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<DIV>Whether flashcards, fingers, scoring paddles (with or without clothespins),
verbal communication, writing on a piece of paper, or an electronic assistant
are used - I think an issue that still remains is that no one will be
proficient with a system they have not practiced with. It is a very rare
judge that is capable of communicating a score to a scribe or documenting a
score by other means without missing a single second of the flight - especially
with no practice to develop proficiency. Just watch the judges at the next
contest - no matter what system is being used.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Judging is a very complex task requiring -</DIV>
<DIV>- substantial knowledge of the basic elements of all maneuvers and the
specific downgrades for some specific maneuvers and the application for that
knowledge needs to be real time,</DIV>
<DIV>- documenting the score without missing any of the flight,</DIV>
<DIV>- knowing the schedule and the elements of the maneuvers being flown so
that wrong maneuvers don't get scored (scored zero, actually) and maneuvers with
elements missing are appropriately downgraded (including zero if needed).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>For the first item, judging seminars help by forcing use to read the rules
and study maneuvers and downgrades. For the second item, I can't remember
the last time I saw a seasoned judge or flier practice judging with a scribe
(outside of warmup flights at NATS/TS) - same the times a seasoned pattern guy
sits down with a pattern newbie to work them through the judging process.
For the third item, I spend a lot of time coaching/critiquing flights every year
- I think it helps with judging as I usually know every schedule by heart by
mid-season. But none of these are the same as real practice
judging or contest judging.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We all put in many practice flights to improve our flying every year.
And we spend substantial time flying in contests. Only a fraction of the
time we spend flying in contests do we spend judging (3 rounds average at each
of maybe an average of 5 contests?) - and how many of us practice judging
outside of a contest (including the scoring/documentation
system)? I've been regularly judging at contests for almost 20
years - and that experience helps, but in a given year, I might spend about
5-10% of my time on judging and the rest is flying (I do fly a lot). I
tend to think my flying would not look too good if I only burnt 10% of the
fuel.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dave Lockhart</DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:DaveL322@comcast.net">DaveL322@comcast.net</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Patternrules@aol.com
href="mailto:Patternrules@aol.com">Patternrules@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">discussion@nsrca.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 16, 2004 9:30
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Judge Training /Contest
Scoring</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><STRONG> Tony & Dean maybe your closer than you think,
really if you think about it you only need a 2 button system as AMA uses 1/2
point increments say the right button every time you push it deducts 1/2 point
the left button would be as an "enter" which would then go to the next
maneuver, could even be programed to input the contestant # by the same method
say push enter button 3 times for a new contestant, for FAI the program would
detect that the pilot # is FAI and would use 1 point increments.</STRONG>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face="Arial Baltic" size=2 PTSIZE="10"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B><I>Steve
Maxwell</B></I></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>