[NSRCA-discussion] Advancement System

[John Pavlick]

Thank you. I was on the 402 sequence committee. When we created the current sequence we worked with the guys who were creating the other sequences as well. We had a list of skills that we wanted our sequence to encompass (so did the people working on the other sequences). We knew there would be a larger gap between Advanced and Masters compared to the gap between Intermediate and Advanced. The reason being that there are only 4 AMA sequences and as you move up the ladder, you should be more capable of learning new skills. Like I said you can PRACTICE any maneuvers that you want to. The schedules only determine what you're judged on. If you just go to the field and practice ONLY your schedule or the maneuvers in your schedule then you're doing yourself a great disservice. I always try to work on maneuvers from the next higher schedule to help me fly the current schedule. The fact that the current 403 schedule has very little inverted sections and no inverted entries / exits is not really bad as far as I'm concerned. There are enough other challenges there. I have a pretty good idea what it takes to be competitive in Masters and while I'm not going to learn all of it from simply flying the Advanced sequence,  I will be prepared when I get there. This is where I think doing away with the current Advancement rules is a good thing. I want to go to Masters when I'm ready. Not when I've simply flown in enough contests to accumulate "points". The level of difficulty in the lower sequences has to be considered carefully if you want to keep "new" Pattern pilots interested. By the same token, the top 2 classes need to be interesting for people who have been doing this for longer than I've been alive it seems. :) It's not as easy as some people make it out to be. If you look at all of this with "tunnel vision" as either a seasoned Masters or FAI pilot OR as a newbie in Sportsman I don't think you can make a good decision about it. You have to consider a lot of little things and look at the big picture. Remember, this whole discussion started with "Is the current Masters sequence too long?" VBG 

John Pavlick
http://www.idseng.com
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: J N Hiller 
  To: General pattern discussion 
  Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 11:25 AM
  Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Advancement System


  The sequence committee got it right with two rolls, here's why.

  1- Not everyone flies or should be expected to fly a two meter airplane 150 M out and if we wish to encourage sport flier participation the sequence needs to be compatible with flying as close as 100 M. We get accustomed to flying near the limit of our visibility but we shouldn't mandate it in when developing entry-level sequences.

  2- Intermediate pilots are still learning wind correction and centering and without extra room / line length a long center maneuver flown off center will push the turnaround out of the box resulting in two downgrades for a single error which can be unnecessarily discouraging. In advanced we can expect the competitor to deal with this but most intermediate pilots are still learning the basics.

  Jim Hiller 

   
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