You always return to the point that you won: there will be Expert at the Nats. In the above statement, you said that the program can handle the change. I just challenged your statement. How about switching from sales mode to trying to make the extra class work or even seeing if it will work? So far, Brett is the only person I see doing that. I looked at it a little, but I'm still on the road and don't have access to everything I need. As class size diminishes, seeding and distribution of contestants among groups gets a little more important. I think you would want to have an automatic system, published in advance, that picks how many advance to the finals and how many circles each event uses for qualifications. You don't want the good guys flying on a circle with fewer contestants than other circles, for example. Yes, this can be done by hand on the fly, but you will hear squealing by people who got on a "hard" circle and claims that the process is rigged. If the process is arbitrary, it will be hard to defend.
Howard
Everyone appreciates your hard work and the program you delveloped, You made this a better administered event with your work on the computer program and all the time and effort that you put in.
As far as the program goes , I am running things and I am in process of doing just that now, It will NOT however be up to me to decide this, what I was saying above is NOT that I won, I did not decide this, It was ran thru many people as I wanted as much input as possible before It was proposed to the PAMPA Competition committee, It passed the Comp committee.
It was not appropriate for me to mandate how the seeding, scoring, or running of the NATs went, That is up to DON and David
Then it was presented to the EC by Pres Don McClave, they discussed it amoung themselves and also took a poll of PAMPA members in their respective distritcs, Then there was a Q&A session at the meeting before the vote was taken, If anyone "won" I hope it is the pilots and PAMPA members.
It looks like we have to also decide **if** we will go go back to a 1 day format instead of the 2 day 4 flight that PAMPA put in place years ago if our number keep falling. I for one, do NOT want to do this, I still think It is important to have the 2 days of flying that we have used for decades now. (note I think Ted was instrumental in this change to our format, and it was a very good one for pilots)
We suggested , in the proposal the the PAMPA skill classes would have 10 finalist each in Expert and Advanced. Then OPEN will still have the Top 20, I think this is very important because of the tradition of "Rookie of the Year" in the top 20, and the placings that have gone along with that for decades. I do really hope ,we never fall below enough numbers to Not have the Top 20 in OPEN.
Another item, are you telling me that if we have less than 15 or so enter an event that the program will not work?
If it comes to it that it will fail, and there is a small number in Expert the first year , it would be easy to add another laptop and use it for Expert only, That way it would still have the score sheets printed for the ED and would be able to handle the duties of the program, and it can generate scoreboard sheets too.
If, we get pityful number, That will be very bad for us all, but one good point is that the problem of judges sitting in the hot sun all day will be GONE.
I will be honest and tell you with only 21 Advanced flyers this year putting up flights, I am worried about numbers there.
Randy