The Nats qualifying format, What about a change???...

I have been thinking that a shake up in the qualifying rounds at the Nats would be fun. As it stands now there are 4 circles. Advanced usually has around 40 entries and the same goes for Open. Each class is divided into 2 groups. Group one of Advanced flies on circle 1 and group two flies on circle 2. They fly both rounds for the day on that one circle. Open is divided and done the same way on the other two circles. Then on the second day of qualifying the fliers switch circles. If I flew on circle one on Wednesday then I fly on circle two on Thursday for both of my flights. Do you follow me so far?

Here is what I think would be cool.

If on the first day I flew my first flight on circle one then in the afternoon I fly my second flight on circle two. Then on the second day I fly my first flight on circle three and my second flight on circle four. This would be the case for Open as well. We would all fly one qualifying flight per circle(read that per set of judges). A total of four flights over two days. The scores would still be added up as your two highest determines who moves on and who does not. This way however every flier has flown in front of all the judges. There are no surprises. All the judges get a look at all the patterns. There would be essentially no throw away flights. I think it would be a cool change.

On another note. Ever since I have been going to the Nats I have wanted to fly in Open. I have wanted to be competitive(top 20) when I step into that arena. I have another idea that could help the guys like me get a taste of what it is like to fly with the big guns get a real feel for when it is time to move up.

Have the classes as it stands now. However all the names go into the same hat and the order is drawn from there. Instead of having it separated out Advanced and Open then draw the order. You would have half Advanced and half Open fliers for each circle. Then draw the order. You will still have the separated classes and scoreboards so you are still competing against your peers just in a different environment. You would be flying and getting scored by the same judges as the current top fliers at the same time. I might have to follow David or Ted or they might have to follow me. This way the Advanced fliers can get a real feel for where they stand in the ranks as the years go by. I think the experience could be very learning for a lot of us. It would be like Road racing. They have many different classes all going at the same time. They still have separate scoring but everyone runs together.

Advanced always seems like a separate contest from Open. Which in actuality it is its own entity. In the format listed above it might seem as if you are all flying together in one big giant contest. Like days of old but with skill class separations on the scoreboard.

Thoughts please.