[NSRCA-discussion] Anthony Manifesto/pattern participation

[W Anthony Abdullah]

Please hang with me, there is a point to be made.

I love pattern and have participated in the discipline one way or another for the last 25 years including serving as the D4 AVP. Some years I do every local contest, in others years I have done one or none depending on what was going on in "life" at the time.

As I look at my current semi retired situation I realize why participation may be down. For me, it's not cost, or location of the nats, or anything like that. My reality is, in years that I have done well and been competitive, with my limited skill level, I have done NOTHING other than work and pattern. The choice for me is to literally ignore all my other hobbies and interests.

For example, in D4, our flying season usually starts late April with the first contest in early or mid May. That is coincidentally the best time of the year to fish. 

Over the last 18 months in pattern purgatory I have done the following;
1. trained for and competed in 2 physique fitness competitions (placing in both)
2. Caught a monster Crappie, that was 3 ounces short of the fish Ohio record, along with scores of his delicious little brothers
3. Bought a 23 foot long travel camper in which we have started to haul to some of the most beautiful campgrounds in the country
4. Gotten heavily into RC jets, along with flying everything else I own with wings, including planes that handle nothing like my integral.
5. Gone to countless fun flys, scale contests, jet meets, and pylon races
6. Moved out of state and bought a 3175/sq foot house with a pool, that I intend to completely remodel.
7 went on a non airplane related vacation
8. Took my wife out to dinner, watched my niece play basketball, birthday parties, etc
9. Started taking golf lessons
10 bought a professional grade smoker with which I am refining the worlds best smoked salmon recipe
11........

All this and I don't even have kids of my own!

The point is, I could still do many of these things and compete in pattern, but it would be more difficult, trade offs need to be made. Time is our most precious resource, for me to compete the way I want to I would need to fly only pattern from 6pm to 7:30 or 8:00pm three days during the week and much of the weekend starting in the spring. That does not leave a lot of time for much else. I never understood how a guy like Mike Klein with incredible talent could meander in and out of the hobby. Like me and many others he has no ability to enjoy it in moderation.

The only thing that has kept me sort of in, are the AMAZING people and friendships, and staying in advanced. As it is, I can do respectable 4 point rolls, slow roll, top hat, some form of Cuban 8, avalanche, and 1/2 square loops/stall turns with very little practice. If I moved up to masters you would likely never see me again after a contest or two (see long list of guys this has happened to including Dennis B, Frank D, Tom M, etc)

I bring all this up for on simple reason, I love pattern and want to help. If this allows us to think about the problem another way and leads to a creative solution, great! 

IMO, we are focusing our efforts in the wrong direction. I understand trying to bring in new people but I think a better idea is to cater to the competitors we already know love pattern.

How about a "fun" class that's not for beginners, but for advanced or masters level pilots. Familiar fun maneuvers that we have done a thousand times, maneuvers we would stop to watch, a mixture of turn around and non turn around maneuvers.

For off the top of my head example;

1. Take off
2. Avalanche 
3. End to end slow roll with duration bonus (8 seconds like in bull riding of course I don't know how to judge this)
4. Stall turn 8 point roll up, 2 1/2 reversed down
5. Knife edge like slow roll above

You get the idea.

Thanks for hanging with me. 

Anthony


Sent from my iPad

On Nov 4, 2016, at 12:40 PM, Dave Burton via NSRCA-discussion <nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

> The difference is that in the good old days the NATS was almost all modeling disciplines and not just a Pattern Contest as it is today, even in Muncie. The NATS has never had the same appeal to me since.
> I'm not opposed to moving it around the country but IMO Pattern is in a downhill slide and I don't really think moving it around the country will change that. We no longer have the casual competitor as we did in the" good old days" for a lot of reasons relating to cost, maneuver difficulty, and unfortunately the image of elitism.
> Dave Burton
>  
> From: NSRCA-discussion [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Jeff and Claire via NSRCA-discussion
> Sent: Friday, November 04, 2016 10:52 AM
> To: 'Joe Lachowski'; 'General pattern discussion'
> Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] 2017 NATS
>  
> Wow.   Wish I had a nickel for every time in the last 5 years I heard someone say "Sure wish the Nats moved around the country like they did in the good old days.  Remember the <insert one location or another location>  Nats and what a great time we had?"   Mike Harrison has gone out on a limb to create a unique experience again for pattern flyers, the NSRCA and the AMA support that (in fact the AMA hopes other SIG's follow suit) in hopes to break up the "same old thing," make it more interesting and more accessible to various cross-sections across the country.   I would not have guessed there'd be a response like the one below.
> Jeff Worsham            
>  
> From: NSRCA-discussion [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Joe Lachowski via NSRCA-discussion
> Sent: Friday, November 04, 2016 8:03 AM
> To: General pattern discussion
> Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] 2017 NATS
>  
>  
> I am disappointed in the direction the NSRCA has been going the last 5 years. Instead of focusing on growing participation in pattern as their primary goal it has done things like making sequences more and more difficult and now having alternate venues for the NATS. So tell me how having alternate venues for the NATS grows pattern? Answer is absolutely nothing. It just wastes financial assets. This idea too, will die. Do you honestly think others in the various regions of the country will put in the effort on a regular basis to have a NATS in their region?
>  
> I am done with the NSRCA. I've been a member since the late 80's. My contribution to the event as a CD over 25 years and long time sequence committee member has become a waste of my precious time.  My membership will permanently lapse this time around. I can no longer support an organization that is directionally lost. And you wonder why most of District 2 has left the NSRCA?
> 
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