ORIGINAL: GlennisAircraft
Reducing scale competition into a kindergarten event, before we know it we will be giving everyone an award , ''just because they tried '' so as not to make them feel bad. Harris would be turning in his grave
No, that is the exact opposite of the direction I proposed. Eliminating free options makes it harder, cleaning up judging makes it fair and more competitive. There is no idea I have about giving awards to everyone. Exactly what I said before - drop the AMA as a guide and draft a unique set of rules tailored to this level of scale modeling. Not to make it easier or give everyone awards, but set the meet apart and up the competition, and restore its status. The AMA founded in 1936, and I don't know when they wrote the scale competition section, but I think with the progress in hobby, scale in particular, their layout has not kept up the same pace.
If any of the issues I raised would cause Harris to turn in his grave, then maybe this whole deal started off on the wrong foot to start with.
If you don't think the adding an ARF class wouldn't make him turn in the grave - it would. If you are going to run a legitimate competition - then in year one when there are gray areas in rules and judging problems or whatever, you jump in and start working on those problems.
If anyone is inclined to think all is fine, and it is just the economy, well I guess you may have your answer and things are fine. What I heard on the phone is ''I'm not going to waste the time or money because . . . . '' And the reasons were all laid out above.
This thread is probably winding down (if not fine), so if it is, I want to leave it with this:
At the very least, my judging proposals should be implemented immediately with no special process required. It is just plain common sense that there should be a protest phase and the flight judging should not be subject to a group discussion. Sam Wright (who has been around as long as Masters) addressed this right off the go on another forum site - judges who had never been to a museum and were grouped together for discussion were his comments - it is more than myself who see these issues as a problem.
Dennis
Thanks Dennis. I guess of all the posters, I find myself most closely aligned with you and your proposal. Frankly, I am not sure what, if anything, happens next. Maybe nothing if the inertia is too much to overcome. I am hoping that a small change, as a starter, might help get the powers that be moving toward a better, healthy and growing Masters. I concur that if nothing else happens, start by implementing your proposal and see how it works at the next Championships.
I don't know what is planned to try and reverse the declining qualifiers numbers. I have heard of some rather desperate measures that have been used, in the past couple of years, to try and boost the numbers going from the qualifiers to the Championships. At one qualifier, all the participants were awarded qualifying status because the winds were blowing too hard to fly most planes without risking substantial damage...hmmm...free pass by showing up. OK....I hope this kind of thing doesn't happen too often...it really cheapens the qualifiying process which, like the NFL Divisional title games, can sometimes be a pretty good competition.
As I said in an earlier post, I stand ready to try and lend support to a strategic plan for moving the Masters back to the pre-eminent place that Harris Lee always envisioned it to be. I see others equally engaged and willing. Is it enough to overcome the inertia? we'll see.....