Focus on Competition

Focus on Competition

A Note From the Technical Director

Bob Underwood

Let's begin this month's offering under the heading "Darned If You Do, Darned If You Don't." For some time one element of the membership has made a valid point: the Academy has not utilized some members' talents and interests as effectively as possible. I am speaking of those individuals in the membership classification referred to as "Leader Member."

Many years ago, when a large portion of the Academy's membership consisted of youngsters, it was determined that adult leadership was necessary to articulate modeling's needs and to educate. A cadre of interested adults was formed to provide that leadership. One significant task envisioned was to develop and vote on the bylaws by which the organization operated. The group was constituted in three classifications: administrative, industrial and scientific.

Today the needs of the Academy have changed dramatically. No longer do we find hundreds of thousands of youngsters filling the sky with models. The average age of the modeler and member continues to advance through middle age. While that is a concern in itself, the original reason for forming this cadre has faded, yet many Leader Members still exist. Beyond the housekeeping matter of voting on bylaws, the Leader Member is an excellent resource—able to help the Academy communicate policies and goals to the membership at large and to serve as a fine sounding board.

We have not made effective use of our Leader Member resource in recent years. The Executive Council recognizes this and is making changes designed to improve the situation by upgrading Leader Member recognition. At the last Executive Council meeting two actions were taken. First, Leader Member status will no longer be automatically granted when an individual becomes a Contest Director. It is now necessary to make a separate application to become a Leader Member.

Second, we decided to update information concerning current Leader Members. Research revealed some interesting (and troubling) information. At the time we queried the computer there were 4,685 individuals listed as Contest Directors. All of those individuals, by virtue of the automatic action that made a new CD a Leader Member, are listed in the system as "LO" (Administrative Leader Member).

There is no way for the system to identify who, of that almost 5,000, may have been appointed a Leader Member before becoming a Contest Director. Going back through paper copies or microfilm of applications might have provided information for many of those individuals, but it would not have identified all because of the vast time frame involved—and it would have required a massive number of man-hours.

Currently, 1,033 individuals are listed in the system as Leader Members who are not Contest Directors; these people applied for that category in the specific status (administrative, scientific, industrial) that they desired. Additionally, 56 people are listed as Leader Members by virtue of being or having been AMA Air Show Team managers.

The individual Leader Member category breakdown shows why we needed to update information. While there are 5,718 listed as "LO" (Administrative), only 4 (yes, four) are listed as "LS" (Scientific) and zero are listed as "LI" (Industrial). So let's recap: 5,718 Administrative Leader Members listed; of those, 1,033 are not Contest Directors; four are shown as LS; none are shown as LI. If the Academy intends to better utilize and recognize the skills of its membership, it would help to be able to identify those skills.

Howard Crispin and I were given the task of gathering and reviewing information concerning Leader Members who are also Contest Directors. We knew that those who had applied for only the Leader Member category had provided some documentation through references, but there was no information for most of the Contest Directors and managers.

A Leader Member form, along with a postage-paid return envelope and a cover letter explaining that the Academy wishes to update and clarify Leader Member information, was mailed to all Contest Directors and Air Show Team Managers during the last week of February. A March 20, 1992 deadline was set for the return of the form with the resume.

Then the phone started ringing. Most calls resulted from the individual not having read the cover letter carefully. The letter clearly stated that the $1.00 fee and the references normally asked for were NOT required (the word "Not" was in bold). I will admit to a grammatical error in one sentence, but the intent was clear: we simply asked that each individual complete the resume (to provide our updated information) and check off the category(s) in which he should be recognized. It took me ten minutes to complete my form, fold it, and place it in the envelope.

I'm dumbfounded by the number of individuals unwilling to share their accomplishments with the Academy. A significant number took offense at having been queried. Some replied that they and their accomplishments are well known by the Academy and wondered why we asked. Some said they didn't have time to fill out the form. Fortunately, on the other end of the scale, we received letters of praise for the effort—one stating, "Finally, an attempt to communicate!" One individual even mailed a computer disk containing a model design program.

The Academy has made an honest attempt to gain information that will allow us to improve communications. People have not understood what a Leader Member is, and those who have understood it have been concerned that we have not utilized their particular areas of expertise. We're trying to improve that situation—but we must have your help to make the whole program more meaningful.

