Golden State Stunt Championships Report

[Howard Rush]

Attached are the GSSC placings.  I included only the folks who got flights on the scoreboard.  A bunch of others entered, but didn't get flights in because of weather, airplane trauma, or selflessly dropping out of the competition to judge. 

How I got involved in co-CDing the GSSC is a peculiar story.  My wife and I like to stop at Yosemite on the way home from GSSC.  The lodging there requires reservations well in advance of one's stay-- usually in advance of when the GSSC date gets set.  In order to get the date for the 2009 contest set early enough to reserve our 2009 Yosemite room, I goaded Jim Aron and Rich Walbridge into organizing the contest.  I felt pretty smug about getting what I wanted with no work on my part.  When I tried to repeat that process this year, somehow I got shamed into agreeing to help out as co-CD.  I figured that I would fill out some AMA forms, Rich would do all the local legwork, then I would just breeze into town, fly stunt and give orders.  I wasn't sure what is involved in putting on a stunt contest, but I knew that it requires a lot of clipboards.  Fortunately, Doug Barton brought the equipment, Jerry Silver organized the banquet, and Jim Aron furnished the scoreboards, trophies, name tags, and classy coffee mugs.  Rich did a dandy job of dealing with the hard-to-get-along-with school authorities, jumping through the many hoops required to get a beer-selling permit for the banquet, laying out and marking the circles, recruiting the many volunteers, weighing airplanes, and doing a zillion other tasks during the contest while I sat on my butt out of the rain.

I spent the contest sitting on the aforementioned butt because I didn't have enough confidence in my tabulation program to let anybody else enter data.  Although it kept me frazzled, the program actually worked and did what I told it to do, although what I told it to do was in some cases kinda stupid.  Some features were inflexible, and caused us to get a late start and to violate some of the contestants.  I added to that inflexibility by insisting that there be no deviations from the randomly drawn flight order.  A little intelligence would have helped.  At least I can improve the program for future contests.  Brett Buck summarized my involvement in the GSSC: "You are not suited for this kind of work."

Many thanks to all the folks who volunteered and brought stuff.  Because of you we had a good contest. 

   

[Brett Buck]

I spent the contest sitting on the aforementioned butt because I didn't have enough confidence in my tabulation program to let anybody else enter data.  Although it kept me frazzled, the program actually worked and did what I told it to do, although what I told it to do was in some cases kinda stupid.  Some features were inflexible, and caused us to get a late start and to violate some of the contestants.  I added to that inflexibility by insisting that there be no deviations from the randomly drawn flight order.  A little intelligence would have helped.  At least I can improve the program for future contests.  Brett Buck summarized my involvement in the GSSC: "You are not suited for this kind of work."
   

  There may be an *element* of truth to that but it was mostly just giving you a hard time. All in all it worked out fine, and frankly the weather impacted the entry,  but it definitely provided opportunities to distinguish the pilots.   But it was a shame that you didn't get a chance to fly. I think you would have had a good shot at it.

    One thing we probably need to look at is the flight order and judges having  to do their flights in other classes. Between Clint and I, Beginner turned out to be extremely disjointed for the contestants, and I think Beginner and Intermediate are the classes where the contestants need the most consistent structure. I don't know about intermediate but I know that Beginner ended up being kind of a mess.  Advanced and Expert can tolerate a little shuffling because everybody is always ready to go, and they have a lot of experience to deal with deviations. I expect that there may have been some comment made about me having gone dead last in the entire contest the last three years in a row (with two wins and a second) due to judging commitments but given the quality of the judging it seems like a minor issue at most. And it won't always be me every time.

  Brett

[Howard Rush]

Thanks.  I figured that we could get away with having judges from the more populated classes judging the less populated classes and taking breaks as needed.  It seemed to work out last year when you and I judged Intermediate.  I'm pretty sure I did the wrong thing by enforcing the flight order in Beginner.  I should have made sure that we gave the fellow who dropped his cowl enough time to prepare for his refly. 

I intend to write a more detailed report on the GSSC for the folks involved in running it in the future.  If anybody else has tidbits to include, please send them to Richard and me. 

[Howard Rush]

I mentioned guys who dropped out to judge.  One was hall-of-famer Larry Renger.  He volunteered to substitute for Antone, who was going to judge Advanced, but wasn't feeling well.  Advanced was progressing nicely.  Then Marilou said, "Hey.  Here's a scoresheet where the contestant and judge are the same person."  I freaked out.  The program had gone nuts.  How would we ever figure out whose scoresheet this was supposed to be, or what judge?  What else got messed up?  I was wringing my hands and looking at the scoresheet.  Sure enough, Larry Renger was both the judge and contestant.  Then I noticed the scores.  There were several 40s.  One maneuver received a 53.  Hmm.  I hadn't removed Larry from the Advanced contestant list, so the program printed scoresheets with him as a contestant.  When the sheet showed up on his clipboard, he filled it out and turned it in.  Well done, Larry. 

[Brett Buck]

Thanks.  I figured that we could get away with having judges from the more populated classes judging the less populated classes and taking breaks as needed.  It seemed to work out last year when you and I judged Intermediate.  I'm pretty sure I did the wrong thing by enforcing the flight order in Beginner.  I should have made sure that we gave the fellow who dropped his cowl enough time to prepare for his refly. 

    I don't know about that. It seemed, before he even got off the circle, that he had decided not to fly again. I even offered to help tape it on so he wouldn't have a recurrence, but he declined. I don't believe it was a matter or not having enough time.

    Brett

[Clint Ormosen]

    I don't know about that. It seemed, before he even got off the circle, that he had decided not to fly again. I even offered to help tape it on so he wouldn't have a recurrence, but he declined. I don't believe it was a matter or not having enough time.

    Brett

Yeah, time had nothing to do with it. He was pissed that his flight didn't count due to the cowl comming off and left the contest in a huff.
Only one beginner pilot decided to fly round 2. I think that weather was mostly the deciding factor, but it didn't help that either Brett was due up in Expert or I was about to fly in Advanced almost all day. Kinda left those guys in beginner hanging out wondering exactly when they were supposed to be ready. Other than that little hiccup, it was a pretty smooth running affair and I had a good time. I think everybody did, dispite the weather.
Good job, Howard.

[Brian Massey]

    I don't know about that. It seemed, before he even got off the circle, that he had decided not to fly again. I even offered to help tape it on so he wouldn't have a recurrence, but he declined. I don't believe it was a matter or not having enough time.

    Brett

Hi Guys; The "fellow" who dropped the cowl is a friend of mine, and had other things going on; he had lost a beautiful (expensive) Corsair RC plane two days before (due to structural failure); plus some other things. Really, he's a nice guy who generally gets "back on the bike".

As for the other issues you mention, I plan on offering my services to Rich, if he plans on co-cding again next year. I've been the "cd" for numerous car shows, including two Western Regional Conventions (four day events with 300+ at the banquets). While I won't claim to be able to solve every issue, if Rich is willing I can provide some help. The GSSC is a great event and can only get better! By the way Howard, CDing from two states away is a challenge at best.

I was one of the fliers in intermediate and had an engine run issue on the first flight (it quit after 2 1/2 manuvers), and could not resolve it on subsequent test flights, so I did not fly anymore. After watching 4 of my friends fight the wind only to wind up crashing, I'm OK with my decision, but very very disappointed. However . . . just wait until next year!!!

Brian