Judge Certification

 

The judge certification process requires you to study both the AMA rule book as well as the F3 Sporting Code and then take the open book test for both the AMA and F3A rules (or F3P).  When you have completed the tests with a passing grade of 80% in each test,  the Judging Committee Chairman will then update your user record to reflect passing of the tests (NOTE: this is a manual process and does not happen immediately).

The certification is free to ALL NSRCA members, but if you are not a member it does cost $5 and you can pay using Paypal.  Once your payment has been processed and accepted, you will then be given access to download the material and to take the tests.  Please follow the study guide and watch the Judging video and when you are satisfied with your knowledge, come back to the website and take the quizzes for AMA, F3A, or F3P.

If you would like to take the certification tests and do NOT see them listed on the menu to the left, then please login to the website first.  If you are an NSRCA member you'll be able to take the certification tests and should see them listed.  If you are not an NSRCA member, you will need to pay $5 to register to take the certification tests - again, if you do not see a menu item located to the left of this page, then you haven't logged into the website.  Please click the "Login" menu item at the top right to log in and then you should see the "Sign Up for Certification" when you click on the "Certification" menu item.

If you've already paid your $5, you can access all the judging material by clicking this link - Judge Certification Materials.  If you see a message about not having access, you will need to ensure that you've paid - see below and logged into the website.

If you have not paid your $5 yet and would like to download the judging material, please click the "Sign up for Certification" link item located in the menu to the left and that will then take you to Paypal.  When you've paid you will have access to the seminar material which you can then study.

All the seminar materials are available for you to download by clicking on this link - Judge Seminar Materials.  Instructions for hosting and presenting the seminar are included.  If you have any questions please contact the Judging Committee.

In an effort to improve judging quality, a system proven to work well is the use of a “Judge Assistant”. This system is designed to solve two significant judging problems. They are:

  1. Judges taking their eyes off of the plane they are judging.

  2. Judges not knowing the maneuver sequence for the class they are judging.

It is unanimously agreed to that a judge must watch the plane at all times during the entire flight in order to do his best job. Taking his eyes off of the plane at anytime degrades the quality of his judging.

Judges take their eyes off of the plane to record a score and to read the next maneuver from the score sheet since he is looking at maneuvers other than those he flies. If he assumes that he knows what maneuver is to be flown, he is subject to awarding points for an incorrect maneuver.

Therefore, a Judge Assistant should be used for prompting the judge and a scoring technique that does not require the judge to put his score directly on the score sheet is needed. Judge Assistants should be provided with a special maneuver list where all of the redundant and unnecessary words have been removed. NSRCA should make this “Judge Assistant Sheet” available to all Contest Directors.  To download/print the AMA Judge Assistant Sheets please click here.   To download/print the FAI Judge Assistant Sheets please click here.

Scoring should be done by the judge writing the score on the back of the score sheet without taking eyes off of the plane. This technique requires a little practice but can be easily learned. Folding the score sheet appropriately will make this task very easy. The scores can then be transferred from the back to the front of the score sheet after the flight. Many judges will be able to transfer the scores between the last airborne maneuver and the landing.

The use of Judge Assistants eliminates the need for scribes since the judge writes his scores on the score sheet. Manpower can be minimized by using only one Judge Assistant for two judges.

The above judging and scoring system has been used very successfully at many contests including the AMA Nationals.

 

BOB NOLL, Contest Director and NSRCA Life Member

Judge Certification

You should find all the judging information you need here and if you don't, or have questions, please e-mail the judging committee for answers.  Our goal is to get consistent judging throughout the country by providing judge training/certification through "in-person" seminars or by taking the online certification training. 

NOTE:  The online tests are being moved to new software!  They are unavailable at this time.  

If you would like to take the certification tests and do NOT see them listed when you click on the "Certification" menu item on the left then please login to the website first.  If you are an NSRCA member then you'll be able to take the certification tests and should see them listed.  If you are not an NSRCA member then you will need to pay $5 to register to take the certification tests - again, if you do not see a menu item on the left to "Sign Up for Certification" when you click on the "Certification" menu item, then you haven't logged into the website.  Please click the "Login" menu item at the top right to log in and then you should see the "Sign Up for Certification" when you click on the "Certification" menu item.

 

NSRCA Judging Committee - Click Name to Email

Jon Carter - Chairman

Don Ramsey

Derek Koopowitz

 


PowerPoint Presentations of the Patterns

These are large files and may require long download times if you have a slow connection.  Your computer may seem to have locked up or be doing nothing at times.  Any reference to "TA" in these slides refers to Turnaround.

Masters

Advanced

Intermediate

Sportsman

F3A - P21

F3A - F21

F3A Maneuver Execution Guide

 

District 1  

District 2
District 3 District 4              
District 5

District 6            

District 7   District 8