Incidentally, for the many who evidently didn't read the cover letter and sent the dollar (either in cash or check), we put it in the museum fund. If you'd like it back, please let us know.

Sanction requests: One task performed by your Technical Director is the review of sanction requests—either for deviations from established Competition Regulations event rules or to respond to concerns associated with non-rule-book events. It has become necessary recently to contact an increasing number of Contest Directors concerning their events. Deviations that suggest safety problems are of primary interest. In order to make a determination, we must receive specific information. Sometimes the sanction request will simply say something like, "Event XXX—ZEPRA Rules." Somebody knows what those are, but it isn't the Technical Director—we will probably request a set of rules before the sanction is issued.

Once again Q-500 has taken the forefront in this matter. Two years ago we had to tell several Contest Directors that they could not waive the wood-prop rule in that event. We have again had rules submitted for Q-500 that allow other than wood props for certain local unofficial classes of that event. We cannot approve those sanctions since the wood-prop rule was instituted for safety reasons. Now, before you point out apparent inconsistencies in prop requirements among events, please understand that we know problems may exist in interpretation. Remember, you are an integral part of the rule process.

At the other end of the sanction process we have found Contest Directors failing to complete and return the waiver form now required. Some Contest Directors (and members) have said flatly that they feel they are signing away their insurance. That is not the case; this has been explained in several places in the magazine over the last months. If you need further clarification, please contact the Special Services department at AMA Headquarters. In any case, the waiver must be completed, and Contest Directors who fail to do so are placing themselves in a position of jeopardy as far as their status and liability are concerned.

A last thought: elsewhere in this issue you will find corrections to the Competition Regulations. Recently someone suggested that perhaps one day we will be able to put out a perfect set with nary a typo or slip of the text. Not a chance! Those involved with the competition scene recognize the insidious nature of that suggestion. There are so many interrelated sections and so many different disciplines being worked on by a large group of people who never meet face to face that a perfect, error-free set is unrealistic.

That doesn't mean we won't try, however. We are rather pleased with this year's effort. Perhaps the one real major glitch—concerning RC Sportsman Pattern—resulted from a communications problem and not a production hiccup. As a result, the original proposal submitted by Ron Van Putte and identified as RC-92-21 was approved by the RC Contest Board. The Sportsman schedule should read:

1. Take off
2. Double Stall Turn
3. One Half Reverse Cuban Eight
4. Cuban Eight
5. Immelmann Turn
6. Split S
7. Three Inside Loops
8. Straight Inverted Flight
9. Stall Turn
10. One Reverse Outside Loop
11. Three Horizontal Rolls
12. Landing

Corrections elsewhere in the Competition Regulations include:

1. Page 75, Square Loop — delete 20 m references from the diagram.
2. Page 76, Stall Turn with Half Rolls — delete "x 1/4" from the diagram.
3. Page 77, Reverse Outside Loops — change diagram text from "Three" to "1-3."
4. Page 77, Triangle Rolling Loop — delete the 1-second time requirement.
5. Page 124, paragraph 6 — a paragraph was dropped during desktop publishing. The first portion of the present paragraph 6 on page 124 should contain the following text: "It is suggested that Scale judging take place before official flights. If this is not possible or desirable the Contest Director may hold part or all of the official judging before Scale judging. Any damage caused to the model by flying before Scale judging will be disregarded and not counted against the contestant."
6. Page 126, paragraph 11 — change "Maximum possible official score is 480 points" to read "380 points."
7. Page 127, paragraph 4.6 — add page reference: 129.
8. Page 143, Helicopter Scale — throughout the Scale Helicopter rules, references are made to pad and flag numbers formerly detailed on the site layout drawing contained in the general helicopter event rules. Since the general helicopter rules were completely rewritten and the layout drawing changed, the current Scale references for pads and flags do not correlate to the drawing on page 97. A new layout drawing is being prepared and will be published as soon as possible.
9. Page 125, Wire Size Chart — include .021 for 3 lines, multi-strand, and change "8G, 55 lb. min." to "6G, 55 lb. min."

CONTEST DIRECTOR / AIR SHOW TEAM MANAGER ALERT

During the last week of February a mailing was made to Contest Directors and Air Show Team Managers. The mailing contained a Leader Member form, a postage-paid return envelope, and a cover letter explaining that the Academy wishes to update and clarify Leader Member information. March 20, 1992 was the deadline for return.

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.