Radio Control Soaring - 2006/05

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When the decision is made to hold a contest, someone has to step
forward and become the leader or CD. If your club has monthly
contests it is important to ensure that there are
many CDs, to prevent burnout. If your club is
active in hosting contests I recommend that
10% of the club members obtain CD
certifications. The process is painless and
adds a line to your AMA membership card.
The next order is to put together a contest
committee to break down the necessary
elements of the event’s needs. The most
important goal of any contest is safety. This is
the top priority during all processes.
With a monthly club contest the CD is
often left to his or her imagination to put the
event together. Smaller Soaring contests can
easily be run with two to four people. The only real work before the
contest is to apply for an AMA sanction, if desired, and to make sure
the equipment is in working order. Setup for a club event may require
I HAVE NOT seen much published on contest management. I’d like
to provide a few thoughts about running a contest based on firsthand
experience as an AMA CD for more than 25
years. I’ve had the opportunity to CD more
than 40 Pylon races, several fun-flys, a
couple helicopter events, and many sailplane
contests. All contests have unique needs and
requirements to make them successful.
A major requirement for a contest to be
successful is the commitment of the
organization and the involvement of that
organization’s members. This is important
whether the event is a small club contest or a
major regional-type gathering.
The best analogy I can provide for the
importance of this involves breakfast. When
you have that bacon and eggs and look at the two main ingredients, it
becomes apparent that the chicken was involved and the pig was
committed.
An instructional guide about contest management that all modelers should read
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Soaring Darwin Barrie
Also included in this column:
• 2006 Southwest Classic report
• The upcoming International
Hand Launch Glider Festival
• The status of Darwin’s RV-7
The spacious Southwest Classic venue at Schnepf Farms in Queen
Creek AZ. Skies were clear blue and temperatures were warm.
The impound tent and generous raffle. The raffle pays the freight
for the Central Arizona Soaring League.
John Diniz (JR and Horizon Hobby) prepares to launch. He was
loving life in the warm Arizona climate.
Jerry Robertson, flying his Two-Meter Sisu, gets a landing. You
have to have the body english.
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only one or two winches if it is a Thermal
Duration contest.
Larger events such as the Southwest
Classic (SWC), Mid South, TNT, Fresno
Classic, etc. require considerably more club
involvement. As I noted, this commitment has
to be made when the decision is made to host
a large event. Organizing the contest starts
eight or more months ahead of the event date.
As a two-time CD of the SWC and
assistant CD for two other contests, I’ll run
through the process used to organize the
SWC, which is sponsored by the Central
Arizona Soaring League.
This contest is unique in that the venue is
not our regular club field. Therefore, there is
The landing gear and wheel fairing on the author’s full-scale Van’s RV-7. A more than 20-
knot gain in airspeed was realized.
work to do to secure the site with the owner
and ensure that the third-party insurance form
is submitted with AMA when the sanction is
applied for. As with most club and major
events, the date is traditional and locked in for
the next year during the current contest.
One of the most important aspects of
contest management is making sure the CD
does not try to “do it all,” either by choice or
need. A large contest cannot and will not be
successful if the CD is on an ego trip and
makes all the decisions.
All decisions about setup, tasks, and other
aspects of the contest need to be made by the
contest committee. Failure for this to happen
will likely alienate your employee pool.
In the SWC we decided, as a group, that
we would break down all the responsibilities
and assign a task manager for that element.
The main position was that of worker
coordinator. This was the pivot person for the
entire contest.
Then we broke down all the tasks and
assigned a manager for each; they were
registration, transmitter impound, winches
(including training of those operating the
winches), landing zone, sponsorship
(including vendors), equipment, food,
scoring, field layout, setup, and breakdown.
There were dedicated managers for
registration, impound, winches, landing zone,
sponsorship, and scoring. Other duties were
done by the committee or whoever was
available because they were “one-time” tasks.
Each manager was responsible for
the worker coordinator. The worker
coordinator put together a matrix with all the
help. If a task manager had trouble getting
enough help, he or she would assist to fill the
slots. During successive club meetings the CD
only needed to check the progress with each
task manager.
This method worked fantastically. The
workload was spread out with few issues. At
event time, everyone handled his or her tasks
and the contest went off without a hitch. The
CD was left to handle the inevitable issues
that arise during an event.
A workers’ raffle was held to give all the
volunteers a chance to win a nice prize. The
decision was also made to purchase lunch for
all workers as a token of appreciation.
A debriefing must be held at a later time to
review the contest. During this meeting egos
must be set aside and a critical analysis of all
aspects of the event must be reviewed. What
went right? What went wrong? A
commitment must be made to change and
improve as the committee sees fit. When this
is done the event will improve.
The 18th annual SWC was held February 11-
12, 2006, in Queen Creek, Arizona. This year
109 pilots posted scores in Open, 41 posted
scores in RES (Rudder-Elevator-Spoiler), 18
posted scores in Two Meter, three posted
scores in Youth, and 21 posted scores in the
Gray Cup class.
The winners are posted on www.rc
soaring.com. Daryl Perkins repeated as Openclass
champion and Joe Wurts took second.
The contest was extremely successful. A
few lessons were learned as always, and
changes will be made for 2007.
One of the more interesting topics was
how the new Kennedy Composites Supra was
going to do. This was the first major contest
with the Supras in fairly wide circulation. Joe
Wurts finished second flying one, but that’s
an unfair evaluation since Joe will do well
with almost anything.
The Supra launches as well as anything
I’ve seen. Those who fly this model praise it
for thermal signaling and landing ease. The
Supra will certainly be a force in the months
to come.
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The Sharon was also popular, as usual,
and did well in the standings. Daryl flew his
Insanity. Rumor has it that this may, well,
you’ll have to wait.
There were two models that flew into
wires. One did so Friday during practice and
caused a power outage to more than 20,000
people. The next day there was a repeat
performance that took down three wires and
caused another power outage. Another
airplane hit the wires Saturday while the
power was still out. In both cases the
models were destroyed by fire.
The light winds were from an
uncharacteristic direction, causing pilots to
get far downwind and scratching to get
back. There were many off-field landings
this year as well.
The International Hand Launch Glider
Festival is coming June 3-4, 2006, in
Poway, California. This is one of the most
fun events I’ve ever attended. The
competition is fierce, but the social
atmosphere is a major plus.
Every aspect of hand-launch competition
is explored at this event. There is the light
lift in the mornings to potentially windy
afternoons, requiring the pilots to adapt with
their airplanes and techniques. More
information is available at www.torreypines
gulls.org/GullWings2006-03.pdf.
I have received many E-mails regarding
my Van’s RV-7 and its status. At the time
of this writing I have more than 50 hours on
it and have been to California three times.
My first flight to California was to pick up
Bill Malvey for the SWC. We transported
his NYX and gear without much problem in
a fraction of the time it would have taken
him to drive.
During the required 40-hour Federal
Aviation Administration flyoff I continued
to do work on the airplane. The wheel pants
were added, as were as the landing gear
airfoiled fairings and the fairings at the
intersections of the fuselage and wheel
pants. A clean airplane is a more efficient
airplane. By adding the fairings I gained
more than 20 knots of airspeed.
Additionally, the engine ran cooler and,
most important, the airplane got much better
fuel economy. I did some calculated speed
runs flying at 8,000 feet at full throttle. I
flew east/west/north/south legs and
averaged the speeds. The average came out
to 176 knots—up from 154 knots without