I was the Line Boss for the last contest referenced here. Complain all you want, but for a two day contest, ours had the most flying of any Florida contest yet this year, with 38 pilots (10 in Basic). Most pilots were very good about getting airborne on cue. Personally, I would have liked to see Basic fly a full two-sequence round on Sunday, but judges' time became an issue. A seventh sequence would not have allowed another sequence drop, so it's unlikely that contest results would have changed dramatically. One issue that screwed things up a little was not having the unknowns available until Sunday morning (not a purposely made decision). That required us to make time available to the contestant judges to study.

Something to learn about contests... It's very difficult to make one person happy, quite another to make 38. Learning to run a contest takes a few years, and good people skills. Complaining about being shorted one SEQUENCE (not a whole round, as was claimed) doesn't help. In actuality, Basic was allowed two sequence drops, just like any other class. Unknowns cannot be dropped, and do not count towards the six required to drop two. Then again some people will complain about a free lunch that's served cold.

Frankly, I think contests in FL are getting too populated, and next year we may require pre-registration to keep the numbers under 36 pilots. If kept to under 30-35, four rounds may be possible for all, weather permitting.


Well, see next year.

Erich Freymann
Bay City IMAC "Line Nazi"