[NSRCA-discussion] Landings and Takeoffs

[J N Hiller]

You make a good argument for dropping takeoff and landing scoring. I have
aborted landings more than once.
Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org]On Behalf Of Bob Richards
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 10:28 AM
To: General pattern discussion
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Landings and Takeoffs

I'll say it here, JMHO. I personally don't think takeoffs and landings
should be judged. These are the maneuvers that put the plane closest to the
pilots/judges/spectators. I've seen some bad takeoffs and landing approaches
pushed to dangerous situations when they would probably have been aborted
had they not been scored maneuvers. At the very least, the airplane is at
risk. At the most, people are at risk. I've had one plane fly behind my head
at the Nats (between myself, my caller, and the judges) during a landing
when the plane got away from the pilot during one such occurance. I've also
seen a plane slam into a person in the pits at full throttle, just after
lifting off the ground, when the plane first veered away from the pits and
the pilot forced the takeoff by kicking rudder to get it back on the runway.
At no point did he back off the throttle. In most situations such as this,
anyone would have aborted and started over, but because they are being
judged they keep on pushing a bad situation.

And, no, niether situation involved someone in the Sportsman or Intermediate
classes. These were both contestants that had flown pattern for several
years.

I thank god they don't judge takeoffs and landings in IMAC.

JM2CW

Bob R.


--- On Mon, 3/2/09, George W.Kennie <geobet4 at verizon.net> wrote:
I don't feel the same way as John on the landing maneuver being relegated to
a non-skill element.

All aerobatic maneuvers that we perform competitively require that we
demonstrate to a judge that we have developed some precise degree of control
over the airframe under our command. To achieve this control further
requires intense concentration on the part of the pilot. I would offer that
there are many airborne maneuvers where the degree of concentration required
by the pilot are significantly lower than that required to bring the
airframe back into contact with terra firma and demonstrate complete and
confident control. This is a skill that is worthy of reward in my viewpoint.

G.



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.nsrca.org/pipermail/nsrca-discussion/attachments/20090302/454507c3/attachment.html>