TOPIC: The LSF NATS - how can it attract more entrants?

LSF needs to ask this question to as many soaring pilots as possible and see what they say. Would it be possible for you, the LSF leadership, to coordinate with the big soaring events around the country and have this question posted on a survey style card for people to fill out? Event coordinators could simply collect the cards at the end of their events and then they could mail them to Rob and the rest of the board for review. I know it is a bit "old school" but you would get a sampling of ideas from events all over the country.

The question could be as simple as "What would it take to get you to attend the Soaring NATS in Muncie?

Wayne

Wayne,

It is way more entertaining though to have the same 6 or so people post answers to it. :)

Ryan

There is a lot of truth in your comment there Ryan. Another option might be for the LSF to reach out to the LSF club coordinators and ask them to poll their club members. I think people are more likely to share their thoughts when not posting on a national forum like RCGroups or even here on the LSF forums.

It would be simple enough for clubs to discuss this topic at a monthly meeting and then the club coordinator could summarize the suggestions and submit them to Rob. I'm not trying to pick on you Rob, you just seem to be the logical person to send this kind of information to. Another question that might be just as informative would be "What keeps you from attending LSF NATS"?

Wayne

Based on my research into why folks don't do something in model aviation (surveys) what keeps people from attending things is typically time and money. There will be some other one off things that you can try to address or not depending on your inclination. I mean, the organizers of the IHLGF could ask me why I haven't been back since 2001 and the answer would be pretty simple: time and money.

One interesting thing would be to look at people from outside of say an 8 hour drive of Muncie that do attend contests that they have to travel 8+ hours to but don't attend the Nats. What would be interesting would be to see what it would take to swing them to attending the Nats over what they currently attend (team selections, The Bruce, Polecat, IHLGF, SWC, Visalia, F3J Tour stuff, World Champs, etc). Based on what I have observed and heard from folks that fit that description I have some specific thoughts on that that I shared a bit earlier in the thread.

Ryan

Jim,

Here is an example of something the Nats could do to easily get more contestants:

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32109259&postcount=78

This is 2015. I know there is a lot of work involved with Nats registration and making a flight matrix and printing flight cards but surely we can figure out some way to allow registration up to a week or less before the contest. Maybe we could build into the matrix "ghost" pilots and then charge some premium for late registration and those spots are on a first come first serve basis.


Ryan

Here is another one:

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32109517&postcount=80

These comments are not from losers like me. They are from highly respected thought leaders within the F3K community.

Ryan

As most of the complaints with the registration process have come from F3K pilots, I have replied to the issue in the Hand Launch Forum on RCG.

Jim, you started this thread with this question "This topic is devoted to airing ideas from the LSF membership on how the LSF NATS could attract more entries."

Lots of people have posted ideas. The only thing that has been posted that would definitely increase the entries is to extend the registration deadline. What can we do to make this happen? Several folks in the F3K community emailed the AMA EVP. The AMA EVP sent an email to many of us saying that other AMA Nats events (non soaring) extended their deadlines this year. What kind of volunteer manpower or help needs to happen to get the deadline extended?

Ryan

There has been a lot of good comments from the F3K Nats participants about the 2015 F3K Nats. Although there was only 25 pilots flying I think it is in a good place for the future. Some of the commentary can be read here:

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2422643&page=18

Thanks to the LSF leadership for allowing the F3K registration deadline to be extended. That allowed several more folks to register. In the F3K community people are very used to online registration where they can see who is signed up and what not. Getting closer to that sort of thing will help F3K Nats attendance. I know the AMA is working on a new Nats registration system.

I also want to send a shout out to the LSF for making the junior entry fees free. there were 11 year olds in F3K this year and I think there will be twice as many next year.

Ryan