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Category: Archive 2010

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1. Indoor HLG Sponsorship thanks
2. Chase Bike for sale
3. F1A Observations
4. Another finals approach
5. Comments on the Finals approaches
6. Pole left at the Finals?
7. Looking for a F1A

Hello;

I just read Jim Parker's article in the SEN he made some very good points. As most know, I am not on board for a one contest Finals reasons are numerous. Probably my biggest complaint is the interest/ motivation killer that it is for all but the 9 people that made the team. Like me, many go away saying "Well I will come back in a couple of years and try again". Some just go away and never return. The real problem, as I see it, is for the people who practice and come prepared and they end up dropping a round, many times through no fault of their own, and they are out. Months of preparations, practice, expense, going to contests and just like that their dream of making the team is gone for another two years. Wow, that is a real interest killer! Where is the motivation to keep on trying? No wonder less and less people are attending the finals now.

For this main reason alone, this is why a multi contest format has a big appeal to many. The downside is limited, if you screw up the first contest, there is another not far down the calendar that gives you another chance. You still have the motivation to compete and you don't have to wait 2 more years just to try again. It is an ongoing process and it keeps your interest in something you enjoy doing. I have tried for 20 years to get this through in various forms to no avail. Now’s the time to talk about it again to see if this is the better, easier way to pick our teams that surely will keep people interested and quite possibly bring people back who got tired of the format as it is today. We need to speak up otherwise it will never change.

Please read this with an open mind as I try to explain my thoughts. There is a proposal in the works, to have 3 contests in Feb. with 2 of them being World Cups. The Isaacson, Pan Am (Canadian), and the MaxMen. Word is that the Canadians want to move their World Cup contest to Lost Hills and that will give us 2 World Cup contests in Feb. Also something may be proposed for the October time period as well to have 2 World Cup contests. There is speculation that the Danish want to combine with Big Al’s and make it a World Cup contest. So we’ll have the Livotto, Big Al's (Danish) World cup in the middle of the week and then Sierra Cup. Once again 2 World cup contests out of 3 contests. If this is true we have access to 6 contests that almost every serious F1 flier will attend and participate in.

 Now we can have 6 contests per year during a two week period that everyone will attend and from those contest we could use a point system to help determine our team. Say count 4 contests out of 6 or count best 3 or whatever method works best and everyone agrees upon. Top 3 point total in each event make the team. This gives the flier motivation to stay involved and the cycle is continually revolving, so even if you don't make the team you have another series of great contests to look forward to not too far down the line. More of a reason to stay connected and interested. And if we had an off year, Big International contest to fly in, this would really be a great program and I believe we would increase participation. As it is now it’s hard to get someone involved when you say you can spend thousands of $$$$ to try and if you don't make the team, no problem you can try again in 2 YEARS!!! Pretty hard sell!!!

Next is going to be the argument about who is going to run it and donate all this time to do so. Well, I have an answer to that. We add an additional $10/ $15 to each entry and that goes directly to the CD assuming the same person runs all three contests or divide it up between t he CDs. That will bring in about $2000 per week for those 3 contests  The first $2000 goes to the CD the rest goes into the team fund. About 70 fliers per contest x $10.00 x 3 contests in one week $2100. I will bet someone would jump on this opportunity to run these contest with this scenario. With this being said somebody going to say why so much? The reality is that after food, gas, travel and motel this isn’t all that much.

Next is the team money that is generated through the Finals. Keep the $250.00 entry fee and add $15.00 per event times 6 is another $90.00. This is on par with current entry fee levels. So income generation will be the same, give or take a few dollars.

Next people are going to say that every flier has to have their own pole and the same allotted time for each flight. With 3 fliers to a pole, does that really matter? Run the poles like World Champs each flier has 20 minutes to fly or moves to the back of line. Fly one time one!!Others are going to say that there will be other event models in the air to pig off of, unlike World Champs. Well, I have a suggestion for that, don’t allow the glider fliers to tow upwind and through the flight line. They can be on poles at the end of the flight line. Same scenario of 20 minutes to fly or move to the back of line. Everyone play nice and this is not a problem.

