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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT face="Times New Roman">Georgie,<BR>Here's a novel
idea. Leave Intermediate alone and take the snaps out of <BR>Advanced. A pilot
coming out of Intermediate into Advanced already has to <BR>learn Slow Rolls, 4
Point Rolls, and a longer schedule with more crosswind <BR>exposure maneuvers
which is plenty.<BR><BR>The step from Advanced to Masters is minimal at best.
The step from <BR>Intermediate to Advanced is monumental. The end result is a
bunch of pilots <BR>in Intermediate that are getting bored with their schedule
but still not <BR>ready for Advanced so they want to add snaps to it. Only
problem is that <BR>someone coming out of Sportsman will likely be scared away
if Intermediate <BR>is made any tougher.<BR><BR>It's no surprise to me that the
number of Masters pilots at any given <BR>contest are far greater than the
classes that precede it. Most of us who are <BR>there came up through a balanced
system of steps. We're all out of whack <BR>right now. Unfortunately, I seem to
be one of only a handful of Masters and <BR>higher pilots that still remembers
how hard it was to learn slow and 4 point <BR>rolls which gets introduced at the
Advanced level. Take the snaps and spins <BR>out of Advanced and introduce them
at the Masters level, put some box exits <BR>back where they need to be, and
you'll have a logical, balanced, and <BR>transitional set of schedules
that takes a pilot from Sportsman to however <BR>high he or she wants to
go.<BR><BR>Verne Koester<BR><BR><BR>----- Original Message ----- <BR>From:
"George Kennie" <</FONT><A href=""><FONT
face="Times New Roman">geobet@gis.net</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman">><BR>To: <</FONT><A href=""><FONT
face="Times New Roman">discussion@nsrca.org</FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman">><BR>Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 2:28
PM<BR>Subject: Re: adding interest and complexity to Sportsman ... again and
again <BR>and<BR><BR><BR>> <<I'm not flying masters, I'm flying
advanced, the reason is<BR>> Masters is<BR>> more difficult than I think I
can reasonably fly at this time, so<BR>> I'll work my way up.
>><BR>><BR>> I respectfully disagree with your assessment of
schedule difficulty.<BR>> I get the feeling that you haven't taken the time
to sit down and<BR>> really study the current Master's sequence. I commend
your attitude<BR>> of working your way up!!!IMHO, I find the current Master's
much less<BR>> threatening than the Advanced sequence.<BR>><BR>>
Somebody mentioned "going to contests without practicing", and<BR>> indeed I
can remember, back in the 60's going to a contest myself<BR>> having never
performed the required routine and doing quite well at<BR>> the time.However
those were significantly different times and I<BR>> myself would not desire
to return to the mindset of that period.It<BR>> was called a "Pattern
Contest" and the attendance was probably a<BR>> couple of hundred guys, but
the mindset was more like a current day<BR>> "Fun- Fly". Nobody really took
it all that seriously. Somewhere<BR>> along the line, the few individuals
that did have a more serious<BR>> approach organized and brought a more
serious aspect to the sport<BR>> realizing that the basis for guys going out
and flying a routine<BR>> that was in fact JUDGED meant that the concept
must<BR>> be"COMPETITION". I think that this is probably the reason you
still<BR>> find the most heavily attended events to be "Fun-Fly's". When
it<BR>> gets too serious there are a lot of guys that start to feel<BR>>
threatened regarding their status within the group structure and<BR>> when
the pressure becomes, in their estimation, greater than feels<BR>>
comfortable to them, they gravitate to a different venue that<BR>> restores
the level of comfort they deem appropriate.<BR>> The same thing seems to
happen, in my judgement, with schedule<BR>> complexity.Some of us
realize that if the schedules become more and<BR>> more complex, at some
point the difficulty factor will become<BR>> significant enough to threaten
our currently hard won achievement<BR>> status, and indeed this is true.The
decision that probably needs to<BR>> be reasoned through is,in light of this
truth, should the pursuit of<BR>> excellence be sacrificed to satisfy the
inadequacies of those of us<BR>> who are clammoring to maintain their
elevation?<BR>> I consider myself a part of this equation and recognize my
own<BR>> inadequacies, however I also realize that this same pursuit
of<BR>> excellence will not be enhanced by any concession to tilt the<BR>>
playing field in my favor. Noone will be served by that tack. Least<BR>> of
all ME! My flying prowess ranks somewhere between Sportsman and<BR>>
Intermediate(my assessment), and though I find a couple of the FAI<BR>>
maneuvers really tough to execute in a graceful manner, I still feel<BR>>
that there is no maneuver that I could not learn to do and given<BR>> another
50 years of practice I might even be in a position to<BR>> challenge
Jason.<BR>> It's about STRIVING guys. That's what COMPETITION is! And
it's<BR>> purpose is to determine the most skilled individual, with the
rest<BR>> of us rated in descending order beneath the rating of the BEST!
So,<BR>> as you can see, I'm not in favor of wussing out to make
things<BR>> easier for anybody who finds their position at the
pinnacle<BR>> precarious(and that includes ME).<BR>> Now, all that being
said, I do feel that we may have a void at the<BR>> bottom and should
probably go back again and reconsider a pre-novice<BR>> class for the guy who
has only been involved in the sport for 2<BR>> weeks and has never practiced
flying a straight line.This shouldn't<BR>> take much additional time as the
number of guys showing up to<BR>> participate in this class will indeed be
very few (which begs the<BR>> question, how far do we have to concede in
order to grow the<BR>> ranks?).<BR>> The Sportsman sequence I proposed a
couple of days ago DOES appear<BR>> to be too difficult for some of the
respondants(but not all) and<BR>> maybe the old Novice schedule should be
made available for anybody<BR>> showing up to try (as a pre-novice event).I
also think that the<BR>> Intermediate should introduce it's participant to
the 45 downline<BR>> snap or at least a center snap on a horizontal baseline
as<BR>> preparation for Advanced.<BR>> Only a bunch of opinions, guys!
Don't mean I'm right!<BR>> G.<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>
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