Contestant Etiquette:
While the overall etiquette of most contestants was outstanding a few
words are in order for those who could perhaps refine there etiquette a
bit to a higher standard
Rules: First, the contestants as well as the CD and
his help should be familiar with the rules.
Despite this, some
questions are at times necessary. Many can and should be handled
pre-NATS. Indeed many were. During the NATS other necessary
ones will inevitably come up too and answering these will be
necessary. A good deal of time was spent by myself and my
volunteer help answering questions, some necessary, others not.
It is a simple matter of math, we have roughly 200 contestants each year
and if half of them ask 1 question and it takes the CD 1 minute to
answer that is about 100 minutes or a bit over 1-1/2 hours. 1
minute to field and answer the question is grossly conservative too, as
many people want to debate the issues taking several minutes. Do the
math, it translates into LOTS of time.
There were a good many who asked questions prior to the NATS, to those,
I thank you. I believe in all cases I answered them in a timely
manner. This I am sure helped free up my time during the actual
contest days when my time was more critical being devoted to the actual
running of the events.
It should be noted that more than 90% of the questions I
fielded in the last 2 weeks prior to the NATS and during were in
relation to the "unofficial" events, not the main stream AMA and
Nostalgia events. There seems to be a message here.
Messing with the CD: Please do NOT ask the CD to
record a score from a blank card from an event that was flown the day
before. Yes this happened, and the individual who did so simply
said "I was messing with you" The CD does not have time for this
kind of thing and indeed the individual's comments went on to say
"lighten up". It is precisely this kind of time wasting behavior
that makes the CD's job difficult. Again, do the math, if half of the
contestants do this, and it takes an optimistic 1 minute per incident,
that is yet another 1-1/2 hours of time out of the CD's day.
Please instead of "messing with the CD" tell him thanks for the job he
is doing, or for that matter, this extends to all the volunteer help,
let them know they are appreciated. I must say I know personally I
appreciated those who took the time to say thanks and the time it used
was trivial and kept me going. I am pretty sure my volunteer help
that were thanked also appreciated the gestures. I have also
received many an email and other communications by those saying
"thanks". each in their own way. Again, thanks for saying thanks!
Event Directors at the remote flight lines: Besides
myself who was the overall CD and the daily help at the Central Scoring
area, there were many dedicated people who ran remote flight lines, like
the FAI flight lines, the glider pens and the events at stage center.
While in general I heard that many of the event directors for these
flight lines were complimented, some were not. Remember, these
guys are giving up a full day of flying, doing the best they can, and it
only takes a moment to thank them
Long Retrievals: We had at least 3 cases where we
were concerned about people not returning from a long chase where we
actually sent out a posse to locate the individuals. In all cases
everyone was alright, but it would have been better if those involved
would have left word with someone that they would be gone and preferably
left a cell phone number. While I realize not all people carry a
cell phone, I think everyone should consider it while on long chases
