[NSRCA-discussion] Chapter-5 Going too far.

Sun Jun 24 15:32:43 AKDT 2007

I would like to thank Eric for the nice complement in his comment, "To circumvent this conflict of interest problem and to keep the Nationals above reproach, I steeped out of line and asked Don Ramsey to independently choose the judges, Dave could not refuse this method, but I will tell you that he got extremely mad at me for doing it."

I must respond that for good or bad I've been choosing the finals judges for many years.  I started that process when Jeff Hill was Event Director.  It must also be stated that I've never had any pressure of any kind from contest management regarding who I choose to judge.  I try to pick the best candidates and rotate those so no single judge can influence the outcome extradionarly.

Don

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Grow Pattern 
  To: NSRCA Mailing List 
  Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 2:55 PM
  Subject: [NSRCA-discussion] Chapter-5 Going too far.

  What could the NSRCA do beyond banning me from judging for two years, and blocking me as a judge at the Don Lowe Masters?

  Well that was not enough for the powers that be in NSRCA board country.

  To the best of my knowledge, the NSRCA board met and voted to have me NOT cover the Nationals. This is more serious because it does impact my income. I am not sure, but I believe that they also wanted me removed as the MA columnist.

  I do know that Richard Landis wanted this to happen. I had asked his son's sponsors why there was so much aggression to win and I think that he feared I would print something in MA. It does not matter if the NSRCA or MA was lobbied to do things to me. 

  It does matter that all of this was done to a valid member of the NSRCA who was given no opportunity to represent himself on an accusation of biased judging.

  One thing I was told was that I did not mention Dave Guerin enough in my reports. Excuse me! I have plastered Dave Guerin's contribution in every publication at every available opportunity. I was even able to get Nationals information coverage for Dave in my column BEFORE the event. That hasn't happened very often--BTW!

  During the event, I photograph and feature as many pilots as the print space allows. I particularly like to salute the workers who make the Nationals successful. Ironically I have featured both Dave Lockhart and Dan Landis in my on-line Nat's reports, Daily Nat's news, Pattern columns and the K-factor.

  In 2006, I ran a theme of 402-404 with the intent of more FAI complete coverage in my next pattern column. If Dave Lockhart did not see his name in the column it was because he did not place high enough to be part of the story. The battle between the top 5 was the most interesting story. 

  If you go back and read my 2006 Nationals coverage, which is still on-line at the AMA web-site, you will see that I even posted a picture of Dan Landis and his airplane. You will see that it sports the logo, "Leader of the pack".  Rather appropriate since the wolves are baying at my door these days.

  They have succeeded at all that they set out to do so far. If they silence my MA pen, then I will just fade away - right!

  The egos of the people involved do not let them see what is wrong about what they do. If you challenge them or do not stroke them enough, you can NOW pay the price. You also might be wondering why they wanted to shut me up.

  Speaking of paying the price, I need to close with why I resigned from the NSRCA board. I felt really bad for walking away from things that were not right. I apologize to all of the people that voted for me, but I was in a personally shocking and unworkable ethical jam.

  Dave Guerin and I used to be friends. I spent a lot of money with him. Then I made the mistake of buying a couple of Impacts and Pinnacles. I really liked them. They flew better than anything else I had ever had. Plus they stayed together and required minimal maintenance. Then I made a bigger mistake by featuring them. I believe that this was seen as very disloyal on my part. 

  I made the decision a long time ago to not be sponsored by any vendor. It has been hard, but I kept my independence as a writer no matter what price or the cost!

  At the 2005 Nationals I was the NSRCA/AMA interface. I had to work closely with Dave Guerin. I got into a big argument with Dave over his way of selecting the finals judges and judges in general. I understand that what he was doing may be acceptable some but it did not seem right to me.

  Both the scoring folks and I saw Dave scanning judge's sheets to see who scored what pilot. Dave was pretty vocal when he found low scores for his protégés. I will probably get into trouble if I say who his favorites were but suffice it to say that they were in Masters and FAI flying his planes or planes he made or modified for them. (Do your own research). Everyone knows that Dave has pilots that he supported, gave or sold a plane to etc. 

  To circumvent this conflict of interest problem and to keep the Nationals above reproach, I steeped out of line and asked Don Ramsey to independently choose the judges, Dave could not refuse this method, but I will tell you that he got extremely mad at me for doing it.

  From previous personal conversations I knew that Dave had an unofficial list of judges who would NOT be used because he considered that they were biased towards certain pilots and biased against other pilots. You would be amazed who was/is on this unofficial list. It is a who's who of senior pattern guys and includes a bunch of current NSRCA district VP's. Now that there is an official NSRCA list, I wonder how long I will remain alone on this list.

  This was serious stuff so I tried to get Lamar to listen to what was troubling me about this behavior. He would not listen, Instead he was listening to Dave. He would not take my phone calls or respond to my e-mails. I could not figure out why Lamar was not responding., He had asked me to be his VP because he wanted to know what was going on and what needed fixing.

  The 2006 Nationals needed a Director with no conflict of interest. I could not figure out why he was blowing me off until I was told that Dave was doing some wings and stabs for Lamar. Once there was a hint of a business relationship--I knew I was sunk.

  These things are always a bit grey. It was just obvious to me that there was a clear and present possibility of conflict of interest and we needed a better choice.

  When I found out that Dave was most likely doing work for Lamar's planes the light went on for me. Yet another conflict of interest situation? In my mind I could see a strong hint of a business relationship. I new I was sunk.

  After a couple of months of still trying to do my job, it was clear that I was cut-off. I resigned in Feb 2006 and thought that it was all over. That is until I sat in the judges chair in July 2006 and dared to score what I saw as opposed to what the pilots, and a pilot's affluent father wanted.

  Despite all of this, I still love pattern. It is technological and wonderful skill. The airplanes are amazing and a delight to fly.

  To many minds I was wrong for bucking the system. I should have gone with the flow way back in 1997. I should never have become an NSRCA District officer. That's all hindsight for me now. I am semi-retired into building and local flying. I know how sausage was made but they failed to make me into a vegetarian. :-)

  Regards,

  Eric.

  I fully expect that my old adversaries will jump all over me for writing about my treatment. I think I was just supposed to crawl away and die somewhere. I still cannot believe that our organization would function in such an unfair manner. It also let itself be used by people with personal grudges rather than do what was right for the sport. I had no options available to me other than let you all try me in the court of public opinion. I am sure that they will try and censor this!

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