Ron Van Putte -- CMFB02B@PRODIGY.COM

As I reported last month, the 1997 Nats planning meeting was held at Muncie on 13 October. I was the NSRCA representative and negotiated with the other SIG representatives for the dates of the 1997 R/C Aerobatics Nats. Our event will be held 20-25 July. Processing will be on Sunday the 20th and all three flying sites will be available for practice - ALL DAY! Fliers will practice at the same site they will fly from on the next day.

Please pay attention to the entry cutoff dates. They will be as follows: early entry cutoff will be 2 June (postmark) and late entry cutoff will be 14 July (postmark) or 19 July (fax or in person). Fees will be $90 for early entry and $180 for late entry. There will be NO entries accepted after 19 July. Do not plan to come to the Nats and register on Processing day. Entry forms should be available now. We will ask Eric to print one in the K-Factor as soon as possible.

We will try to have five judges per line. It all depends on the number of entrants. If we have about 200 contestants entered, we will be able to have four "contestant judges" and one "volunteer judge" on each line. If we have fewer entrants, but more than about 150, we will fall back to four judges per line. EVERYONE should expect to judge one half-day session. Those who can are encouraged to volunteer to judge extra sessions. Contestants who judge more than one half-day session will receive remuneration (probably $30 per session). Contact the event director to volunteer. By the way, the entry forms will say to list your judging experience, either on the back or on a separate sheet, including NSRCA certification. Please fill this in so that appropriately qualified judges can be selected to fill the various positions.

Contestants will not be expected to scribe. AMA is trying to hire locals (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Band members/parents and Ball State service club members). If we have five judges per line, we'll need 30 scribes each morning and afternoon. That's a bunch of people!

There will be two mailings to early entrants. The first mailing will include entry confirmation and a map showing the contest site, with our sites 1, 2 and 3 properly marked. The second mailing will be prepared by the event director and will include, as a minimum, the contest schedule/flying matrix and judging assignments.

You can expect good bulletin boards at each site and at event headquarters. The event director and site directors will get up-to-date information posted on these boards as soon as possible. Information will be posted at event headquarters first.

We will have good frequency pins. AMA officials were suitably embarrassed about the frequency pins they provided for the 1996 Nats and agreed to get some decent pins for 1997.

Centerline and turnaround lines will be painted on the runways at Sites 1, 2 and 3 (Site 3 will still be grass). No more duct tape for the event director to put down. AMA will lay out the three sites and install "permanent" sockets for the center and turnaround poles. The event director won't have site layout to worry about at the last minute before the pilots' meeting.

We still don't have an event director. The person who tentatively agreed to do the job still hasn't confirmed his job situation. I hope to be able to give you his name soon.

I'm saving the "biggie" for last. I'd like everyone to give it serious consideration and not "shoot from the hip". We could set it up to have everyone fly AT LEAST six flights, including the FAI pilots. If contestant percentages are about what we had at the 96 Nats, we will be able to fly the Sportsman and Advanced contestants (even with 200 contestants) two flights per day (normalizing every day) for three days from Site 1, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Sportsman and Advanced would be done after three days.

That leaves Sites 2 and 3 for Master and FAI, one group in the morning and the other in the afternoon. Together these sites have four flightlines. The question is, "If we rotate four groups of fliers through the lines and fly two flights per day, how can we avoid normalizing every other day?" The problem with normalizing every other day is that the judges must be on the lines for two half-day sessions rather than one in order to get equal exposure. Then you must either fly two more days from the four lines so you can normalize again or you put the Master fliers on one site and fly one flight per day for two days so you can normalize again. That's what we did at the 96 Nats. If you do the latter, you "waste" a site and it takes four days to get in the six rounds. The FAI pilots usually only fly four times and go to the finals. But that's not "written in stone" for anything other than a World Championships. You could do the same thing with them as the Master class and fly six rounds, also finishing qualifying in four days.

I believe I have a better idea, which would work for the Master and FAI classes. I propose that all Master and FAI contestants fly six flights, then have a finals in both classes. Weather permitting, we could be finished in four days. Here's how we could do it: We break the pilots up into four groups, based on frequency. On the first day the two groups on each site would fly two flights, alternating the flightlines. At the end of the session we could normalize all the scores on each site twice, because everyone on the two sites would have equal exposure against two sets of judges. Each pilot would have two normalized scores. His highest single score would be his score for the day. Now we rotate the fliers by group so that each group of fliers would fly against another group on the second day and fly two flights. We would normalize again and, once again, each pilot's highest single score would be his score for the day . Do the same thing on the third day. Now, every group of fliers has flown against every other group and each flier has three scores (and three throwaways). We add up the three scores and carry the top 20% to a finals in the class.

Here's where we would be at the end of the third day: everyone would have flown six flights, nobody would have judged more than one half-day session (unless they volunteered to do it), we would have normalized scores every day, the best pilots in Master and FAI would be in the finals and we would still have two days left (assuming no prior weather delays) to fly the Master and FAI finals. Depending on the weather, we could fly off both finals in one day and leave. Or, we would have a rain day to make up any missed time. Or, you pick the scenario. Hey, we could even have finals in Sportsman and Advanced on the fourth day. There are a lot of options.

Think about it and give Tony, John or me some input.

Ron Van Putte

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