[NSRCA-discussion] Anthony Manifesto/pattern participation

Fri Nov 4 12:11:10 AKDT 2016

+1
I would fall roughly into these reasons as to why I am out of pattern now.

On Nov 4, 2016 3:49 PM, "Gene Maurice via NSRCA-discussion" <
nsrca-discussion at lists.nsrca.org> wrote:

> As Anthony said, bear with me, there’s a point to be made…………………..
>
>
>
> I have been reticent to post this because I have been out of pattern for a
> while now. But then I started thinking maybe that’s the real issue, there
> are a whole bunch of long term pattern participants who are no longer on
> the scene. Some were pretty fierce competitors, some were more casual folks
> like me. But the bottom line is they are gone. Where did the people go?
>
>
>
> I don’t think that the pattern community will ever be able to recruit new
> talent as fast as it loses current participants. People naturally tend to
> enter and exit pastime activities. As new activities enter the landscape,
> those activities will inherently dilute the pool of available participants.
> Pattern has always been a relatively small niche in the relatively small
> R/C niche of pastime activities.
>
>
>
> Pattern is very time consuming, the time to practice, the time at
> contests, the time building/working on the plane, on and on and on. Given
> that “fixed” time: job, family, home maintenance, social commitments, is
> set in stone that leaves “free” time. If the time it takes to be
> competitive exceeds free time, well you do the math.
>
>
>
> And it ain’t easy! If and when people try a competitive activity as a
> hobby there is an inherent human nature expectation of some level of
> success. Then there are a lot of folks that also require near immediate
> gratification. Generally, in pattern that ain’t gonna happen!
>
>
>
> So when you have someone that’s been around for a long time and they
> disappear it begs the question, “Where did the people go?”.
>
>
>
> I flew pattern for over 20 years. I first got into pattern in Nashville,
> TN with my son. There was a large contingent of Pattern folks in the area
> at the time. My son, Mike, was 12 when we started pattern and going to
> contests was a family affair.  At that time my job was fairly stressful and
> I put in a lot of hours. With raising a family thrown in there was never
> enough time to practice. When Mike went off to college and it was just me,
> flying time became even more difficult to find because I had lost my best
> flying partner.
>
>
>
> I moved to the Dallas, TX area in 1998 and again I was lucky that there
> were a lot of local pattern people to spend time with. Texas was a hot bed
> of pattern activity at that time. I would go to 6 – 8 contests a year, all
> within a 6 hour drive. Average attendance would be 30 to 40 at any contest.
> There would be 8 – 15 people just in Masters, and 6 of them would have been
> in the top 10 at the previous Nats.
>
>
>
> The last couple of years I flew in contests the best I could do was in the
> 4 out of 6, 6 out of 9 range in Masters. And that was OK, I was still
> having fun. I haven’t flown competitively for six years. I still fly my
> pattern planes, a Symphony and an Aries, both OS 160 powered. I even
> started practicing the Advance schedule for shucks and grins.
>
>
>
> Why I left Pattern………………….  In no particular order ……………………..
>
> ·         When I moved to the Atlanta area and there is NO pattern
> activity, nobody to practice with. This takes away a BIG reason to go
> practice, spending time with people who have the same interest and can help
> you improve.
>
> ·         No decent fields to fly pattern / practice nearby. I drive an
> hour and 15 minutes one way to a field near Talladega AL.
>
> ·         The schedules keep getting more and more difficult. I couldn’t
> / can’t keep up. I flew Masters for 11 years and the current Masters
> schedule is way out of my league. I would suggest that a large reason for
> the decline in Masters is the shear difficulty of the maneuvers.  Compare
> the current schedule to let’s say 8 – 10 years ago to see what I mean.
>
> ·         I’m now retired and on a fixed income, converting to electric
> and buying a $2000 to $3000 ARF is financially out of the question. Yes
> pattern has always been expensive but the price tag to be “competitive” has
> gotten away from most folks.
>
> ·         As I get older my eyesight, and particularly depth perception,
> has made it way more challenging.
>
> As I look at contest results that get posted by Don Ramsey of the events
> in District 6, I only see 4 or 5 names of people that I flew with just 7
> years ago. Where did the people go? The participation is only 50 -60% of
> what some of those contests use to draw. Where did the people go?
>
>
>
> So, again, I submit that looking for “new blood” may be a fool’s errand.
> Contact and survey those who have left and find out what drove them away.
> And is there anything that would bring them back..
>
>
>
> To those who truly commit the time and dedication it takes to be
> competitive, I commend you. To those who are less committed, more casual,
> and are in it because it’s fun, I wish you the best. I got 20+ years of
> pure enjoyment out of it being a casual participant.
>
>
>
> Gene Maurice
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* NSRCA-discussion [mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org]
> *On Behalf Of *W Anthony Abdullah via NSRCA-discussion
> *Sent:* Friday, November 04, 2016 1:52 PM
> *To:* Dave Burton; General pattern discussion
> *Cc:* General pattern discussion
> *Subject:* [NSRCA-discussion] Anthony Manifesto/pattern participation
>
>
>
> 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
> <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
> <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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