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<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 7/31/2005 2:58:08 PM Central Daylight Time,
vanputte@cox.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR>On
Jul 31, 2005, at 1:52 PM, BUDDYonRC@aol.com wrote:<BR><BR>> I would
like to share a few points that I think are important that <BR>> seems to
be overlooked. From my experience at many local contests and <BR>>
observations at the past eight Nat's those who shouldn't be in the <BR>>
judges chair have had a significant impact on deciding the order of <BR>>
finish, unfortunately many inexperienced judges award higher scores <BR>>
for smoothness and gracefulness (impression judges) and overlook
<BR>> obvious downgrades.<BR>> Those effected the most by this fact
at the Nat's is the group flying <BR>> Advanced, in most contests FAI
pilots judge the Masters class, Masters <BR>> pilots judge FAI, Advanced
pilots judge Intermediate and Advanced is <BR>> predominately judged
by Intermediate pilots, many who have little <BR>> judging experience. This
was the case at the Nat's this year. In the <BR>> prelims. for FAI and
Masters only FAI and Masters judges were used to <BR>> judge each other,
Likewise only Advanced pilots were used to judge <BR>> Intermediate.
In Advanced, the first two days the majority of judges <BR>> were
intermediate pilots, some who had little experience and on the <BR>> third
day all judges were Masters pilots which may explain and point <BR>> out
why the order of finish changed so much each day.<BR><BR>Excuse me for
editing Buddy's last e-mail, but I extracted from his <BR>e-mail to make the
point I want to make.<BR><BR>Buddy is correct. When possible. F3A pilots
judge Master. Master <BR>pilots judge F3A AND Advanced, Advanced pilots
judge Intermediate and <BR>selected Intermediate pilots judge Advanced.
The problem comes when <BR>there aren't enough Master pilots to judge both F3A
and Advanced. <BR>Suppose you've got 110 contestants with a 25/50/25/10
or a 30/50/20/10 <BR>F3A/Master/Advanced/Intermediate split. Things are
rosy: There's just <BR>enough Master pilots to cover F3A and
Advanced. More often there <BR>aren't enough Master pilots to cover
both. You must use the Master <BR>pilots to cover F3A, because you
generally wouldn't want an <BR>Intermediate pilot judging F3A. Then
you're forced to augment the <BR>available Master pilots with Intermediate
pilots to fill the judging <BR>matrix. That's why it's important to fill
in the information on the <BR>Nats entry form, indicating the ability to judge
higher classes. The <BR>only other alternative is for Master pilots to
volunteer for extra <BR>judging duty.<BR><BR>Ron Van
Putte<BR><BR><BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>Ron</DIV>
<DIV>I am aware of what you are saying, but isn't it time to admit that the
methods used presently leave a lot to be desired when it comes to picking the
best of the best at the Nat's?</DIV>
<DIV>If that is what we are there for what is wrong and who would object to
judging or performing any other duties required to see that that happens. Why
not make everyone available all three days to judge and utilize a / your
judge rating system to place the best judges available on every flight line
every day for every round. That is the only way that we can attempt to assure
that we have done our best to pick the best. anything less and you never
know.</DIV>
<DIV>If this was done everyone could fly in front of the same judges and
there would be no question. Picking the best of the best takes the best of the
best when it comes to judging, can anyone argue with that fact.</DIV>
<DIV>Buddy </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>