Hi Keith,
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PS: Am I the only one that remembers hearing all these same doomsday arguments many years ago when the Advanced class was added to the Nationals format?
No, you are not the only one. PAMPA was organized at the 73 Nats. PAMPA started running the Nats in 74 (as well as the Team Trials in 75). By the 75 Nats, we started the evolutionary process of changing the Nats format that eventually developed into the format we have now. It was shortly after that when PAMPA skill classes were established as unofficial events in the rulebook, and then shortly after that came the call to schedule the skill classes (Advanced) at the Nats, even though it was still an unofficial event. I was the ED for those first two Nats and the PAMPA president for those first 8 years when many of these decisions were being made. I was strongly against the idea of skill classes at the NATS. At that time, we did not have the large EC that PAMPA now has and we were able to operate with, could I say, a bit more autonomy than now. I was using much the same arguments that we are now hearing. (This would dilute the meaning of our sacred event, it would be a threat to the BOM rule, loss of entries, etc etc.) At any rate, Wynn Paul and a handfull of others prevailed and we put Skill classes in the Nats schedule. Guess what? Participation grew and we did not kill the event in the process. CLPA has been the strongest supported CL event at the Nats since PAMPA was organized in the mid 70's. I think it only fair to give credit to my successors, particularly Ted Fancher, who really continued the the initiative to formalize procedures and pretty well locked in the present format. Nevertheless, it all started in the mid 70's and there were naysayers and doomsday predictors then. I was one of them.
I have recently written on these threads that my attitude then was that the purpose, the sole purpose, of the annual Nats was to determine the National Stunt Champion. Now, and I hope most serious and concerned CLPA enthusiasts will agree that the Nats is much more than just flying to see who will become the National Stunt Champion. When you realize the numbers of people involved with the Nats from the serious competitors, to the less than serious fliers who are there for the experience, to the various observers that are there for a wide variety of interests, to the incredible number of volunteers that it takes to run the Nats, --- well, indeed, the Nats is much more than just a process to determine who gets to have his name engraved on that Walker trophy.
Keith