Introducting a New Award in 2021 – the National Point Series Championship
Byline: Bob Freeman, IAC 8532
Introducing "The Leo". There are very few people involved in aerobatics in the United States at any level that doesn't know the name Leo Loudenslager. As a seven-time U.S. National Aerobatic Champion and the 1980 World Aerobatic Champion, Leo inspired many of us. Sometime within the last couple of years, I started thinking about the possibility of creating a new National Point Series Championship, patterned along the lines of our existing Regional Championships (and some of our state specific championship point series, like Texas and California). When I started working on this National level trophy project, it was an obvious choice for me to name the new award after Leo Loudenslager. So, I contacted Kelly Loudenslager Goodpastor, Leo's daughter, to inform the Loudenslager family of the point series trophy, our desire to name it after her father, and to seek approval for the use of her father's name. She expressed gratitude, excitement and absolute approval to do so. Thus, the new trophy is called "The Leo", for the winners of the US National Point Series Championship. After some thought, finding the right and appropriate trophy became clear. Rather than creating another prestigious trophy with an eagle poised in flight, a majestic and regal lion seemed more original and more appropriate.
In short, this is a national point series competition in which a competitor's results from three different regions (as we define the IAC regions) are accumulated to rank pilots nationally in Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited. The first place winners in the point series in each category will have their names engraved on "The "Leo" trophy which will be on permanent display in the IAC pavilion at Oshkosh. Winners will be recognized as the "U.S. National Point Series Champions". To be clear, the winners of this point series ARE NOT the U.S. National Aerobatic Champions. Those titles are earned and bestowed upon the category winners of the U.S. National Aerobatic Championships. In addition, 1st place winners in each category will receive their own "Leo" based trophy. Second and third place winners will be announced and will receive stickers that can be displayed on their aircraft.
IAC Policy & Procedure 203 documents the process and requirements for the creation of a new trophy of this kind. The criteria, process and method of award for the trophy winner must be defined, the funding source must be identified and the IAC Board of Directors must approve. In this case, the funding of the trophies and stickers for this new point series will be provided by Director and past team member Bob Freeman, Director Tom Rhodes and former director and team member Tim Just. The process for identifying the winners is really pretty simple. A competitor must fly contests in at least three different regions (Nationals could be used as a South Central contest based on being held in Salina KS). The best performance in three different regions will be used to accumulate NPSC points. Championship points will be earned at each contest based on a percentile ranking method for each contest flown, rather than by straight score percentages. Percentile ranking is commonly used as a method to normalize results (think SAT, ACT, etc...) across large data sets. Significant thought and analysis went into choosing this process. Pilots will earn championship points based on how they ranked against the other pilots that flew that very same contest, in the same weather, with the same judges, with the same conditions (high DA, cross winds, etc...) and with the same (or without) boundary judges. Using a straight score percent sum approach would not account for the contest differences and judging across multiple regions. The objective is simply to determine which pilots ranked the best with respect to their direct competitors over the three contests.
Part of my motivation for instigating the National Point Series, is to incentivize more participation in our regional contests, especially at the Unlimited level. Many, if not most, of our Unlimited pilots are highly motivated and focused, hoping to contend for a spot on the U.S. Team and to have the opportunity to represent the USA in the world championships. The financial and physical challenges of Unlimited are creating a decline in participation at the Unlimited level. Regional contests compete for time and money with training camps. With fewer Unlimited pilots, from my experience, it is very difficult to identify regional contests where there will be other Unlimited pilots and thus it's tough to plan on contests to attend. My hope is that this new trophy will carry enough prestige to foster interest at the Unlimited level in identifying more regional contests in advance that will have Unlimited competitors. A good outcome of this new point series would be to create discussion among those pilots to coordinate and identify contests where there will actually be an Unlimited category.
My hope was to have this point series commence in 2020 but as we all deal with COVID-19 and the significant number of contests cancelled, we will initiate the point series in 2021. So, for now fly safe, have fun and look forward to the days we will all be back "in the box" and not being socially distant on the ramp.
