I know you are saying where was the VP report for the first quarter?
I was in training for the MD-11 at Fedex and it took all my time from about a week after the Parker race back in Oct to the end of January. Now I am out on the line and flying to new places that I have never seen before. It really makes this job interesting, 26 countries and 6 continents can be my destination and for what its worth I was so busy I didn’t send out Christmas cards either.
That being said, your Board of Directors has been very busy updating the USRA rules. This was a complete Board effort, involving both the race promoters and dist reps. President Martin Treat was our referee, it was a major effort and it was time to make the changes.
If you look through the forum you will notice some discussion has already occurred over the new rules. When you take a look at the new rules package the first thing you will notice is that all paragraphs have numbers so it will make it much easier to address a particular rule. That way we are sure that we are talking about the same paragraph in the rules. Also in these rules you will see that any changes have been printed in red, this will highlight those changes. What you will not see are the parts that have been deleted, so read the rules and contact your dist rep if you have a question on the rules.
Several questions have come up so far. The first question has to do with the requirement to fly your race plane twice prior to it being flown in a race. (4.8.2). YOU are the one that certifies that the plane has flown at least twice. Last year recall the Aircraft Safety and Inspection Form that you signed verified that the plane had been flown twice. At last years races several racers had a long Thursday, because they waited until the last minute to comply with this requirement. The two flight requirement now appears in the written portion of the rules as a point of clarification and you will still be required to verify that the plane has been flown twice by signing the Aircraft Safety and Inspection Form.
Another question came up about rookie pilots. (4.12.7) If you have accumulated points from a race weekend you are not a rookie pilot. Some of you may be familiar with the Jet Turbine pilots and the rules and requirements they have had laid on them by the AMA for insurance purposes. It only follows that those new to USRA racing be designated a Rookie race pilot and demonstrate safe operation of his race plane before he heads off into his first heat race. We have had world renowned pilots fly in our contests with little or no race experience and to a man I believe they have all flown their plane at least once. I think this is a reasonable and prudent thing to do considering the potential for putting other racers in danger. Originally in the rules process we were going to have all rookie demo flights on Thursday afternoon of the race weekend but we felt that the technical staff already had “7 lbs in our 5 pound bag” so we added the provision that we could designate someone who could do the observation prior to the race weekend. How do you become a delegate? It’s simple, if you have a rookie that you have persuaded to enter his first race you will most likely be doing some test flying and shakedown flights with him getting ready for the race. Contact your district rep. before the race weekend and explain that you are flying with this person and you have seen this Rookie fly his USRA race plane in a satisfactory manner. This has to be done before the race weekend. Don’t show up at the first race and tell us he is good to go. That will not be good enough. Get it done before hand and it will save all of us the scramble on Thursday afternoon.
So in reality has anything changed with the two rules I just discussed? No not really, we were pretty much doing this before but now we have the rules in print and everybody knows what is required. By putting these requirements in writing, a new guy with no prior USRA racing experience and flying with out a sponsor will have a better understanding of what is expected at his first race.
In my first VP message last year I said read the rules. This year it is even more important that each and every racer read and understand the rules. If you have questions by all means contact your dist rep or me for further clarification information.
Again my hat is off to all the officers in the BOD for the outstanding effort in bringing you the 2007-08 rules package.
Lets RACE!!!
Tim Sparks