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D1 |Salvatore Piu spiurc@comcast.net CT•ME•MA•NH•NJ•NY•PA•RI•VT
Covid-19 continues to have adverse effects on practice-flights and contest activity. With several early-season contests already cancelled, I elected to sponsor a video district tag-up on May 17 using the free google-meet application. Here are some interesting notes from that video conference. While some fun experiences were discussed, we did cover local happenings across our district. At least one D1 pilot caught and is recovering from the virus. Some pilots are getting some patternpractice flights, but down in quantity for the same time period from last year. Some pilots are only able to get sport flying in, and another group of pilots are not getting any flights in due to combination of virus and adverse weather. Regions in upper New York State are scheduled to attempt to open earlier than the rest of the region. This is anticipated to open up some localized practice flying opportunities and possibly some contests as well. The Canandaigua, NY contest is considering to re-schedule their event to occur in July, around the time of the NATS, as the pattern NATS has already announced to be canceled by NSRCA. The LVRCS, PA contest has been cancelled. The ARCS, Marcellus, NY contest is still scheduled to occur in July, but the CD is wondering how many people will likely show up.
We discussed how Covid-19 will have an impact on how contests will be run. Pilots may need to bring additional equipment, including chairs, pads, paper, pens/pencils, and food including lunch. Calling for pilots will be challenging to do with distancing. One option is to have the caller speak out very loudly from a distance. Another option could be using Peter Vogel’s sequence-calling phone app. Two-day contests may need to be down-sized to one-day events as well. On key point is the D1 contest listing of events is not up to date within the NSRCA calendar events. I have a table-listing of D1 events within the D1 website to help keep people informed, but this was not intended to be the primary search page for events: the calendar is the primary location. I’ll make an effort to contact and get CD’s to upload their contest info, or help them by doing it myself on their behalf. One other interesting aspect discussed was FAA impacts to RC. The proposed rules, which we recently responded to by the March 2020 deadline, is not anticipated to become effective until all the comments are read and considered, meaning it could be two-to-three years before the plan becomes effective. Pattern pilots are now considering what future model acquisitions may need to be considered in lieu of the tentative FAA changes, which could be a further reduction in new-pattern-model acquisitions in general. As a side note, I’ve noticed an increase in quantity of used pattern models for sale lately: I wonder if this is a trend tied to FAA-related issues. I informed D1 video attendees the threepart focus of NSRCA at the moment. First address the 2020 NATS, which it has already decided to not support, along with efforts to establish a new team-trials event later this year. Second, we’re planning to change the digital K-factor format to utilized modern-day media capability. This may take a few months to get started. Third, after the k-factor format has been enhanced, we then plan to update/revamp the NSRCA web site. After the first video D1 tag-up meeting, I setup and sponsored a second D1 video tag-up meeting on June 7th. About 12
pilots joined sporadically throughout the roughly 2 hour session (even though it was scheduled to last 1 ½ hours). Steve Miller heard 2nd hand that D4 recently held a 1-day contest (originally planned as a 2-day event) in Muncie with 23 pilots. Once again, attendees discussed covid-19 impacts. We did discuss ideas on how to run a contest under these conditions. Everyone needs to keep distance from each other. Callers either need to wear masks (which could be challenging for the pilot to hear the caller) or stay separated. Pilots should bring their own pens/pencils and clipboards. Bring/provide gloves. Don’t touch your face during the event, which I foresee as a major challenge on hot/humid days! Food needs to be planned ahead of the event for Covid considerations such as order out, bring prepared lunches, wear masks while cooking and receiving food, etc. It was noted that we no longer need to wipe down groceries purchased from local stores. Surgical and cloth-based masks are helpful by protecting nearby people from the wearer’s output, but not as good as N95 masks that protect both the wearer of the mask and nearby people. While contest events were still being planned for July and August, several CD’s were wondering how many pilots would show up for a 1 day or a 2-day event. One CD suggested the possibility that if the team trials is separated from the NATS this year, his flying site in/near Mohawk, NY could be considered as a possible teamtrials event site. After the 2nd video tag-up was done, I got an email with a great suggestion: pilots use ear-buds to hear the caller, which would no longer need to be close to the pilot! The D1 2020 latest contest season schedule is posted https://nsrca.us/index. php/d1-pattern-contests. As of June 13th, the first D1 seasonal event is now scheduled for July 11, in Pemberton, NJ. Here is an update to some near-term events: • June 6-7, Sky Chiefs’ Canandaigua, NY event is now cancelled. CD/club is considering to re-schedule this event for some time in July or beyond.
July 2020 K-Factor | 7
