Rubber Powered Airplane - SO trial event

[calgoddard]

This is updated information for the Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) trial event.

It will take place as part of the Southern California State Science Olympiad competition being held on Saturday, April 8, 2017 at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California.

The RPA event will be held at the Polytechnic School - Scott gym across the street from Caltech from 1:35 p.m. to 3:55 p.m. The dimensions of that gym are 25 m x 32 m x 9 m high.

[calgoddard]

This is a Division C event.

[calgoddard]

The size conformance test under the Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) trial event rules requires that each airplane fit within a so-called "Federal Express Large" box. The interior dimensions of that box are specified in the rules.

I just picked up two more Federal Express Large boxes for free at a nearby PostalAnnex store. The clerk was happy to give them away.

There are approximately 300 PostalAnnex stores nationwide.

There are probably many more Federal Express stores nationwide where its boxes are given away for free.

I did not see any legal restrictions on the Federal Express web site that preclude obtaining these boxes for holding model airplanes without shipping the airplanes. Some of these boxes that are used for competing in the RPA event will eventually be used for shipping via Federal Express, in which case the company will receive a fee.

Regardless, corporate executives at Federal Express would probably consider the remaining boxes used by RPA competitors to be a charitable contribution towards STEM education.

Imagine the free advertising Federal Express would get from thousands of its boxes being carried by students around SciOly competitions with its large, distintively colored, trademark and logo emblazened on the same.

Which raises the possibility of approaching Federal Express to ask for a donation to the National SciOly organization. $25K is "chump change" to Federal Express. It would be possible to use free boxes from UPS, USPS, etc. as an alternative to the Federal Express Large box.

[calgoddard]

The Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) trial event went smoothly yesterday at the 2017 SoCal Science Olympiad state finals held at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

Only thirteen team flew in the event since the results of the competition did not count toward the overall team standings. Check-in was greatly simplified compared to Wright Stuff. The designs were considerably more varied than in a typical Wright Stuff competition. For example, one team built two airplanes that loaded sideways into the FedEx Large box so that they could have high aspect ratio wings with almost a 17 inch span.

The winning time was approximately 69 seconds. The winning model appeared to be a 2017 FFM kit cut down to fit within the FedEx Large box.

It was obvious that most, if not all, of the airplanes were built at the last minute due to the late publication of the trial event rules. If RPA were a normal SciOly event I would expect many more teams to exceed 60 seconds in a typical high school gym and a few teams to possibly exceed 120 seconds.

[calgoddard]

I forgot to mention that I received many complements about the rules of this trial event leading up the the Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) event that was conducted at the SoCal SciOly State finals at Caltech on April 8, 2017.

Coaches, parents and students particularly pointed out that they liked easing the design restrictions, simplifying the size measurement of the models, and eliminating the weight limit on the rubber motors. Most people who commented had experience with the Wright Stuff event and preferred the RPA rules.

I received no negative comments at the trial event about the RPA rules.

If you read my prior posts, I think I carefully and thoughtfully countered the few criticisms that were posted in connection with this topic. For example, the criticism about potential damage to a model from being crammed into the box clearly did not take into consideration the very clear wording of Rule 4.e.

[chalker]

I forgot to mention that I received many complements about the rules of this trial event leading up the the Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) event that was conducted at the SoCal SciOly State finals at Caltech on April 8, 2017.

Coaches, parents and students particularly pointed out that they liked easing the design restrictions, simplifying the size measurement of the models, and eliminating the weight limit on the rubber motors. Most people who commented had experience with the Wright Stuff event and preferred the RPA rules.

I received no negative comments at the trial event about the RPA rules.

If you read my prior posts, I think I carefully and thoughtfully countered the few criticisms that were posted in connection with this topic. For example, the criticism about potential damage to a model from being crammed into the box clearly did not take into consideration the very clear wording of Rule 4.e.

As I indicated before, it's great to see you take initiative and show some interested in rules creation. Glad to hear your trial running of the event went well. In case you weren't aware, I'd like to explain in general terms how a trial event moves through the process to becoming a real event. The general steps are:

1. Create rules for a trial event
2. Run the trial event at a series of tournaments, revising rules as necessary
3. Gather interest in the event from a variety of states
4. Have representatives from those states advocate to the rules committee for adoption of the event
5. Get the event designated as a 'promising pilot', whereby the relevant rules committee chair takes 'ownership' and advocates for wide spread testing and adoption and revision of rules as appropriate
6. The rules committee then insert the event into the event rotation for future inclusion

Now I mention these are the 'general' steps, because there are always exceptions to the process. The bottom line is if you want to push this further, you'll need to start advocating for it to be run at more tournaments and get members of the rules committee interested in it.

[calgoddard]

Chalker -

Thanks for describing the process by which a new SciOly event is proposed and officially adopted.

I wonder if Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) is an exception?

It is really just a revision of the Wright Stuff rules.

The reason for naming it RPA was to avoid confusion with the existing Wright Stuff event.

Do you still believe that all the steps listed in your most recent post are necessary in connection with RPA?

[chalker]

Chalker -

Thanks for describing the process by which a new SciOly event is proposed and officially adopted.

I wonder if Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) is an exception?

It is really just a revision of the Wright Stuff rules.

The reason for naming it RPA was to avoid confusion with the existing Wright Stuff event.

Do you still believe that all the steps listed in your most recent post are necessary in connection with RPA?

They aren't necessarily all needed. But the bottom line is you still need to get other people interested and advocating for this. The rules committee generally doesn't adopt changes like this unilaterally, and you've already heard some skepticism from some key members in this thread. The best way to push this further forward is to get more people interested in it and talking about it.

[calgoddard]

Chalker -

Thanks for your advice.

I think I have pretty much exhausted what little influence I have.

I appreciate your willingness to have a dialogue with me about the Rubber Powered Airplane (RPA) trial event.

I believe it has been a constructive exercise.

Thanks also for the many, many hours you spend on Science Olympiad helping thousands of students get exposure to science and engineering outside of the classroom.

[chalker]

I think I have pretty much exhausted what little influence I have.

I think you underestimate what further things you can do. There are several steps listed on the National Website you can follow: https://www.soinc.org/learn/trial-events There are links to all the State Directors also available on the national website, who you could start to personally reach out to.