Brodak 2024 CLPA Expert videos

[AMV]

Hi everyone,

I was able to attend the Brodak Fly-In this year.  The Event Directors graciously granted me the opportunity to record and process videos live at the field on the Experts' circle.  It is what I call "In-Stunt" Tracing -- each flight is traced live in real-time, and the result video is available for review immediately after the flight.

This is the playlist of the flights I was able to capture during both days of competition:
Brodak 2024 - Traced NOM videos
(I was late in setting up on Saturday -- sorry Mike P.!)

The greatest benefit of the In-Stunt system revealed itself after everyone completed their first flight on Friday.  Many pilots, including those from non-Expert classes, lined up at the Expert circle to fly recorded practice sessions.  Each pilot was able to get valuable coaching feedback immediately after each flight.  There was a line to fly, and a line to watch videos, keeping me busy for about 5 hours straight!  For me, the best part of the process was seeing the pilots making mental and written notes of things they did right and things they could improve in their pattern, and then actually seeing their performance improve on subsequent practice flights.  I was impressed that so much learning was taking place in such a short time, and seeing immediate results due to the quick indisputable feedback.  The In-Stunt tracing system is proving to be an invaluable coaching tool.

Cheers,
-Andrey

[jerry v]

I’m just Andrey’s driver. Some delays on Saturday morning with the tracing video was because of me. I like to sleep in the morning)). Also wind direction changed 180 degrees from Friday to Saturday. That means I have to move markers from the Friday position to Saturday position. The expert circle was very convenient for us to locate the camera and gazebo with all equipment. But payback was uneven circle surface. At the SAFE radius of 85 ft (25.9 meters) the difference between the highest #2 marker at 8ft 4 inches and the lowest #7 marker at 4ft 2 inches was 4 ft 2 inches. (Markers are set by laser level at 5 ft from circle center location at the pilot’s feet). Some markers have been removed to make more room for smoother takeoff from concrete pad. More markers at the circle make more accurate sphere drawing for Andrey’s program and for more accurate video tracing.
Andrey was video tracing official and unofficial flights all Friday, and at some point camera was overheated and stopped to work. I did not install camera umbrella not to interfere with judges and spectators view.
Here’s the picture of the Scott Richlen’s Friday flight with onlookers. And picture of Scott taking pictures of the monitor with live tracing.

Jerry

[Frank Imbriaco]

Really puts to question the need for judges "at the circle". Record, review the film beneath the tent (with an iced tea) and score the results. If you miss something, go back and re-review. Amazing.

[Dave_Trible]

Hello Andrey.  I was wondering if you plan to attend the CL Worlds and will set up your equipment there.  I will be doing the event reporting for both the AMA magazine and the FAI and think this would add some interesting flavor to the program......

Dave

[Brett Buck]

Really puts to question the need for judges "at the circle". Record, review the film beneath the tent (with an iced tea) and score the results. If you miss something, go back and re-review. Amazing.

   Not really. What you cannot see on video is also important. It's an interesting bit of information, but, as many people have realized when trying to use video to self-coach, you get some things very well, and miss a lot of others, particularly small bobbles and track variations. I am sure Andrey could explain the details of the algorithm, but there is - necessarily - some smoothing/filtering/interpolation  to be able to reconstruct the track from the individual frames.

      Brett

[Dennis Adamisin]

The initial set up spotting the markers then installing an leveling them when remarkably quickly.  Per Jerry's comment the fall off along the east(?) side of the circle is pretty dramatic but they were prepared.  At a flat site like Fort Wayne Flying Circuits Field it would only go faster.  So far the biggest thing I have learned is the importance of flying "on the judges".