[NSRCA-discussion] NATS 2012

Mon Dec 12 10:38:41 AKST 2011

	Ron, 

	I certainly understand there are challenges, and I'm also almost
certain that these challenges can be worked through, especially if we
maybe only end up weighing once per day or something.  We are working
on the logistics now and will have a better plan after the first of
the year.  The rules will be followed though and after calibrating the
scales there will not be allowances above the rules. If an airplane is
weighed and comes in heavy, we will recalibrate the scales and verify
they were correct.  My gut feeling is that not many planes will have a
problem and constant recalibration will not be necessary.   We may
find this is not necessarily the case, but I would be surprised if it
is as I have played with the scales I have and after many weights of
differing amounts the calibration seems to hold true.  My plan is
after a flight the pilot brings the plane back to a tent area, much
like the worlds and the plane will be weighed there.  If the plane is
under weight, nothing else happens and his scores will be submitted to
the score keeper.  If the plane is over weight the site director will
come inside the tent area and verify the over weight plane.  Obviously
in this case the scales would be recalibrated.  If the plane is still
overweight the pilot will receive a zero score for that round, but
will be allowed to fly his next round.  A pilot could if he wanted
fail every weight check, and just get no scores for those rounds.  I
have no doubt there will be growing pains involved, but my hope is
that if pilots know 8 months in advance that they will be weighed that
they will take the steps necessary to ensure the aircraft is under
weight prior to arriving in Muncie.  I understand logistically this
may pose some problems, but we do have quite a bit of man power
available with intermediate pilots now being part of the judging pool.
 Granted, they would not be able to do this during the time they are
flying, but then we would only need 3 additional people per day, which
we can take from the other classes.  Having spoken to many people
involved, we don't see that there is any reason why we should not be
able to do this with adequate planning.  I have verified that we have
access to the tents that were used at the worlds and one will be setup
at each location on Sunday before the pilots meeting to allow pilots
to verify the weight of their aircraft.   If a pilot chooses not to
take advantage of this opportunity it is on them.   

	Arch
 On Mon 12/12/11 1:52 PM , Ronald Van Putte  wrote:
  All I can say about weighing every airplane at processing and maybe
after every flight is:  good luck.  
  John Fuqua and I did all the weighing at the at the F3A WC last
year.  There were 82 contestants and many had two airplanes.  We
weighed every one of them at processing.  That's a lot of weighing. 
Then, we weighed every electric-powered airplane after every flight. 
In addition, we weighed the glow-powered airplanes whose owners were
unlucky to pull the "wrong" ball after each flight.  We worked from
the prelims through the finals and neither of us want to do it again. 

  We were particularly unhappy that a weight tolerance was given,
even though we provided accurate scales and calibration weights with
certification papers.  What was done appeared to be counter to F3A
rules.  I understand why a weight tolerance will be given to
Intermediate pilots, but hope the the 5000 gram limit will apply to
all the rest of the competitors. 
  Ron Van Putte  
  On Dec 12, 2011, at 12:30 PM, Archie Stafford wrote:
  Hello everyone. I trust that everyone is anxiously awaiting a shiny
new pattern plane or gizmo arriving at Christmas this year. I realize
we are a ways away from the NATS 2012, but its never too early to
start communicating. The official entry forms are now online at the
following link.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/entryforms.aspx [1] Entry
forms will still be mailed to those who attended last year, but for
anyone wishing to get a jump on things and get registered now you can
download the entry form and send them in. I plan to start putting out
monthly status updates after the first of the year so that everyone
knows where things stand. I have a great group of people who have
volunteered to help and everything is coming together very nicely. 
 A few things worth mentionings are that the banquet will be held the
night before the finals this year. It will be held on site at the
banquet area at the museum and will be catered. Final catering details
have not been finalized yet. At this banquet, the Masters and FAI
finalists will be announced and flight orders drawn. This is possible
this year due to the rule change that there will no longer be an
unknowns meeting per the new FAI rules. The unknowns will be created
by the Event Director and handed out to the finalists at the banquet.
This will also allow the Intermediate and Advanced winners to be
announced in front of the entire group. 
 Another item to be aware of is that EVERY airplane will be weighed
this year. We are still finalizing plans on the most efficient way to
do this, but be aware that every airplane will be weighed this year
and it will be after a flight. Ideally they will be weighed after
every flight, but at least once a day is my goal. We learned a lot
from how it was done at the worlds last year and this should not be
difficult to do as we have intermediate pilots who no longer work
transmitter impound that we can use as well as some other people
involved. As I said, the plans are not finalized, but we are working
very hard on them and after the first of the year I will let everyone
know what we have come up with as a final plan. My goal is to stay in
contact with everyone so that no one can say they didn't know. 
 One other important piece of information are the cut off deadlines.
They will be strictly enforced. They have been moved slightly closer
to the actual start of the NATS, but no entries after the final
deadline will be accepted. No exceptions. One change though is that up
until the final cut off we will be able to issue refunds. We will not
be able to issue the refund from the AMA part of the entry fee, but
the NSRCA part of the fee will be refunded. 
 Looking forward to seeing everyone in Muncie in July. 
 Please limit discussions to useful information regarding this
thread. Also, if you have a complaint on how things have been done, I
am more than open to listen, but please have ideas on how to correct
these issues. 
 Archie Stafford 
 2012 Pattern NATS ED 
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Links:
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[1] http://www.modelaircraft.org/events/nats/entryforms.aspx
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