OVERVIEW OF JUDGING

The summary was taken from the F3C Judges course given by Jürg Schmitter.

The important thing to remember with judging is to be consistent and fair.

At the end of the day, the best pilot should get the best score. The best way to judge a flight is to start from 10 and then gradually deduct points as you observe infringements using some simple guidelines.

Firstly, the 15 degree rule, such that if a manoeuvre is supposed to be a straight line but the pilot veers off axis then you should deduct 1 point for every 15 degrees as shown in the figure below. The same goes for the rotation of the helicopter about its own axes.

The next thing to remember is the weighting of the points.

The pie chart below shows that the precision of the manoeuvre is more important than the size or position of the manoeuvre.

Therefore a perfectly precise rectangle performed smoothly and with good size, but slightly off to the right should score an 8 or 9 out of 10.
Furthermore, a perfectly sized and placed manoeuvre that is smooth but was not a circle should get less than 5 out of 10.

As judging becomes more critical you can also incorporate other aspects such as scoring the landings.
If the pilot lands with the main shaft inside the inner circle, then the manoeuvre is scored out of 10. If the main shaft, upon touch down, is inside the large circle, but outside the inner circle, then it is out of 8 and if it is outside the outer circle, it is out of 6. This can mean that a reasonably well executed manoeuvre that had only lost 3 points up until it landed outside the large circle would have to be scored 6 – 3 = 3.
The other things to consider are that the helicopter should pause for 2 seconds between each leg of the manoeuvre and the rate of the manoeuvre should be slow and controlled at a constant rate.

THE "HANDICAP RULES"

Now that we have had the first of the “Anderson Rules Helicopter Challenges” we can settle into the scoring system.

Hopefully the following will make it clear for all participants.

During the day all the pilots are scored by the “judges” and the scores are then averaged such that each pilot gets an average score from each judge out of 10 for the maneuvres they attempt.

For a list of the manoeuvres and Score Sheet......... Click here .

We will call this figure, (TA), for “Todays Average”.

The scores are then averaged to provide Todays Overall Average or (TOA) score out of 10.
If a pilot has previously competed in a GMAC Heli Challenge, he will have a personal "Skill Ranking" (R).

For pilots who have not previously competed, the following ranking applies:

1. A Pilot who’s current skill lays between bronze and gold wing standard, is assigned a 5 out of 10
2. A Pilot who’s current skill lays at or above Gold wings standard, is assigned a 7 out of 10

Each Pilot's score for the day, Today's Score, (TS) is equal to the scaled percentage increase of the TOA compared to the R according to the following:

TS = (TOA – R) / R x 100

At the end of the day, the pilot with the biggest percentage increase will win.

The reason for this scaling of the scores based on the previous skill Ranking (R) is so that pilots of various skill levels can compete on a handicap basis with each other.
Hence, the highly skilled pilot who always wins the typical fun fly events, where the scores are simply aggregated, will struggle to win on a handicap basis unless they continue to push their own development and improve their flying abilities.

Chris Anderson

GMAC "HELICOPTER CHALLENGE" SKILL RANKINGS

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

Pilot	Current Skill Ranking		Pilot	Current Skill Ranking		Pilot	Current Skill Ranking
Nick	7.381		Luke	7.596		Chris A.	7.809
Luke	7.265		Chris A.	7.281		Luke	7.596
Allan	6.875		Nick	7.262		Nick	7.233
Graeme	6.857		Allan	6.875		Allan	7.143
Andrew	6.848		Andrew	6.848		Russell	7.075
Gary	6.688		Russell	6.803		Graeme	7.038
Russell	6.265		Nick	7.381		Andrew	6.848
Paul	5.679		Graeme	6.799		Gary	6.688
Michael	4.571		Gary	6.688		Aaron	6.163
Chris A.	4.200		Paul	6.094		Paul	6.124
			Aaron	5.803		Michael	5.468
			Michael	5.498		Chris E.	5.311
			Chris E.	5.311		Mark	5.217
						Red	4.825

 

 

January 2012

Pilot	New Ranking
Chris Anderson	7.81
Luke Annells	7.46
Nick Csabafy	7.23
Allan Lewis	7.14
Andrew	6.85
Gary Butcher	6.69
Russell Edwards	6.64
Aaron Powter	6.16
Paul McNicholl	6.15
Dale	5.92
Durwin	5.82
Graeme Anderson	5.73
Michael Rowland	5.46
Chris Everest	5.31
Mark Eaton	5.22
Alan Fay (Red)	4.83