[Travis Covington]

We won the Arizona regional with just the drill motors.

In LA we added 2 more motors and a technokat inspired shift-on-the-fly transmission.

In LA we ended up seeded 1st without any practice matches (all Thursday we were adding the gearboxes and never got to go out on the field.)

We ended up in second place overall after losing to team 60's alliance in the final match.

I felt that the transmissions were extremely valuable. We would not have done as well as we did if we still had just the drill motors.

I also felt like our transmission was more reliable than the drill motors and the drill motor gearbox. We had some problems with the plastic drill motor gearbox and housing, and with our transmission, that problem was eliminated by not using it and gearing down the drill motor to match the rpm of the CIM motor.

If done properly I think a 2 speed (or more) transmission is very helpful.

For example, we rarely used high gear aside from the 15 sec autonomous period and the rare occasions where we needed to get across the field quickly.

BUT, that 15sec mad-dash to the top was essential this year! We were able to go 14fps and make it up to the top of the ramp (when our auto mode worked right) before most other teams, while still having alot of torque once we shifted into low.