SO YOU THINK CONTESTS ARE ALL ABOUT FLYING?
By Jan Mace
Jan is a well known non glider pilot, responsible for mothering and feeding large parts of the gliding fraternity at events at Matamata. She looks at the roles of volunteers in running a gliding contest, based on the recent Matamata Competition held in conjunction with the National Club Class contest. Some of her comments are specific for a Matamata contest but most are true for all contests in New Zealand. South Island pilots don’t know what they’re missing if they’ve never attended a Matamata contest since Jan’s been around. Her ‘café service’ during the day and dinners at night are a highlight of any event held there. I’ve now found out that putting together a contest is more than settling on a date, marking the calendar and turning up. I suspect some others know this too. The Starting Point At a committee meeting, discussions can be very short on some subjects but long and drawn-out on others. So, it goes something like this Chairman: “Next - Nationals. Dates?” Participant No 1: “2nd week in February this time.” Chairman: “Calendar, 6-13th .” Participant No 2: “What’s practice day? Saturday?” Other: “That’s usual. Finish on Saturday or Sunday?” Bit of discussion on this one. Need to cater for people travelling versus need for contest days, especially if the weather turns bad versus The Rules versus length of time people can get off work and then a little about the old days and what happened. Then, “Sunday then?” Participant No 3: “And you’ll organise all the positions, Mr Chairman.” (Not a question, just statement of fact and 20 phone calls and emails and numerous considerations wrapped up so neatly!) 28
April 2011
