[KrisW]

Gentlemen,

I will be forwarding this post to as many mailing lists and on-line forums as possible, as well as to my Regional Director, Regional Judging instructor, and the entire Executive Committe of IMAC.

I competed at an IMAC meet this weekend. The location is unimportant.

Having competed in IMAC for some 7 years now, I have noted the trends concerning judging criteria, and the average judging ability of most contestants. What I witnessed this weekend, first hand, had to be the most abyssmal example of judging competency I have had the misfortune to observe since joining this organization. To say the least I am appalled .. to be more emphatic, I am righteously angry that our implimentation of judging criteria, and training of qualified judges, is so lacking.

I will give several examples to show the point.

Being asked to judge Basic, I was seated next to a fledgling judge who had NEVER attended a judging seminar, and was attempting his second stint in the judging chair. EVERY score that I heavily downgraded due to proper IMAC guidelines, received a high number from this person. There were many times when I would give a 2 or 3 to his 8 or 9. This gross disparity shows the lack of proper training, and even basic understanding, for the downgrade criteria outlined in the F&JG. Being that the class was Basic, how could this "Judge", who could not even score downgrades, hope to instruct the flyers in how to improve their flying and scores?

Concerning scores I received for my own flights. . I'll just use the Unknown round as a proper example. For certain, I had at least 3-4 manuvers that merited scores of less than 5, and in my opinion should have received no more than an 8 on any manuver due to prop downgrades. To the contrary, the lowest score I received was a 6.5, with the majority in the 7-9 range. At least 2 manuvers of my opponent (2 flyers in the class) should have been HARD Zeroes, yet were scored as 4 and 7 by the judges. My opponent concurred on this lack of downgrading for OBVIOUS hard zeroes, or for more blatant mistakes that rated heavy downgrades for both of us (he was also my Caller), and which neither of us received.

This pattern of lack of proper downgrades, as well as zero-ing manuvers due to lack of understanding about the manuvers dynamics and requirements, held true for all 5 rounds flown, from almost every judge that we encountered. It was obvious that not only did no one know how to attach proper downgrades of 1 point/10 degrees deviation on basic things such as angles and flight path, but nuances such as rolling out of or into snaps, spin entries and exits, radius curvature requirement and centered manuvers on lines were all but ignored by the majority of those sitting in the judging chair.

How do I know? I stood behind the judges and watched the manuvers, for a number of flyers, then noted the scores given. Obvious low scores, due to accumulated downgrades, were regularly given high marks.

Concerning the nuances of downgrades for spins, snaps, and accumulative downgrades to zero on manuvers, a grand total of 4 people at the event (the two Advanced pilots, and two Unlimited pilots) had the ability to properly judge and apply the judging criteria for downgrades.

In effect, what I witnessed was a weekend full of "Impressionistic" judging. This, 4-5 years after IMAC started an intense program of Judging Seminars, training sessions, and on-line activites to help "educate" judges.

I will agree that this is a HOBBY. . I will agree that not everyone applies judging criteria as as closely as some people may. But, there comes a time to step forward and ask. . . WHAT are we doing, if we cannot even get an accurate judgement of how our members are performing, and cannot even apply proper judging criteria except in rare occasions? WHAT is to be done do solve this problem. . How is the IMAC BOD going to address this issue, which is STILL the most glaring shortcoming of our SIG?

There comes a time when you look at the people with the highest scores in a class. . .and wonder. . is that tight 5-flyer group "tight" in scores because they are of equal skill. . or is it because the judges don't know how to give out anything except 7's and 8's?

I'll be happy to show you my score sheets from the event. .they are a JOKE. And if they are a joke. . what's that say about IMAC as a whole. I know how screwed up my flying can be . if the score sheets do not reflect the downgrades, what good are they? And if they do not reflect properly flown manuevers. . again. . what good are they?

Thank you for your attention to this letter. Hopefully, others will see it, and put forth their own inputs on this subject. Perhaps, just perhaps, something will. . finally. .. get done to straighten out our judging problems.