Now the next problem is moving pole positions, which is okay, but a real pain for each round. Not for the glider fliers, but for the other events. Let’s move maybe 3 times a third of the distance down the line rather than after each flight. This cuts moves in half. Or don’t move at all and nail the line down on one end and rotate the line into the wind and keep the same pole positions. Do our best to keep the line roughly into prevailing wind.

 Now there will be the naysayers who will complain about issues that were stated above, or come up with some new ones. But if you really want to keep the group we have left together then this is your time to speak up with constructive ideas. We are not many and getting smaller all the time, it would be nice to keep the group together as long as possible. I would like to also propose that we have  an outdoor barbeque at the field or at the community park or at the golf course for the second group of contests in October during the week ending with the Sierra Cup banquet.

Looking forward to hearing why some fliers won't like this proposal. Should be interesting reading.

Michael Achterberg

Motivation and a couple of comment on Mike and Jim's proposals

I agree with Mike that keeping people motivated is a problem and needs to be addressed.  Does it make any difference how we choose our team? still only 9 people will be on the team and there will be a number of people that are demotivated etc.  Maybe Mike is correct , losing out on a team spot in a different way is less of a problem, or dragging out the selection over a longer time keeps people interested... I think it is important to have alternative objectives and the America's Cup is one of those and so is the World Cup.

Many serious European flyers are disillusioned with their own Team Selection process and the quality of some of the World and Euro champs so prefer to take part in the World Cup Contests they like and know will be well run.  They are fortunate as there are many in Europe and that a few also make the trip to North America as well as Australia and New Zealand. For people in North America this is more difficult because we have only 4 contests, 2 in the USA and 2 in Canada. so to get a good World Cup placing a number of trips outside of North America is required.  As Mike mentions and we alluded to in recent SEN there are plans for other countries to hold their World Cup contests in the USA - one in February and one in October.  Details will come out after the December CIAM meetings. This would make those events more attractive an increase both domestic and international participation, raising the quality of the contests.

I think it would be a pity for the Canadians to move their contests to  the USA as one of the appeals of the World Cup is to go and ly in other counties. I would expect that some North Americans would be encouraged by success in the North American contests to go and try some in other places in the world, to further cement their place in the World Cup standings. More motivation?

My understanding is that the Canadian's wanted to make the Pan Am some form of Continental Championship like the Euro Champs, and were disappointed when somebody else did not take it up and run with it like that.  The problem with that is running a Continental Championship is almost a big a deal as running a World Champs and no one wants to do that. Also if the event was "non-European Continental Champs, it would have not appeal to the Europeans who are at Lost Hills for the WC contest.   

Taking this from a US and Canadian motivational perspective we could say - lets have a non-European Continental Championship in the off year to the world champs and we will send our "B" team , i.e. the next 3 down in the team selection rankings, that means that an additional 9 people would get motivated because they would represent their country in a major event. The only problem is that a non-European Continental Championship is much more expensive as the travel costs are higher for North and South America, and the Pacific Rim and there are much less countries so it will be harder to find a host nation. The South Americans indicated that they would be interest in doing something with the USA and Canada, but not with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Koreas and China, because of travel costs. 

One of the main issues that Jim was bringing out in his proposal is that running an event at Lost Hills is falling on the same people, that's why he is proposing that the event be CD'd by someone from the TSC so there would be no way that a single person could be a major organizer for all the events.  While I a believe suitable levy on the contestants could be arranged, possibly even making the international participants indirectly contribute to the US team fund the finances would be more complicated especially when some of the events are World Cup Contest for a country other than the USA, run by people from that country.  Note that at the present moment both of the organizers of the US World Cup Events, the MaxMen and SCAT do donate generously to the US Team fund so those contests are already indirectly supporting the US Team effort.

Editor

 Pole left at the finals

F1A wanted

..............

Roger Morrell

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