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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I would like to thank you all, especially Don, for
your insight and clarification of the regulations and guidelines regarding the
positioning of judges and what they should do to take these kinds of things into
account. I have no doubt that in the case where I was downgraded that the judges
were simply using the pole realative to their position to judge the size of the
box I was to be flying in, that's the whole reason I brought this up. I felt,
from what I've experienced, that this is something that needed to be addressed.
I would also like to highlight what Don pointed out in his reply: AMA
regulations state that the judges should be positioned on extensions of the
60-degree lines. If one of my judges had been sitting on the line I looked down,
at least only one would have downgraded me. It's also important to note the
point of judges "orienting" themselves to the box before beginning a round of
judging. If a point is chosen 150 meters out that the judge can reference on the
60 degree line it will make it much easier to judge the end of the box. I don't
think I've seen one judge do this at any contest I've been to in the past 2
years. Believe me, I'm not suggesting that all the local contests move their
poles out to 150 meters... just trying to bring an issue to light that affects
us all but rarely makes it into our regular conversations. Plus a little
controversy every now and then is fun...</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Matt</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>