Re: A vent about Wright Stuff

From: Jeff <janderson_at_twmi.rr.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:33:12 -0000

Trying to avoid a bitch session about SO, all I can say is I sympathise.

But, I have some constructive comments on how to solve your scheduling
issue.

At some MI regionals and at the MI State tournament I have schedules
almost that tight (but with a practice hour before, sorry) and here's
how I manage.
- First it takes a fairly large team of assistants. Besides the event
supervisor, you want one or two to checkin students, one or two to keep
records, six timers (two teams of three) and whatever door guards are
needed. Depending on expertise you can get by with less. You
shouldn't take one of those positions, supervise and fill in as needed.
- Next, the teams HAVE to be scheduled, no walk in stuff. I allow
teams to reschedule, but it has to be to an empty slot. I like to
schedule two teams every fifteen minutes. You could do the same in 12
minutes. I've done as little as 2 every ten, THAT was a busy day.
  -- Have teams show up 5-10 minutes early to process and set up.
  -- If the space is large, split it in half and live with it. No
disqualification for leaving your half, but you must launch from
there. Watch the drift on this of course.
  -- If the space is small, run the teams overlapping. First team
winds and launches. Second team winds during first teams flight.
Launches as soon as first plane recovered. First team winds for second
flight... and so on. I tend to be more liberal on total time
violations in this situation, and it can be hectic, but it works.

If everyone shows, it makes for a busy day, but seldom do all teams
show. You also have to be a bit rigorous on moving teams along, just
keep in mind the SO 'equally unfair for all' principal.

And of course it helps if the teams know how this is going to work
before hand, so make up a one-pager note on the procedure and have the
event organizers share it with the teams.

In something like six years now of running large contests I can only
remember once or twice where a mid-air or timing overlap may have
disadvantaged a team.

Still, better than no contest at all and far, FAR better than one run
by someone unfamiliar with indoor flying.

Good Luck,
Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI


--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "Bill Gowen" <b.gowen@...>
wrote:
>
<SNIP>
 He told me he was going to assign flight times to 30 teams in a time
slot between 12:15 and 3:15. They can't even enter the gym before
12:00.
>
> I'm actually about to the point where I hate Wright Stuff too.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Received on Thu Feb 14 2008 - 11:33:15 CET