[ALIBI]

The flags do exactly what they are supposed to do. Make the alliances easy to identify. They do not break and they do not use power. They do have two problems: 1) ringers get stuck on them, as said before, that is a function of this years game and probably will not affect next years game; 2) they fly through the air, last year we drilled two holes through the top end of the PVC Pipe and put a piece of surgical tubing through the holes to hold flag in place.

What we need is a way to better attach the flags. Under ideal circumstances the flag should be completely above the highest point on the robot in its' starting configuration (I have seen many that do not, my guess is that you will not see that in Atlanta). Why not have flags with poles of various lenghts (2', 3', 4' etc.) that could attach to your robot at the most conveinient place depending on your design? The flags could have a mouting bracket attached to the bottom that you could screw into a FIRST supplied mouting block that you locate on your robot. A simple 4 start course thread would make attaching the flag very fast.