In an earlier post, I brought up concerns about the schedule for the 2019 Nats at the RVD. What I missed at that time was that there would be no general arena lighting at all during the event. Brett Sanborn kindly pointed this out after a careful reading of the 2019 Indoor Nats announcement (it was hard for me to read the fine print given the resolution of the flyer).
What the lack of general arena lighting means is that the last few hours of the indoor duration flying slots will be flown in the dark on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It has been suggested that individual spotlights and flashlights will be good enough to follow the planes and to use for steering. This is problematic at best. Behind the scenes, several of the more experienced indoor duration flier have been trying to work out a way to get the arena lighting in the RVD dome turned on but I have been asked to stop these troublesome efforts "for the good of the sport." Flying indoor in the dark is no different that flying the outdoor free flights classes at the Nats in Muncie well after sunset in the dark (and on moonless night as will be the case during the dates of the indoor Nats). To use another analogy, flying in the dark is no different than playing golf at night with no course lighting or driving the 24 hour of Le Mans with no course lighting at night.
We have tried to find out through the indoor Nats organizers what it will take to get the arena lights turned on. If it is a financial issue, this is something that we could seek funds to solve. I have just been told that the organizers do not want to interact with us any longer, again "for the good of the sport." I am happy to see that steps have been taken to have better "air" at the RVD but it does not matter how good the air is if the competitors have trouble seeing the planes. The lack of arena lighting is a real and not a "made up" problem but it is a problem that can be fixed if the desire is there to solve it.
LeoP
Received on Fri Jan 18 2019 - 07:25:55 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:49 CET