NCFRgal's Scale Aerobatic NATS Perspective

[Wayne]

No problem.
My fault for not notifying you or others on the FG staff that we need to cover the Nats.
Just so its written down in public.
Tucson needs to be covered. Next years Clover Creek needs to be covered as well as next years Nats.

If FG wants to truly be what its image in the RC community is, my suggestion would be that paid staff needs to be seriously looked at. Not me. I dont want to get paid. I am talking 3 or 4 guys on staff who's only job is to cover events. If you have more than one or two people doing it you could concievably have two events on the same weekend covered. One person doing it doesnt work and stuff of course, will be missed.

And yes, I am sure the money is there for those staff positions to be put in place.

[Craven]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Wayne
	And yes, I am sure the money is there for those staff positions to be put in place.

I'm sure your employer, State Farm, has 4 pilots available, instead of 2, being paid full time wages, for every leg you fly. I'll even bet you told your company CEO that didn't you?

[twostroke]

Just some thoughts.....NATS coverage can be a slippery slope. There is almost a month's worth of NATS activities and I am sure pilots as well as spectators would love coverage of "their" event. (Soaring, combat, etc. etc.) I agree that a front page FG article would have been nice, but I can't see Sleepy hanging around Muncie for a whole month to cover the whole NATS. Maybe we can take what everyone is saying here today and put it to good use next year. If someone wants a particular event covered at the NATS, then maybe Sleepy can get a Laptop and a camera available and a responsible person for each event to hand off to as each event happens. Hind sight is 2020, lets use what we learned this year and really step it up in 2010! I appreciate all the info we did get from different ones posting during the NATS. Just organize it a little for next year and it will be great here for all of us on FG! No rant here, I enjoyed every bit of what we did get on FG through the eyes of NCFRGal, Will, and others!!

[Wayne]

Craven,
If your asking do we have more than we need to cover one trip.. Yes. Absolutely.

[xtra330]

wow - i wasnt going to say anything....but =)

I was the CD for the CCA event last year....yes, i was told and confirmed that coverage was going to be done by the FG staff, then the staff switched hands....and then confirmed again that somebody would be out there to cover the event....then...nobody showed up.

No worries. (disappointed, yes)...we still posted pics on FG for those who were interested. I had asked several IMAC competeitors to step up at the event and report daily what they could.... (thanks wayne, bernie, and the list goes on)...it was then posted on the front page of FG....very much appreciated! And thanks to Wil Beyers, Jerry Smith, and Fred Midgett for the coverage they did on the event! FG knew about this event 4-5 months in advance of this contest, btw.

Anyways....now, thanks to the new BOD in IMAC...we have a kick arse website for all us straight line junkies to go and find out up to date info.....including the NATS....with pictures. I am pretty sure and comfortable enough to say that the CCA event will be covered on the site as well.

Now....some people may not like IMAC or straight flying....but lets be honest here...we all learn from IMAC competitors the secrets about setting up our multi-thousdand dollar airplanes..just a recent post...look at Wil Beningers post on his 43% Carden...its insane!!!!! I havenever seen a 3D maniac hucker do a thread like that.....Say what you want about IMAC, that its not worthy to do a front page article, etc....but we all have the straight line madness in all of us....it just hasnt been released...lol

errrrrrr - why did i start replying to this article....oh yeah.....IMAC junkies report on their contests, to say they dont....you must be blind, as there always seems to be an article about IMAC on the front page of current postings found here on FG.....as well as the new IMAC web site!

sorry for the spelling =/

[Wayne]

Thanks Joe.
I thought for a second I was losing my memory.

[SleepyC]

You guys are taking this in the entirely wrong direction.
No one here is saying that no one is interested in IMAC or that any facet of this hobby is more important than any other.

