Caution: Rant. Why don't S.I. Nats work like N.I. Nats?

[ampEater]

Answer IMO is someone says the worlds worst sequential sentences "What's the point? No-ones going to be there."

Well hello! Saying that makes you one of those people! And then the dominoes fall as everyone adopts that dreaded saying.

Other excuses follow from the aforementioned as they realise its a weak excuse; "Oh I can't justify the $500 for fuel and expenses" or "I'm not good enough" or "It's not worth it going down just for the two days of my competition" Again, are you driving a 5L American V8 or something and staying in a 5 star hotel?! And why don't you carpool with someone else if the price of petrol makes you cringe at the sight of your car keys? Have you seen Brownie fly? (just joking browny :197:) You don't have to be the best, compete and you'll become the best. And finally have you stuck around and enjoyed the social life of the nats? Or hid away in your fancy hotel room and left after your final round?

I love the Nats, and KNOW the S.I. has the potential to be better than the N.I. Nats, but my opinion is the S.I. mentality is rather lazy, stingy and afraid to try new things.

Why do 200 odd people compete in the N.I. nats? There must be a reason, so come along and find out what it is. The Nats are what you make it to be.

I'm not trying to start a heated argument here and my intentions are DEFINITELY not to out anyone down or have a go at anyone, I'm just having my rant and hoping to high tail fin that the Nats don't flop this year due to lack of some peoples motivation.

Hope to see you all there.
:198:

[alec taylor]

dont know the answer. the imac at dunedin tomorow is cancelled due to lake of interest. whats going to happen at the nats, no body has entered yet. alex

[mikeymikeymikey]

I am not one to talk as I am sure I am not helping the problem but it comes down to population size and costs, and the northern men have that cook straight thing to cross. If you hold a comp close to 2/3rds of the population you are guarenteed to get a decent turnout. When we did the mission to Carterton by car a few years back it was hell of a fun, probably the best RC experience I have had so far, Dunedin was good but ultimately the numbers don't travel that far even though I am sure it will be an amazingly run event. A trip by car from Auckland to Balclutha would be epic...1,513 km...

[ampEater]

But the thing is I'm not talking about the N.I. guys. I'm talking about the locals.

The N.I. guys came down to Dunedin and probably outnumbered the S.I. guys!!! So it's fair enough that they shouldn't bother this year.

It's the people that can't be bothered with $200 travel cost to local Balclutha, when it costs a Grand in travel costs to get across the ditch to Carterton. AND you could car pool from somewhere like CHCH and split the travel costs! This is what I am doing.

I'm going to enter as much as I can these Nats.

[NZ Scythe]

Many people have had this discussion before, I've attended Nats in Christchurch, Dunedin and Carterton and it is safe to say the last Dunedin one was a fizzer... yes there were just about more north island guys than locals and that was rather pathetic.

In my opinion if the assosiation wants the Nats to be a success with regular attendance from both the North and South Islanders they need to hold the Nats in the South Island more often, by holding the Nats in Carterton three years in a row it creates separation and an 'us and them" attitude.

I don't know if the Nats have been held in Nelson, or somewhere at the top of the North Island, but in my mind that would be a starting point to getting more people from both islands together. If they alternated between Carterton and Nelson or Blenhein each year you are splitting the difference in cost of the ferry crossing which is a big factor and by then there is no real excuse for people from either Auckland or Dunedin.

As far as I am aware there is no real flying contingent based at Carterton, and I think that is one of the reasons the Carterton Nats are a success, no local politics to get in the way! I would hate to try and organise a Nats in Christchurch, there are about 6 or 7 clubs, they all think they are the best and all have it in for the others (and I currently belong to none of them!) Club politics get in the way of everyone having fun and just add a huge burden to the event organisers.

I also believe the second major issue with the Nats is the timing... I know they have been held over the christmas/ new year break for decades now, but the times have changed people, women are now allowed out of the kitchen to work, and can even vote believe it or not! Everything has changed over the last 60 years, they way buisnesses operate, the number of hours we are working, technology, transport the list goes on... It has been discussed a number of times but many people agree that holding the nats over new years doesn't work. It it was only held off a week it could be much better? For me personally I usually travel down to the south of the South Island to be with my Family over christmas, then for a Carterton Nats that means I have to drive all the way back to christchurch, load up the models and hit the road again for another day of travelling and then board the ferry for several hours - all within a couple of days. Many of people in the North Island have to do similar efforts... surley putting the Nats off by a week would solve these problems? why not hold then a month later when the traffic on the roads is less congested?

