Thank you Tom. I agree with you. I also don't count the posts, tubes,
or supports holding the aerodynamic surfaces.
Several times I heard, "but it was okay at regionals." And several
times I had to get out my rulers and show the contestants that not
only was the gauge accurate, it was a hair bigger.
I previously stated most of the errors were stab cord issues. Here's
the exact break down:
2 - stab span too long
3 - stab cord too big
2 - wing cord too big
1 - wing span too long
1 - testing w/o log review (rule 3.b)
In some cases it was obvious the teams hadn't read the rules. One
team presented what I think was a Sig AMA Racer. Even more frightful,
it was built w/o dihedral. At least two cases could be attributed to
beginning craftsmanship that regional supervisors allowed. I don't
remember the details of the rest.
~John Brayton
Crystal Lake, IL
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "soslipstream"
<parkreation_at_...> wrote:
>
> Leo,
>
> I am not speaking for John on this but I do have a take. I imagine
> that the infractions were caused by the team member not reading the
> specifications throughout. Then the coach missed it while getting
> ready for regionals and the regionals officials either missed it or
> let it slide. Usually it is a stab built or salvaged to the
previous
> year's dimensions and stuck on a model probably without any hope of
> success anyway.
>
> We do see this at national competition and of course we get the
> puppy dog eyes staring at us while hearing, "But they (officials)
> allowed this in my regional and state competition, why can't you?"
> My officials all know my response is, "Because we have to abide by
> the rules."
>
> Incidently I would hope that the tissue tubes whould not be
> considered in the chord as they are not adding surface area
> (speaking from a national perspective).
>
> I do have a beef with coaches who do not debrief their teams after
> competition to uncover infractions like this.
>
> Regards,
> Tom Sanders
>
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Received on Tue Apr 24 2007 - 16:29:17 CEST