I began keeping a log of all my contests beginning with the 1994 LSF
tournament at Muncie. I went back to my logs to review what we flew.
At 12:41 PM 7/30/2006, you wrote:
Just a couple of comments from Chucks post.
First, the landing spot was dangerously close to the safety
line. There is no reason for the spot to be closer than 25 feet
from the safety line.
The distance use to be more and had been shortened a number of years
ago, three I think. Yours was the first comment to question the safety
I heard. I think that all week we only had two ships over and a few
in the fence, no personnal contact happened in any case.
In 2003, the Nats were still landing on a string and the foul line
was several feet behind the end of the string. In 2004, the Nats
switched to a100 inch radius circle with the center 12 feet from the
foul line. 2005 used the same 100 inch circle but my log doesn't say
how far it was from the foul line but I am sure it wasn't so close to
the foul line because I got a zero landing for sliding through the
circle without touching the fence. This is the first year the circle
was moved back to the foul line. I heard several complaints about
the circle being too close to the fence. I see no reason for the
center of the landing zone being closer than 12.5 feet from the foul
line. That has been the standard since at least the 1974 SOAR Nats.
Second, the landing spots were not directly behind the
corresponding winch. This is more of a problem for me since I
started using a cane to walk on uneven ground. On the last round
of RES, I launched from a winch on the left site of the tent and my
landing spot was on the other side. Walking that far while trying
to fly my model was difficult.
This set up has been the norm for years and years, at least at
Muncie, and the first year it was a lot more of a walk.
I am not sure if there is anyway to change the orientations we have
to change this. The only way I can see makes more of a walk
to the winches for fliers and still the winch line and landing line
will never be the same length to allow direct access, so someone is
going to walk.
Also, the crew tent is there too, and those folks need the cover
from the sun at a minimum, and that causes folks a indirect walk too.
I know in your case it is not easy, but we tried our best to cart
you out and back to help you as much as possible.
In previous Nats, the landing zone was never offset from the winch by
more than one space. This year, every time I flew or timed, the
landing zone was offset by at least two spaces. The time I had
trouble getting to my landing spot, I launched from the winch on the
left side of the tent and my landing zone was on the right
side side of the tent. The only time I have seen worse alignment of
winches and landing zones was the year the winches were shifted 90
degrees for Nostalgia while still using the landing spots used the
day before for Unlimited. I have no problem with the tent. I would
just like to have the landing spot to be directly behind the winch.
Third, we need to allow late entry if there is an open
frequency. I know of at least two people who would have entered
RES if they could have entered after they arrived for Unlimited. I
used late entry to fly in several Nats before I retired. I I had
no trouble getting time off to fly contest except when I had a test
in the wind tunnel. In 1983, I didn't enter because I had a long
test scheduled just before the test and I didn't know if I would be
finished in time to drive to Springfield, Massitutes. At noon on
Friday before the Soaring event started, I realized that If I
worked late I could finish the final report by noon on Saturday. I
left Tullahoma at noon on Saturday and drove to Springfield
arriving just before the 4 PM Sunday late entry deadline. Flying
started the next morning and I was able to enter 2-meter, Standard,
and Unlimited. We flew all three classes each day and I actually
won a trophy in 2-meter. Since the flight order is computer
generated, there is no reason we couldn't allow late entry and
raise a little more money with late entry fees.
Chuck, I will nearly quote Marna from Sat. AM during electric,
"Thank goodness we have no late entries cause all devil happens when it is."
The way we operate, in the MOM format, late entries will never be
allowed in the foreseeable future, just not possible. Our entries
are open for 5 full months,
and the dates known for most years the early fall before, it seems
most can plan ahead and get entries in on time.
Marc
I would like to know more about what problems Marna saw with late
entries in the electric events. I have been told that the flight
order was computer generated and did not allow manual
adjustments. If so, all that would be needed to allow late entry
would be to print a new flight order and make up new contestant
tags. Surely you don't need a full month to do this. Or is there
more to generating a flight order than we are told.
Chuck Anderson
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