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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Well, I was in intermediate when we made the last
change, and I was disappointed that the snap was removed (as I had voted for
that schedule). I moved up to advanced this year and the inverted snap was scary
at first, but it turned out to be not a big deal to learn to do
passably. Point rolls, slow rolls were also fairly
easy to practice and learn to do passably (which means without crashing or
worrying about crashing). The hardest change was the substantial increase
of inverted manuevers. Thinking while inverted, trying to correct for a stiff
crosswind while inverted was way more difficult for me than specific manuevers.
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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=verne@twmi.rr.com href="mailto:verne@twmi.rr.com">Verne Koester</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">NSRCA</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, January 09, 2005 6:58
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Class Structure</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<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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