International Aerobatics Day and Judge Program Updates

International Aerobatics Day

I hope you have all set aside June 24 this year for our third annual International Aerobatics Day! This day just keeps growing and growing with people all over the world taking part. You can celebrate by participating in a chapter event, by flying around with a goofy smile on your face, by practicing for your next contest, by capturing a video for social media, or just by reading the latest copy of Sport Aerobatics. There is no wrong way to celebrate International Aerobatics Day, except maybe if you decided to spend the day not sharing or revelling in the joy of aerobatics. Once in a while I think of one of my personal heroes from history, like Ben Franklin or Isaac Newton, and I imagine what they would do with all the opportunities we have today to take flight. Never forget how lucky you are! Even if you’ve only flown once or twice in your life you’ve realized the unfulfilled dreams of countless people throughout history. They gazed at the skies in helpless wonder. Take flight and make their spirits jealous.

Later in my life when I’ve had enough of being IAC President (or when you’ve had enough of me) I think the thing I will be most proud of is this special day.

Chief Judges

The IAC Judge Program has been through quite an overhaul this year, with the introduction of new judge titles. Previously, we had Regional and National judges, with the distinction being that a “regional” judge was qualified to break the hearts of pilots at the regional level, while a “national” judge was qualified to do the same thing (ok usually worse) at the US National Aerobatic Championships.

Over time, the boundaries between these titles eroded, but (as always) only with the best of intentions. The IAC wanted to make sure that Chief Judges had experience, so it seemed logical to prefer National Judges when we appointed chiefs. Therefore, the term “National Judge” also became somewhat synonymous with “Chief Judge”. Except not quite because we also allowed Regional Judges to chief if no Nationals Judges were available. Meanwhile, we struggled at times to find enough National Judges to fill the judge lines at our championship, so we created a “Regional-N” distinction, which was basically a Regional Judge who could serve at the national level.

If you’ve followed along this far you can pretty easily see how these terms were no longer descriptive of the differences between the two classes of judge. So, with great wisdom, Judge Chair DJ Molny approached the board with the idea of breaking things down differently. As of this year we have the titles of “Grading Judge” and “Chief Judge”. Grading Judges have two tiers, with the more experienced judges in that class taking on the title of “Senior Grading Judge”.

I think we can all agree that these titles make a lot more sense. Still to come is specialized training for Chief Judges. I’m really excited about that, because I think we can all see that being a Chief Judge is very different than being the sort of judge that grades performances. Chief Judges have to worry about radio work, penalties, keeping planes from hitting each other, coordinating with the starter, and other details that just aren’t on a Grading Judge’s radar. I look forward to watching DJ continue his work on this important IAC program.

Chief Judge Responsibilities

Speaking of Chief Judges, if you are one of those don’t forget to review the Chief Judge Responsibilities section of the rule book. In particular, pay attention to the Judge Briefing and the Post Program Duties of the Chief Judge sections.

Chief Judges are expected to perform briefings before each program for the benefit of personnel on the judge line. This is an opportunity for the Chief Judge to walk everyone through the sequences that will be flown to review any complicated figures and talk about the criteria. It’s also an opportunity for the Chief Judge to remind judges of their responsibilities for making “Low” calls. In short, this is the Chief Judge’s chance to provide training prior to the program. Once the program begins, Chief Judges should not provide training, because it creates a grading bias based on each pilot’s position in the flight order. Instead, anything the Chief Judge notices during the course of events can be held off until the post-program briefing.

It’s also a good idea to review the section on Judge Conferences, because it’s important we follow this section to the letter. The idea here is that Chief Judges should not influence the grading of competitors. The step-by-step dictates in this section guarantee that no competitor will be able to make the claim that the Chief Judge overruled or influenced the judge panel. At the same time, these rules allow the Chief Judge to do their job of making sure that the Grading Judges have fairly and independently graded each figure according to the rules.

Jury Procedures

As sanction chair, I review jury decisions. I’d like to take a quick moment to caution juries that they need to have a rule book on hand and they need to refer to it when hearing an issue. Several times over the last year I’ve seen situations where people have relied on their memories when adjudicating on an issue. If someone on a jury says that the rule book says something, make sure to check it.

I often say that “the worst thing to have at a contest is a creative jury,” but I think I’m going to add something to that and from now on I’ll say “the scariest jurors are the creative people with great memories”. It’s really a joke, so don’t take this too seriously, but there is a bit of truth to the idea that really boring people who have to double-check every fact are going to come up with the right result most of the time, whereas people who think outside the box and believe they know exactly what the rule book says (or, worse, should say) unintentionally create messes.

Interestingly, it seems like jury issues are pretty localized. There are some contests where provocative jury decisions are made routinely. There are other contests that have avoided protests completely for years, somehow. There shouldn’t be any stigma to filing a protest, of course, but it could be a bad sign if the jury is spending more time in session than out in the sun.

Tell Me About Your International Aerobatics Day Experience

I can’t wait to hear about your personal Aerobatics Day experience! Email me at president@iac.org.