[gburlison]

Excuse me but I get a little long winded sometimes..............

We started 2002 with the bright idea to make a large robot that started on its back and fell over at the beginning of the match. I don't even remember what advantage this was supposed to give us. It didn't work out well and we came in last place at the inaugural St. Louis Regional. Because of the even year even team rule in place in 2002, we were able to go to Epcot for the Championship. After seeding 53 out of 53 at St Louis, we decided some redesign was in order and proceeded to hack the front of the robot off. This removed the ball thrower that didn't work and reduced our length enough so that falling over was unnecessary. We did not have enough time at the regional to create a new front for the robot. So we brought 1.5 inch PVC and numerous fittings to Epcot and grafted a PVC front onto our robot. The PVC held up well during competition and we have considered using PVC again, but the last two years we have used aluminum 'C' channel. I think the appearance of PVC is biggest reason we have not used it more.