Control Line: Aerobatics
Author
Ted Fancher 158 Flying Cloud Isle Foster City, CA 94404
The Image
I received a letter from one of Europe's finest Stunt pilots. Because I know the individual so well, and because I respect his opinions—whether or not I might share them—I have chosen to devote my column this month to his article, "The American Dream." Suffice to say that, notwithstanding my friendship with the author, I don't share most of his opinions and next month I intend to publish a public reply stating why.
Nonetheless, the fact that a mature and accomplished modeler with worldwide competitive experience sincerely believes in the accuracy of the image he paints of us in this article should give us pause. To the extent that his views may reflect the opinions of the rest of the Stunt world, it is worthy of our consideration.
Because of the provocative nature of his comments I have chosen not to identify him publicly. I will call him Henri, although that is neither his name nor a hint as to his nationality. I will, however, be happy to act as an intermediary for any comments you, my readers, may have in response.
The American Dream
by "Henri"
"After reading two or three American magazines regularly for almost three decades, plus Stunt News from almost its beginning, I feel I have a casual view of the American Stunt scene and the typical American opinion. While I admire the American approach to Stunt flying (we Europeans don't seem capable of this mixture of 'take it easy' and 'do one's best'), there seems to be a red line of constant misunderstanding concerning FAI matters. Some recent contest reports, especially the views on the 1988 CL World Championships, confirm my conviction that the Americans live in their own world and have problems accepting international modeling reality.
"Let me please use Don McClave's report on the World Championships (from PAMPA's Stunt News, issue #29) as an example to explain where the Americans have problems. I'll quote some of his remarks.
"One of the most misunderstood things is the FAI scoring system. If you always fly in America under AMA rules you probably don't know about FAI rules. However, the top pilots—especially those who have a chance to make the team—should know at least enough to understand the system.
"Mr. McClave says: 'FAI scoring uses a 10-point scoring system rather than the 40-point AMA system.'
"Somebody once told me that the minimum score is 10 points—just for flying the maneuver. I don't know whether this is true. If it is true then you have a 30-point system. However, since I don't know for sure, I must suppose that you have a 40-point system.
"Mr. McClave continues: 'Therefore, a good maneuver in FAI is a seven, eight, or nine instead of a 34, 35, or 36.'
"First, a good maneuver is not a seven, eight, or nine! If you have 10 points to choose from, you don't have three scores to give for the same quality. What I call a good maneuver is an eight. Nine is very good, and 10 is perfect. Seven is low good, and six is about mediocre.
"Second, if you want to translate FAI scores to AMA scores you will have to multiply by four (10 points to 40 points). Therefore, seven equals 28, eight is 32, and nine is 36. If American judges judge the way Mr. McClave writes, they give away points to the lesser pilots. Or, to put it another way, the really good maneuvers are not judged accordingly.
"Now Don explains the 'K' factor using the Square Eight:
"At the Nats, flier one performs an excellent maneuver and scores a 36. Flier two also does an excellent maneuver and scores a 36. Flier two also does a great maneuver, but misses a couple of minor things and gets a 34. At the World Champs the fliers repeat their performances. Flier one receives a 34; but flier two gets a seven, because his maneuver ... wasn't quite as good ...'
"How come flier two misses a couple of minor things and gets a 34? To miss a couple of minor things will in FAI downscale a pilot at least three points. Translated into AMA that's a 12-point difference. I feel this kind of judging is not quite correct.
"McClave continues: 'Then comes the K-factor, which on the Square Eight is a whopping 10! Thus, the real score for the maneuver is 80 points (8 x 10) for flier one and 70 (7 x 10) for flier two, a 10-point difference. Even though the two fliers were very close, the scores are relatively far apart because of the judging system.'
"The scores seem to be far apart. However, if you consider the perfect score in FAI, they are not. The maximum score (if I've figured it out correctly) is 1,310 points, multiplied by three judges (per FAI requirements) is 3,930 points. Watch the actual championships results and see how pilots perform. A 10-point difference is not much.
"I don't know the perfect AMA score, but I know that good pilots exceed 500 points. Try to figure out the point difference when the FAI standard is used.
"(Both Henri and Don have missed a critical part of the K-factor issue. Actually, each of the two Square Eights is judged separately in FAI scoring and is assigned a separate K-factor. The first eight has a K-factor of eight, and the second a K-factor of 10. Thus a difference of one point on each eight produces a difference of 18 points in the total score. Ted)
"McClave goes on: 'I won't argue here about which scoring system is better (I DO have an opinion).'
"I've had a long conversation about this point with Ted Fancher, and I think I haven't convinced him! Nevertheless, once again,
"I actually have been a judge myself on several occasions. While I'm not an experienced judge, I ..."
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