I have a feeling that the Nats this year are going to be a flop, this upsets me greatly as my home town club is hosting them, but there is pretty much nothing I can do about it. Most of the north islanders have made up their minds not to make the trip down (for them the south island nats are a break for them and a chance to have a family summer holiday)
My girlfriend is working in Christchurch between Christmas/New Years so unless I take a second car down I am onlycoing to be down for a couple of days over christmas and will drive back on Boxing Day, which means I am not not really going to be there for the Nats.

If it were up to me, I'd have a Nationals Website with Electronic Registration, Discussion Forum and live updates of scores/results etc. I would alternate between North and South Island every year but keep in a central location. Change the date fo move away from the busy time of christmas / new years - possibly even late Jan/early Feb? Have Nominated event organisers for all major classes (RC Power, Glider, Heli, FF and CL) Get some more young blood on the committee and promote the sport to the younger generation.

Well thats my suggestion, feel free to pick holes in my logic.

[mikeymikeymikey]

Agree 100% paddy, Central, different dates, more alcohol.

[Mr Loopy]

You hit the nail right on the head Patrick.
My situation will be similar to others I guess. I have 3 weeks off work with no pay. Wife will only have stats off and we have kiddies. Mortgage and bills need to come before models (**** I can't believe I just said that)
I would love to get to the nats but alas it won't be this year :-(

[ampEater]

This is some good discussion guys, i might have to put my NZMAA Mole to work on swaying the NZMAA committee to make some Nats Changes :198:

[jsteel]

This is very interesting, anyone willing to guess on the numbers that will eventually be at the nats this year?

Oh and are you wearing your underpants on the outside of your shorts yet Paddy??????

[ampEater]

I'm guessing all up of 80-100 people over all disciplines this year. And maybe 5 people in sportsman aeros, and 3 in Advanced and nowhere near enough for F3A.

IMAC is going to be a flop also with maybe 6 people in total over all routines.

[my extra260]

I am going to try.

Ill enter Sportsmen Imac and pattern. Just in time to change the sequences and have to learn a new one for the NI rumble!! :-)

Cheers steve.

[jsteel]

How many people would be at the NI Nats then Alex over all the disciplines?

[ampEater]

Read first post.

Steve, Glad to hear you will be coming :198: I wouldn't expect any less :197::210:

[my extra260]

Hey I didnt say i WAS i said i will try!! lol

I should be able to come down. Hopefully with my new Extra and kick your arse, Oh thats right that was only a dream i had!! lol

cheers steve. p.s how many hours is the Nats from blenheim?? I hate traveling!!

[alec taylor]

all day. alex

[Compy2.6]

Righto, im all signed up and set. Ready to show taylor how its done...again.
Entered in advanced pattern and sportsman IMAC.
Hope to have a bit more practice with the new plane if the weather holds out.

[XJet]

Could the competitive spirit that exists between clubs be harnessed to improve attendance?

Right now, although I guess each club gets an aggregated total of points scored by its members at the Nats, the events seem to be more individualistic rather than team oriented.

So what about some club-team competitions where clubs select two or three of their best fliers to compete as a team against the other clubs around the country.

Club IMAC, club freestyle, club DLG, etc.

Perhaps where individuals don't feel like competing for their own sake, they'll get excited about representing their club and being supported by its other members.

A few trophies that bear the names of clubs would go a long way towards seeing clubs themselves getting behind the drive to get folks off to the Nats.

Just a thought.

[alec taylor]

ok compy, i will take you up on that challenge. winner buys the beer. alex

[alec taylor]

hi xjet. ndc does all that. bit different with aerobatics as this is judged. i have taken my own judges to a comp. and still got hammered. the problem i see with ndc is the huge gaps between events, some classes are only held about 3 times a year. without competing one will not improve much. some people dont like competing. they are not the ones who go to comps. anyway. i would like to see every event that can be flown under ndc listed once every month. if the weather goes against the chosen weekend for an event the next 1 can be months away. i have a house full of models that were built to compete with but some have not seen the lite of day for months due to not enough listed events. who wants to fly round on their own. i can do that during the week. i will speak to my area councillor, peter salmond. ( again). alex

[NZ Scythe]

Alec - You have to remember that not everyone is retired with a full size airstrip on their doorstep... I'd love to have the time to compete every few weeks but in reality there aren't many people who have the time to do this, let alone organise the events!

[alec taylor]

hi patrick. not talking about aerobatics as this takes a bit of orginizing and getting a field for the day.all the other classes that can be done by ndc are the ones i am targeting. i see no reason why each class cannot be on once a month. just because they are listed for that weekend doesnt mean that you have to fly it. if we want more competitors in the future things have to change or it will be low turnout forever. i challenge all the sigs to take this on board and take the trouble to fill in the ndc calender. some do a good job, some we never hear much from. alex taylor. gore mac.

