Who does the Work?

[dale gleason]

I will elaborate on the workforce that accompanies a Dallas Contest.  It goes without saying, it's a laborious undertaking to set up and take down the equipment needed at a contest, especially when the OAT goes above 90 with a lot of humidity and a blazing sun looking down.

 T-posts driven into rock hard ground to support the decorative banners that separate competitors from spectators (Safety Code requirement). Tables for food and tabulating unloaded and loaded, ice chests with water and soft drinks, canopies carried out and erected for judges' sun protection (a personal requirement of this CD). Toting the scoreboard, outdoor fans, from storage to the pavilion. In a Speed contest, the "Jet Net" has to be erected, weighs about 200 lbs., 150 ft. long and ten ft. high. In Racing, sunshade for lapcounters/timers/scorers, is needed. Carrier requires carrying and installing a very heavy flight deck. All this requires lots of manpower, lots of ladypower, too!

At the recent contest, Visitors, Flyers(Racing, Speed, Stunt, Carrier) Tabulators, Judges, Scoresheet Runners, Pit Bosses, Members, Non-Members, virtually everyone had ALL this stuff taken down and loaded even as the award presentations were completed!!  Two hours of toil in the blazing sun accomplished in 20 minutes!!

I can only hope other contests enjoy this level of support.

Thanks everybody,
dale g



 

[john e. holliday]

Great help is what makes for a great contest.   

[Tim Wescott]

There's usually that level of help at Pacific Northwest contests -- although it was pretty thin after the Regionals.

[Randy Cuberly]

In Tucson we typically have enough help to solve the set up and take down problems.  Sometimes it's a bit of a scramble to find judges etc but not too bad and folks always seem to come through.  Very often however the crew is the same folks and it likely is a bit tiresome for the same guys to assume the load every time.

There are always a few "Angels" that seem to recognize the call and get'er done.  However the barnyard is getting a bit thinner as folks age and go the the big contest in the sky!

Randy Cuberly

[Jim Hoffman]

The behind the scenes work even a small contest is often enormous and unseen by most