What I am personally saying is this, I have been occupied setting up the Huckfest series, working with the clubs, and clearing sanctions and sponsors for these events, all while making sure the site was still functioning properly. These events are what has been in my mind. I am aware many IMAC events are taking place every weekend, but I am not focusing on them at this time. This is not to say that FG can't have great coverage of these events, but again, this is why we have IMAC staff. The whole reason we put IMAC pilots on staff was to keep FG abreast of the IMAC scene.

I am sure than many of the IMAC pilots could not tell me when the scheduled Huckfests are, and possibly have found themselves practicing for the next IMAC contest and a home field and got a call from a friend "Hey bud, where are you, the Huckfest is only one hour away you should be here!"
And there is nothing wrong with this, a Huckfest is not where that pilots interested lie. And that is 100% fine!

All I am saying is, Max and I both put IMAC pilots in place here as staff to help FG cover IMAC and stay on top of it. At least notify us of the important dates and contests. it is really not hard for a Staff member to ask "Are we covering this, who is going, and what is the plan" or better, "Hey I'm going to this contest, do we have anyone covering it?!" Then it's a done deal, it would have been set up. DONE!

Personally I like IMAC. I try and fly the sequences quite often. I find it adds focus to my flying and does make me a better pilot. Right now in my life I do not have time to practice on a regular basis, nor can I make a regular contest schedule, so it does not make sense for me to pursue IMAC at this time.
Hence I do not follow it as much as some. Again, this does not make it any less important, but I just am not fully aware of the schedule. I figured out of the 18+ Staff members we would have SOMEONE that would have said something about the NATS.

In reference to Clover Creek, we did everything we could to get coverage for that event.
I was personally going to cover that event, but my house sale fell through which made our new house purchase fall through, and in the craziness, I was almost rendered homeless. This happened 5 days before the event. I then lined up a replacement who 2 days before the event backed out.
Sorry.. but life happened.

[Wayne]

Again,
My fault for not letting the staff here know when the IMAC Nationals were.

For future reference if FG wants to cover these events..
Nationals are always in July.
Tucson is always in October.
Clover is every other year and held in August.

Now you know.

[SleepyC]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Wayne
	Again, My fault for not letting the staff here know when the IMAC Nationals were. For future reference if FG wants to cover these events.. Nationals are always in July. Tucson is always in October. Clover is every other year and held in August. Now you know.

This is great, but please throw a reminder up a few weeks before an event. Sometimes so much is going on, that July 4th seems like it's 4 months away, only to find out it was last Saturday.

[Wayne]

How about a calender where events can be marked down on.
Lots of online calenders out there to use.

[exeter_acres]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Wayne
	How about a calender where events can be marked down on. Lots of online calenders out there to use.

You mean like this:
http://www.flyinggiants.com/forums/calendar.php

Thats a great idea! We should have one...

[Kiwi]

Guys we dont need any finger pointing and lets accept that this one fell through the cracks for what ever reason. I can also accept some of the blame for not ringing the alarm bells as I was following NCFR GALS thread and never gave it a second thought. I am normally in daily contact with Steve and in fact we were looking for some articles to load into the breach. We stuffed up!!! Sorry, honestly.

One things for sure is we have a calendar and its available to all and anyone to mark up their events. The other 100% fact is not every event is going to get coverage from staff but that does not mean someone who wants to get some publicity for that event cant bang off an email to Steve or put a contact in the system to wake us up to it. You dont know how darned hard it is to find fresh material to keep that front page interesting some times. Often the stories are right under our noses but we cant see the forest for the trees.

FG has one paid guy, everyone else here does because we like it. Steve actually done it because he liked it until the site went pro so to speak and it needed a bum in a seat to do so.

Getting Steve to an event is not cheap and I can vouch that any change out of $1500 to $2000 would not buy you enough beers to get plastered. So the events he needs to cover are the high profile ones or the events needed to push the site and pay back the members in some way. The Huckfests are a way of doing that.

Gents, I think its time to sip on a cold drink, realize we stuffed up on the IMAC part of the Nats that we all should have been on top of and lets make sure we get better at doing these important ones as a result.