the prior F3A schedule.  And Masters pilots do not want to fly in the same class as the F3A pilots.  This aspect of the discussion should end - the desire of the majority is well known.

>From the F3A perspective -
- Many of the F3A NATs finalists don't fly (or fly at a very limited number) at local contests (for a variety of reasons).
- The majority of the F3A NATs finalists spend more time flying the finals sequence (and unknowns in the years of the Team Trials) than preliminary sequence.

- Currently, the finals sequence is only flown at the NATs, and that does create some undesireable situations - occasionally, "Pilot A" will fly P and F equally, and get knocked out of the finals by "Pilot B" who only practiced P (and would have been beaten easily by "Pilot A" in the finals).  "Pilot A" is also at a disadvantage at local contests as they are spending time on 2 schedules (and possibly unknowns) while "Pilot B" is focused only on 1 schedule.  Part of the reason "Pilot B" only flies the P schedule is because they know they will never need to fly the F schedule - but a bigger part is usually that there is a limited amount of time to be proficient with a schedule (so if F3A required proficiency in 2 schedules, the number of potential F3A pilots would drop).

If you add the F to local contests, several things will happen
- Some F3A flyers ("Pilot B") will go back to Masters (bad, furthers the existing imbalance between F3A and Masters).
- The quality of judging will deteriorate (being familiar with 2 schedules instead of 1 is more difficult as a judge and as pilot).
- You will find that a substantial number of flying fields do not support the F - the rolling circle eats up huge amounts of space.
- I doubt standings would change much from Sat to Sun - at the local contests where the "top dogs" actually fly, they will obliterate the competition (if any) on Sunday (remember, the top dogs already spend more of their time on F).  And the guys that only fly the P currently, won't be in F3A anymore.
- You may find some limited benefit for the top dogs that do fly the F now have the opportunity to do so outside of the NATs and Team Trials.  And you might find the top dogs in F3A attend less contests as they won't even have "Pilot B" to compete with anymore.

Given the proposed (approved?) change for the F3A format for the 2006 NATs (P in prelims, F in semis, F and unknown in finals), it could be more reasonable to think about including F (and unknowns, for the same reasoning, but to a lesser extent) at local contests.  However, it is not every pattern flyer that attends the NATs, so this idea is only applicable for a very few number of flyers.

Unknowns in pattern - this has been discussed countless times - the bottom line is that pattern is about precision, and when the precision reaches a very high level, increasing the difficulty is a way to make the differences between pilots more ascertainable - ie, adding the F schedule for F3A, and adding the unknown schedules for the very best F3A pilots competing at International level contests.  Unknown schedules in pattern have nothing to do with adding spectator appeal or interest - they have everything to do with differeniation at high levels.  To most, pattern is boring (including unknowns), to the few number of us that get it, pattern is not boring.  All the difficulties associated with adding F to local contests are minor in comparison to adding unknowns at a local contest where resources are already stretched and limited.  To me, it clearly does not make sense to add unknowns to small local contests for the potential benefit of a very small minority.

For Masters, the past survey results make it abundantly clear where the class wants to be.  For F3A, I think the logical approach would be to find out what the F3A flyers want, and if they want F and (unknowns) at a local contest, check with the CDs and sponsoring clubs and see if they think they can adequately resource the additional demands.  Personally, I've only been to a handful of local contests in the past 10 years where the contest management could have adequately resourced the demands (of F, let alone unknowns) - and even in those instances, it has been at a limited number of those contests where sufficient F3A pilots with the skill were in attendance to make it worth the contest managements time to offer anything beyond the P sequence for F3A.

Regards,

Dave Lockhart
DaveL322 at comcast.net

-------------- Original message -------------- 

I like it.  4 P7 on Sat, and 2 F7 on Sunday.  Would add some excitement to Sundays that's always seemed to me a pretty much, let's get it over with so I can get out of here type of day.  You'd have sat afternoon/evening to get in some practice for the transition to F7.  Could shake up the standings from sat to sun., unless your flying against someone like Andrew.  I think it has a lot of positives.  


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Grow Pattern 
To: discussion at nsrca.org 
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 10:46 PM
Subject: What constitutes an FAI flyer.


This question has been going around in my mind since they came up with P-01 and F-01 and FAI wrote it up so that we, the USA, only fly the Finals at the Nat's or team trials.

In the (my) old days they had schedules A,B, C etc right up to E. The A-schedule  was flown for two years with the new B-schedule as the finals schedule. Then the B was flown for two years with the C as the finals schedule and so on.

Nowadays MOST FAI pilots really only fly the preliminary schedules. Next year it will by P-07. If most of the FAI pilots only compete with a P-schedule then I would submit that there is not much difference between an FAI pilot and a Masters pilot. Unless they make it into a Nat's or Team trials final (or semi final maybe).

So maybe we are only being typically liberal and just spinning our wheels with a 406 class or perhaps I have been ignoring the obvious for years and I should accept that the P-series should be our Masters series.

If not then maybe we should start running F-schedules on Sundays for FAI pilots flying AMA 406 at local contests.

Lets face it you either are an FAI pilot or you are not. Just flying P-07 next year is like being half an FAI pilot!!!!. 

Looking to create a debate and hear what you think. Don't really want to upset the middle order of FAI pilots or create a fight, but definitively wanting to be a shade contentious.

Regards.

Eric.
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