Memory is fuzzy but I was sitting in Wynn Paul's living room with Lou McFarland and a couple others in the Mid 70's talking about PAMPA and the skill classes were already being flown. Don't think PAMPA was that old at the time maybe a couple years...
1975 or so - it was in the current* form shortly after the formation of PAMPA. But the basic idea goes back much further than that. WAM had skill classes in all events from at least the 1948-49 time frame. I believe the WAM experience was the model for PAMPA skill classes. The 400/500 point break points were straight from the WAM rulebook, and when Intermediate came along, they added the 300 point split for Intermediate. WAM only had (and still has in every event but stunt) BEG/ADV/EXP - no intermediate. Of course, at the time, Beginner flew the full pattern. not the reduced pattern we have now.
WAM also had mandatory advancement plan. Score above the next breakpoint, and win, and you advanced to the next class - in time for next weekend's contest. Of course it was somewhat suceptible to the same problem we have discussed at length in the past - scoring irregularities. The WAM judging system was an error-counting system, and the theory was that it was so bulletproof that you could have only one judge, and even switch judges in the middle of the round with no effect. It's wasn't that bulletproof!
WAM, in it's heyday, was a remarkable organization. It was a West-Coast version of AMA, complete with it's own insurance (allegedly - some, uh, irregularities, have surfaced that make that claim somewhat dubious). The contests were amazing - for all intents and purposed, it was like putting on the CL version of the NATS every other weekend. Normally, *every event in the rule book was offered at every contest*. And if there wasn't a site for 1/2A Beginner Payload or D Economy, they called it a "Limited", basically apologizing for leaving it out! Combat was "continuous" - when one guy lost, the other kept flying, the next guy ran out there, started flying, and on and on. You couldn't enter as an individual - you had to be a "club member"
I went to a few of these contests, and I had never seen anything like it. The first contest I went to was in San Jose in 1983, and they assigned me to the Pacific Coast Flying Griffins club because Paul Isenhower, the president, was in line behind me. They made you wear your WAM number on you back so you could be identified for insurance purposes. I would guess they had about 100-120 entries at that particular contest, and they were complaining about how small everything was compared to the good old days! They wouldn't accept AMA membership.
Brett
p.s. I got to thinking about it, and the last WAM contest that was like described above that I went to was in the late 80's - Fun(d) Day, 1989, at Gilroy High school, I believe. I know the date because it was the first contest in which I flew a 40VF. It was a "Limited" - Endurance and Economy weren't included. Jet Scale got them into trouble when someone flew their Dynajet MiG 15 at 9:00AM on a Sunday Morning.
Entries went way down throughout the 80's and early 90's. Most of the events just died (WAM Sport Race, Balloon bust hung in there for a while, carrier has been small but steady over the years, but most of the other event are long gone). Stunt did pretty well the entire time, and since the early 90's, stunt entries have been steadily upwards. WAM, as it was, no longer exists as a separate entity. I think it was an AMA Chartered club for a while (irking the old-timers immensely) but now I don't know if that is still the case. We still have Fun(d) Day but it's usually only Stunt/Balloon/Carrier/HLG&Catapult now. I would guess that stunt entries rival the good old days, with 40-ish total entries at the better contests. bb
Topic: Skill Class Stunt Format, when did it start? (Read 1142 times)
