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