Shoutout to all Stunt judges

[AMV]

I would like to take a moment to express a few words of appreciation for all the Stunt judges out there.

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the annual event at Flushing Meadows a second time. It was a bigger turnout than last year. A total of 19 pilots registered, and four judges were present. In no particular order, other than how they were standing when I asked their names, they were: Jim Damerell, Joe Daly Jr, Jake Moon, and Kevin DeMauro. This gratitude goes out to them and to all other Stunt judges out there who may read this. Thank you for all your attention, time, and dedication to this sport/hobby (or is it SPART? ).

Just to give everyone an idea of the day's situation: this entire competition took place in one day on one paved circle, and all four judges judged every flight (except two for Beginner class). Save for a brief lunch break for everyone on the field at midday, judged flying was going on nonstop from 9am until nearly 6pm. I flew twice and pitted twice throughout the day like the majority of the pilots did. Most of the time, however, I sat upwind near the judges and babysat my camera. This gave me a glimpse at the judges' experience during such a busy event. As pilots we make a few official flights during the whole day, hanging out with buddies in the shade in-between. These guys stood/sat/walked around out there in the sun and heat all day long, watching every flight with full concentration because, well, that's why we need them. On top of that they have to put up with complaints from the recipients of their scores. It's easy to record a video of a flight, trace the entire flight path, slap some virtual geometry on it, and point out the mistakes. It's hard to debate the goofs at that point. Try to do that in the field under an empty open sky after a flight has completed, but with no video evidence. I don't know how they do it, but I am impressed. They should keep it up.

So once again, thank you and God bless,
-Andrey

[Shorts,David]

I have a friend who works in the gymnastics industry. She said gynastics judges for all events she knows of are paid. And, for major events she's heard of judges getting as much as ten thousand for a multi day tournament. So, uh, what a bunch of losers, judging for money. haha. uh... well, guess I wouldn't complain.

[Larry Renger]

Another aspect af judging is that it upgraded my own flight scores a lot. I finally understood what the manuvers were supposed to be.

As a Jim Armor commented to me “When you have your shapes, intersections, sizes and bottoms, you will have something!” It stung at the time, but was some of the best flying advice I ever had.

Seeing the errors of others let me know what to get rid of my own flying. Sadly, it turns out there was a limit to my ability to fix everything. I did, once, get over 500 points in very hard competition in front of incredibly qualified judges. That scoresheet is framed in my office. I treasure it!

[dale gleason]

In Dallas we have plenty of sunshine so we make it a point to insure there is a canopy for the judges on all the circles in use. We loosely stake them in the ground so they can move with windshifts, just as our judges do.

They are far enough back so judges can sit if absolutely necessary.  Just a thought....

dg

 

[john e. holliday]

When I was competing I tried to make an effort to thank the judges after I landed.

[Joseph Daly]

Judges, tabulators, score runners, pit bosses, and all volunteers for a stunt event, are unsung heroes! Without those folks, there is no contest!!! just sayin.
The judges have difficult job, having to pay attention for many, many flights and usually sit out in the hot sun, where a pilot only has to focus for about 6 minutes and then go rest.

Big THANK YOU to all who volunteer at stunt events.

Thanks
Joe

[Brett Buck]

I second that emotion (Thanks to Smokey Robinson...), Andrey! It is for the most part a thankless job, and especially, as you wrote, when the fliers are under shade before and after they fly, and the judges have to be out in the sun all day. I think, however, that most who are reading this really do appreciate their work, and that's mainly because we all take our turn "in the barrel" from time to time with the clipboard.

    The NATS are the hallmark example, the fliers are complaining about having to do 2 7-minute flights in a day and how hard they have it, and the judges are there at 7:00, and go with a few breaks until 3:00 or so.

    The corollary to this thread is that *there is nothing you can do that will get you a bad reputation as quickly or as badly as complaining about the judges*. Run oversize engines, undersized lines, pull test with the Allen wrench trick, come up with "dead batteries" on a dead calm day, you get caught on that and people will think "what a jackass" and move on.

    Make any serious negative comment about judges in any way it might get back to them, and you can get *tarred for life*. The more prominent the flier that hears this, the quicker and more abruptly you will get read the riot act.  And do it enough and with enough vehemence, and it is a more-or-less unrecoverable situation.
 
    We can do without a few guys complaining about the judges far more easily than we can do contests without judges. Make your comments about judging with your immediate buddies, but otherwise, you don't like the results, my very strong recommendation is to *keep it to yourself* and go practice some more - because that is the only thing you can do about it anyway.

      Brett