Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Again as with the trash outside the lobby area before the concert last year the I feel the blame lies squarely on FIRST and not the teams, students, and mentors. (On that note they did hire an outside company to actively maintain the facility through out the event and there were so many more trash cans through out the facility than last year.)

There was just way too much time spent waiting with nothing to do but watch the videos we had all seen dozens of times between matches. That meant, as many others have noted, that people were going to find ways to entertain themselves whether good or bad.

A couple of simple easy suggestions to have avoided this problem. Instead of replaying that same video loop we had all see so many times how about playing the Chairman's videos from the RCA winners, or instead of the FIRST has talent show being part of the finale have those participants that aren't doing something vital and important to the preparations do whatever their talent is during that waiting time.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Before the matches/speakers/awards were fine. Down on the floor, a lot of the VIPs were amused by it. After the matches and speeches start? It was pretty disruptive.

/$0.02

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

I actually love the atmosphere in the dome between Division finals and Einstein. You can feel the anticipation. It's dark. People are moving into their seats. Robots are being carted into position. Eerie music. And paper airplanes.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

But....recycling! :(

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

I think paper airplanes where awesome before the black eyed peas concert last year and they were even better this year. It has become a part of the atmosphere of the dome like Jared said and I think that's awesome. It is my opinion that the sponsors weren't upset to see this but were in fact happy to see it because it shows just how awesome and different the people in FIRST are. All I heard from sponsors and FIRST people mentioning the airplanes was positive. I'm all for gracious professionalism but this competition is about fun and the airplanes are becoming a super fun tradition. I remember looking up and seeing an entire fleet of them raining down onto the lower bleachers, it was just awesome.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Well when I unfolded one of the paper airplanes that hit me in the back of the head, it was somebody's math homework. I'd call that recycling!

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Probably not the only post to make these comments on, but....

This will be remembered as a watershed year for FIRST.

400 teams, 100 per division, matches starting Thursday afternoon, continuing to 8:30 that night, all day Friday, and the usual Saturday with final qualifications and Eliminations.....Our scouting team absolutely burned out. (Fortunately, ranking quite low, we didn't suffer for it. :) )

Too many teams. Too many matches. Teenagers are very good at creating amusing opportunities for themselves. That is why they are so enlightening to work with and hard to corral at times.

While you can imply a safety risk from the sharp pointy paper nose of the airplanes, the probability of someone, unaware of the plane, facing away from its trajectory, being injured, are lower than a hailstorm during Einstein, :eek: jk

This pretty much sums up my feelings on the paper airplane issue.

There are things that will change after this year.
There are many intelligent people cogitating on the season.
We will engineer a better solution.

This was a great game this year. The winning alliance were teams with 15, 16, and 17 years in FIRST. The universe conspired and after all is said and one, the result was inspiring.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

This was my first year going to Championships (though teammates had gone last year), and I thought the paper airplanes were really cool. I can understand the safety concerns, but we were getting bored (and some people on my team were falling asleep during speeches, mostly from sleep deprivation) and the paper airplanes at least entertained us. (I wish there would have been room to dance, but apparently dancing during the downtime between matches is a Pacific Northwest thing.)

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Anyone know why there was such an enormous delay between the completion of the divisional championship and the finals ? An hour and half plus I believe. That was the root cause of the escalating infestation of airplanes.

Unfortunately Murphies law guarantees that someone will eventually be hit in the eye with one. Are we going to have to issue safety glasses for spectators ?

I was apparently in a sweet spot in the stands and got hit at least a dozen times. So often I was shielding my camera for its protection. While I was waiting I was trying to figure out the probability of me being hit once, never mind a dozen times in 90 minutes given the tens of thousands of spectators :)

Seriously FIRST, work on reducing the delay!
UPDATE: Thanks for the explanations the followed. I have to wonder if FIRST is violating the KISS principle. Too many things have to go right for the finals to start on time.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

I think I can answer this, GRR was traveling with an FLL team and I was running back and forth from their awards ceremony and the dome. The FLL awards ceremony was very late in finishing according to the schedule. This seemed to be the reason for the delay because the FRC awards/einstein started about 10/15 minutes after FLL ended.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Apparently when the lights went dim at about 4, that wasn't them about to start on time, that was some of the power going out because of the storm outside. Because of that, they lost things like the NASA stream, and had to spend an hour getting everything working again, causing them to start an hour after they were supposed to. What was supposed to be about an hour break turned into a 2 hour one because of the weather.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

My teammate who was next to me did use old math homework to make paper airplanes. We were in front of the stage.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Places like the Edward Jones Dome typically have standby generators in the event of power outages. Also, as I recall, they only started about 10 minutes after 4.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

Come on, people. Does everybody really have to rant, rave, and analyze EVERYTHING that goes on at FIRST? I just can't help but laugh when I see threads like this. I think people need to just lighten up. Paper airplanes in a classroom or venue like that are disrespectful. And, yes, throwing them during speeches is also somewhat disrespectful. But throwing them to entertain themselves during the 45 minute layover?

I actually think that if anything, people will look at that behavior (as I did) as an awesome example of robotics kids' enginuity and creativity. Trying to figure out the best way to overcome the down draft of the upper level seats and make them fly straighter. Trying to figure out the best designs and kind of make a competition out of it across the dome.

The paper airplanes are a perfect example of why I love FIRST. I may not be as into math and science as most FIRST kids, but I am still inspired by it and it makes me smile. I think it helped uplift the spirits for a lot of people.

Now seriously, stop analyzing and critiquing every little thing. It doesn't matter. If there was a serious attitude and behavior and respect problem as a whole on the part of FIRST students at CMP, that is the time to post a thread and talk about it.


P.S. I'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful. This is just a prime example of why I rarely come to ChiefDelphi anymore.

Re: Paper Airplanes!
 

This has been going on for years. It's bound to happen with enough height and thousands of students interested in engineering. I remember it happening in Georgia. Why is it an issue now? I can see sharp corners from heavy cardstock or doing it while people are talking being a couple of poor choices, but other than that all I can see is kids trying to have a bit of fun.

You may have noticed more paper airplanes this year due to the length of Einstein (My family left after Curie was over, drove 4.5 hours through storms and we still got home in time to watch the final match, so that's what I'm basing the length of Einstein on.). You can't simply expect everyone to sit still that long.