ideas for scottish 3d days help

[raptorheli2]

guys and gals we (myself and barney) are throwing some ideas about for our next 3d day which will happen next year.

quick run down of what this started out as before i continue-

the days were started to get like minded people and your average club flier who can loop, roll, flip, stall turn and so forth to meet up and help progress the general standard up here in scotland. there have now been four 3d days were a good bunch of people meet at various fields spread about scotlands central ish belt. i'm very pleased to say the standard has improved greatly and we want to take the next baby step. which brings us onto our problem/s.

we would like to provide a comp style format altough i want to emphasise we do not want a proper 3dx style competition as thats not how we see the future just now for this type of event. however, if we do that then there is always a stigma attached to club fliers not wanting to participate in a "competition" and want to fly for fun. this is an age old argument i'm sure through out the hobby and it is perfectly understandable. so we want to put the fun into it and the question is......................how and what format do we adopt.

so looking for some ideas folks on what format should we adopt and to give you an idea what we are thinking here are a couple of our ideas thus far-

1.forget the comp and continue to let the level improve naturally as the progression in 2008 was pronounced.

2. have a seperate comp at the 3d day but still encourage all to fly/attend (danger of driving the ones away we want and will benefit the most) and general funflying can go on round about the rounds.

3. have a seperate 3d day with a trimmed down schedule (i.e add flips, rolls, inverted hovering etc are K moves to choose, again dangerous as we don't want to exclude people)

4. i personally don't like the idea of classes. so the idea is you are % marked against your score and the highest percentage wins reguardless of the "class" of K manouvers selected.

that brings us onto the next problem. assuming we do have some sort of comp format how will it be judged. i.e do the other pilots do it or do we ask 3-5 people who attend regularly but perhaps don't want to take part in the comp judge it?

please remember if this does happen we will look to adjust the schedules/moves done in accordance with the level we know is at the average club up here.

cheers

[mccall]

The format of the events worked really well this year so it makes sense to keep it more or less the same for 2009. One of the main aims is to atract new commers and help some guys who might only be looping rolling to progress. Amongest the regulars there are few looking towards 3dx style flying with entry into the comp at London on their minds, I think any help or advice on set manouvers would be of help to these guys. As far as an actual competion in Scotland this would be a stepping stone for 3dx events. Judging would be a problem and is the reason why a comp would be difficult. In the end it would have to be a joint decision from the competitors, probably the only way, and the end result to improve our competion style flying and give each competitor an accurate measure of their abiltiy and where they can improve, with a view to taking the experience down to the 3dx comps in England.

Hopefully we will see a few more new faces in 2009.

Stephen.

[raptorheli2]

stephen, thanks for input. your echoing pretty much what i think.

i don't think a 3dx branded comp is what we want/need at this time. there is a lot of things we gain by trying this method such as sponsorship, judges etc. however imho that is far too grand a scale for this just now and detracts from why the days were setup in first instance.

cheers

[andylinney]

Paul / Stephen, totally agreed. There's no harm I guess in offering people to have their flight judged, maybe as a 'fun' competition in the same way perhaps as at a club fly-in. I think you're right about taking a step too far. I'd come and watch a branded competition but am well aware of the fact that my flying doesn't cut it (yet...lol) in that situation. An informal meet as they are at the minute really does encourage folks to push themselves knowing that there's support available if it's needed.

You could even separate the day into a morning 'judged' flying session and the afternoon as a more relaxed fly-in with an aerobatic emphasis.

Andy

[del19_82]

I'm thinking the same as Andy. i'm quite happy to show my support by attending as many days as work allows as my flying is no where near good enough to compete. A judged session in the morning seems like a good idea as it means the guys that are not at competition levels still get to fly in the afternoon and also benefit from the knowledge of the better pilots that are in attendance.

[barney]

Hi Guys..great to see your comments.

My thoughts..

Our primary aim has been and still remains to encourage and nurture 3D flying in Scotland.

The 3D Get togethers should continue next year.... maybe 4 main ones? spread through the year..this can easily be altered to suit how many you guys would like.

I would still like to see the venues move around as 08, so we continue to share our travelling time and costs between us. In no particular order Waterfoot Aberdeen Falkirk.. are there any others we can approach or would like to be included?..for example Perth..Dundee

Suggestion for the 3D Get Together days is to add some structure for those who wish it.

Possibly a buddy boxed model to teach basic 3D stuff?? (should I approach the SAA for assistance?)

For those who wish it we can actually do 'competition style training' without disrupting the normal flying.

The way this is done, is by splitting the one continuous flight down. the Pilot then flies part of the flight doing his 'Stuff ' then flies out the remainder of his fuel as per norm. That way flying can continue as per normal allowing everyone the oppurtunity to fly.

Whatever the pilot wants looked at can eassily be arranged before his flight. e.g Set Moves/3 min Freestyle..a flight to Music, all can easily be done with little difficulty.

Judging..I think that can be accomadated by utilising the more experienced flyers..known as peer judging.

Additionial

I do think we should be looking at possibly running a seperate additionial competition based day over and above the Normal 3D Get Togethers? I would still like to see the emphasis remain on fun and participation by allowing a pilot to choose low difficulty moves to suit there ability. Loop, Roll, stallturn.

I know Paul is not keen on Levels/grouping and would like a handicap system but cant think how we could do it at the mo.

[raptorheli2]

i'm not too fussed about a handicap system. i'm concious if we have classes then it's a but us v them type scenario which we don't want.

thats the reason for this thread, i was hoping some of the guys down south maybe had some ideas aswell.

cheers

[barney]

Paul I've stuck a post with a linky on the Aberdeen website to here in the hope of getting some more input from the guys there on what they want.

Brian

[Bristow]

Hi Barney and others,

I came down to Falkirk to fly my MA Fury Extreme (didn't go that well cause of loose skids and exhaust ! ), and flew it before at Aberdeen.

I like the FAI moves to be honest, but would be up for a mixture of some set moves (maybe FAI style) then some freestyle/3D ?

Maybe just to get a mixture of FAI and 3D moves in one event - to encourage both forms of flying for the Scottish Nats

Just my thoughts but would like to attend the events

Stuart

[raptorheli2]

thanks for your comments stuart. from my own point of view i really appreciate the skill involved with FAI but imo they should be kept a separate entity. i would personally prefer to keep the 3d days purely to 3d if there was a comp based format. however that doesn't mean you can't organise a little FAI get together at the events where suitable if your feeling upto it?

if enough people want a dual format then i'm sure it can be accomodated somehow.

cheers

[Dashik]

I can see if the guys at kinross are up for hosting one ?

[raptorheli2]

if you want to find out and come back with an answer however tentative perhaps something can be arranged.

cheers

[Bristow]

Thanks for your reply raptorheli2.

I know what you mean about the FAI being kept separate, and that is probably a good idea too. There was only myself and Mike Gillfillan at the Falkirk flyin flying FAI which was dissapointing imo.

I don't think there is any scope for organising a dedicated FAI event, because there is little interest..........or so it seems.

[raptorheli2]

if you have 2 people who want to try then there is scope. i'm sure if you want to fly time can be allotted for you/whoever to fly a schedule if need be. it is very early doors here and there are a lot more questions than answers. i'm still not convinced having a comp is actually a good thing yet for this. depends what the majority want.

cheers

[Bristow]

Yeah i agree that a comp can put some people off.

Maybe the original idea of a relaxed "fly-in" was good after all Barney. I certainly enjoyed both the previous events at Falkirk and Aberdeen because it was so "laid back", and there are so many different flying styles to see and appreciate.