[NSRCA-discussion] Impression or precision judging?

[Bob Richards]

It has been mentioned several times about developing a ground-based GPS type system to judge maneuvers. IMHO, this will never work.  The reason is that the pilot does not have a reference that will give the perspective needed to execute perfect maneuvers. That is why the judges sit close to the same position as the pilot, so they will be judging from the same perspective as the pilot.
   
  Have you ever watched a pattern contest from the end of the box? You would be amazed at how bad some of the "great" maneuvers will deviate from a straight line or vertical plane. It may look fine from the pilot's perpective. How is a pilot expected to correct something he can't see?
   
  This is the same reason that IAC pilots are NOT judged by track, they are judged based on the attitude of the plane. The pilot can't see track from inside the cockpit.
   
  JMHO.
   
  Bob R.
  

Chris Moon <cjm767driver at hotmail.com> wrote:
  If we are to read the judging guide and go by the start with 10 and deduct 1 point per 15 degrees guide like it says, then where is the S&G downgrade or upgrade?  There is no guidance by the guide.  This has always bothered me since it is a criteria that has no "guidance". It is supposed to be there in order to get a 10, but the guide already say to start with 10 and deduct 1 per 15 degrees etc.  It sounds like its a purely subjective criteria with no set value either up or down.  But the truth of this whole discussion is that judging is a subjective issue and we can only offer guidance and specific criteria for some but not all of the factors involved.
So, we can fix this simply by getting together a few million dollars, create a system with transponders on each plane and some sort of laser grid 3-dimensional computer path generator on the ground.  The computer will compare the plane's track with the optimal version in it's programming and produce a score based on the degree to which your flight matches the optimal track in the computer.  Simple, and no human judges needed  :)
Or, we can keep hammering away to continually improve the accuracy of the humans (us)  in our current system.

Chris
PS- Please take a moment to thank Don Ramsey for all he does for us. Our judging may not be perfect yet , but its waaaaay better than it used to be.

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