[Stinker]

I've never been to any Nats, purely because of their timing - family take priority for me at that time. If the timing was different, say just after new year, then I could make it to them. I don't enter any other either comps either, but if there was the possibility I could make it to the Nats then I expect that would be a sufficient draw card to entice me to enter other comps during the year as practice events for the big one. In the meantime I guess I'll just continue doing my own thing.

Some more random thoughts ...

Something else to think about is - do they have to be during the xmas/new year break at all? The weather is usually more settled in Feb than in Dec/Jan, or what about a long weekend at some other time - Easter, Labour weekend?

I also agree with the suggestion of moving the Nats around, but why just choose 2 places (Carterton/Nelson) why not a different town each year across the whole country, then everybody gets a turn at having the Nats close to home and having the Nats far from home. The main areas to focus on would probably be the lower NI and upper SI to keep them reasonably central mostly, but certainly spread them outside of here to.

As I said, just a few thoughts to ponder ...

[bogan]

great discussion ... this has been going round and round for years.

at the last nats, we actually had a meeting to talk about the nats timing. holly molly, a meeting to talk about the timing. All sorts of ideas got bandied around the room. It seems for most that the current timing is now crazy. its boxing day hell. load up and get ready for a huge drive. it makes the whole xmas thing madness trying to keep the Mrs happy with xmas / family duties, while at the same time trying to get a head start on boxing days packing.

yes it would be nice to have it at a time of year when the weather is more stable, eg Feb / March, but then all sorts of problems arise. For one, it needs to coincide with school holidays if we want juniors. secondly, have a think about the stat holidays in NZ, they all are at times of the year when the weather is extra ****. Easter is crap + people all go to Wanaka, Omaka, Easter Show, and do family stuff, eat chocolate etc. Labour weekend in Oct, crap. Queens Birthday is in June, wetter than an otters pocket ! But even in Feb / March, the weather can be dodge. This year up north we had the wettest February ever. Waharoa Rumble was a washout. Every weekend was wet. The weather in NZ is too volatile that you can't really gaurantee a week of stunning weather, just because its Feb/March, so I'm not so sure that moving the nats to Feb/March just to get better weather is going to help.

And, if people had to take time of work, like a whole week in Feb/March, would they go to the nats ? ... Hmmm I'm not so sure we'd get any first timers or sport flyers. It would wittle the nats down to the hard core, even more than it is now.

I reckon the best time for the nats is starting a week after new years. In 2008, many people (not shift workers) started back at work on Monday 7th Jan. However a lot were still feet up, at the beach, until the following Monday 14th Jan. So time the nats for the 6th to 12th of Jan. I think for most, this is an easier time of year to get time off work. Most companies are in cruise mode. Time it so the nats finishes on the Friday, and you've got all Saturday/Sunday to get home, and back to work. The weather mid january is usually really good. If you have a job where you can't get New Years day off, I bet you can get a week off mid january if its one the bosses calendar 6 months in advance.

ok, well thats all I've got to say about the nats timing. I think we should just bite the bullet and get on with it.

as for SI Nats, well yes, I went all the way down there 4 years ago, and it was a shocking turnout. I had thought it would be the last ever SI Nats. There was hardly anyone from Chch there. 4 hours drive was to much for some. Lame. On my way down, I rang a Chch pattern flier, asked if he was going to Dunedin, his response was "it was too far". I had got from Hamilton as far as Timaru at this stage, and wondered if it was really that much further, and should I turn around now ? However when asked what he was doing at new years, he said he as off to Nelson. LOL.
I was shocked and stunned when I heard there would be a Nats even further south.

I hope for Aeromodelling's sake its not a flop. I think this is the SI's last chance to pull finger. Come on SI'ers, load up all the piper cubs you can find, fill the tank on that really cheap petrol we have now, and get yur butts down to the nats. Fly Sportsman Pattern with your Sig Kadet. Race Sportsman Pylon with your Sig Kadet. Enter Sportsman Scale with your J3 Cub. Laugh at Aggy on new years eve, and fall in a ditch walking back to he car with that chilly bin full of Speights you all drink. Cause .... this might be the last chance you have to attend a nats without visiting picton on the way.

Hi Five !

Cher
Bogan

[alec taylor]

well ampeater. your numbers are spot on. saw the list on sunday. i think there will be the odd late entry.

[ampEater]

I've registered for F3A, Q500 pylon, Advanced IMAC, sportsman scale and indoor aeros. I think I will only end up flying Q500 and indoor due to lack of numbers for the others