Joseph, This is an excellent question and one that I have very strong feelings about, so here goes:
First and foremost, the timer/caller is there for the safety of the pilot/caller team. After getting the flyers radio and time card from the CD the pilot only has to worry about getting the plane to the launch zone and hook up the tow ring when it's time. The timer should be watching out for his pilot making sure he is aware of his surroundings, protecting the pilot from falling into a hole or tripping on a clump of tall grass or weeds while leading him to the landing zone. Protecting the pilot from other people and planes is another primary task. I've had a number of times I've either had to push the pilot out of the way or jump in front of the pilot to protect him/her from getting speared while in the landing zone. The timer should know either before the flight starts or at the very start of the task what type of information the pilot wants and how he wants it. For relatively short flight tasks, say under 10 minutes, I want my flight time every minute until the last minute where I want it every 10 second. Then, at the 30 second mark, I want the timer to read the time directly off of the watch, i.e. 30, 31, 32 etc. I will tell the timer at some point around the 5-10 second mark that I'll call "no time", meaning I want him to shut up and quit counting because I want to concentrate on the landing. Knowing what information your pilot wants and how he wants that information presented is paramount to being a good timer. I know a number of pilots that want their time counted down rather than up, meaning they go from say 30, 29, 28 etc. Regardless of how the pilot wants the time, there is little reason to count past the target time, since it will equate to jumping up and down screaming at the pilot telling him he's LATE! At that point, he already knows that so you aren't giving him useful information. Concerning the actual flight, I try to keep my pilot calm and informed of the air he's NOT in, and what the other planes are doing compared to the air the pilot is in. If I'm timing for a very seasoned pilot, I'll usually say little about "How" he's flying, but concern the discussion to the air quality of air in areas he can fly too that are within the planes ability. If I'm timing for a novice or someone who is a bit more 'nervous' I'll calmly and with a fairly soft tone, tell the pilot to fly smoothly as they are probably trying to mix a cake with the transmitter sticks. For all flyers I give them information in a calm even tone so as to not excite them. Next, the timer needs to get the pilot to the landing zone with plenty of time remaining, and then when he is ready to land, I keep him informed of the time in the manner he wants it, and I watch for other planes to coordinate the landing zone with other pilots if needed. With usually 2 minutes left in the flight, I'll check with other flyers timers that look like they may land within the next 3 minutes to see what order the planes will be landing in and I'll notify my flyer so he knows what's going to be happening when he sets up his final approach There are many contests where multiple landings will occur within 30 seconds of each other in the same landing zone. If that's the case, I'm jumping into the zone as soon as the plane stops moving and either take the measurement for the landing or mark the spot for later measurement and get my pilots plane out of the circle for the next person landing. Now, if my pilot is "in" the contest and he's made his time and needs the landing points to remain in the contest, and, if the flyer landing before him didn't make his time and isn't 'in' the contest, I'll ask them to either abort their landing, choose another landing zone if possible or to get their plane out of the landing zone as quickly as possible. With those tasks complete, I'll inform the pilot what his time was, confirm the landing with the pilot, I'll put the scores on the card and turn in the transmitter and the time card. According to AMA regulations, the timer isn't allowed to count down the last 20 seconds of flight, rule 10.2.2e if I remember correctly. However, I've never seen a CD enforce that rule and every contest I CD I notify everyone at the pilots meeting that that rule is waived for that particular contest contests. I'm sure there is enough that can be written on this subject to fill volumes, but the above should cover most of it. There are many others that will respond to this question and they will provide additional, excellent additions to the above. George Voss -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Newcomb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, September 10, 2005 1:05 PM To: soaring@airage.com Subject: [RCSE] Calling for F3J and TD contests Hello all, I was wondering what all of you guys thought about calling. If you are a Timer/caller in an F3J of TD contest, what is the best way to call? What do you think your most important job as a caller is? thanks Joseph RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
