Everyone did do a great job. My post
did thank them and was not meant to insult them or their effort, especially
Phil Renaud (who was on the spot to make the hard decision ). It was to
meant to point out the lack of flight time for their investment.
Many pilots and helpers really made an extra effort to take the juniors
under their wing, to teach them for the future, as well as help them perform
better now. Thank you. Experienced pilots do this
most of the time, but even more so at this event, as it is
labor-intensive.
I looked, but didn't see any guidelines
posted for how often a junior flies. In the bid for the F3J worlds, it
states the fees are half for junior ($125) as for those of seniors ($250)
and tower/helper fees are also halved for juniors, so I can see that it would
be fair that they fly less as well. But...the AMA and RMSA made no
discounts to juniors for this contest.
I think (read that as MY OPINION) that if
they are paying as much, they should get equal time. If not, it should
be spelled out before time, so guys like Phil don't have take heat for doing a
thankless job. THAT is the purpose of this thread.
Congrats Larry, you did an awesome job
this weekend, especially on your incredible pop-off max. You da
man.
David Judson
David,
It was very unfortunate that the weather did
not cooperate at the F3J Finals. I believe that Phil Renaud and the Rocky
Mountain group did a great job under the extreme pressure they were under to
get this contest completed. It is natural for a competitor to want
to get as many chances to fly as possible. It is always tough in an
abbreviated contest, especially if you are sitting on 2 throw-out scores in
a 1 throw-out contest. I don't believe that the Juniors were slighted, all
had equal chances to score, and hopefully they enjoyed their competition and
gained valuable experience. I agree that it would have been desirable for
the juniors to have the same number of flights as the seniors. Even at
the World Champs the Juniors will fly fewer rounds than the Senior
pilots. It is also desirable for the juniors to have their finals at the
same site and time as the open contest so that they can gain experience
and learn the sport.
We are lucky to have generous people willing
to give up their Labor Day weekend to make this contest possible. Thanks a
million to the crew that pulled this one off, you did a great job. Regards
Larry Jolly
