Being Proactive About Paper Airplanes on Einstein

[Chi Meson]

Originally Posted by Chi Meson

Organize a paper airplane competition.

I recall seeing some fine gliders in 2014. I must admit it was fascinating. Having read the arguments, I will be instructing my team to leave all paper behind as we sit down for Einstein, but as other have said, If FIRST would make it clear that throwing airplanes is not acceptable, it would help a lot.
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I just didn't think of the paper airplanes as being the worst aspect of that evening.
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That was me two weeks ago. This year, put me firmly in the category of
STOP THE MADNESS!

I think, due to our seats this year (near front row of upper tier to the side), we saw and dealt with the barrage of garbage much more than in years past. The team in front of us paid almost no attention to the Einstein matches because of being obsessed with making terrible plane after terrible plane ripped from spiral bound notebooks and the FIRST Championship program. Most planes made did nothing but dive into the heads of those sitting in front of them. At one point a mentor from a team in front of them came up and angrily told them to stop it. This team only mocked him. When they left (before Einstein was even done) the floor was obscenely littered with FIRST program pages that were poorly ripped out.

I got hit several times.. No blood, but it gets less fun with each occurrence.

So I repeat my last suggestion: sanction it. Make it a coordinated contest, and for cryin' out loud, at the very least, learn how to make a good paper airplane BEFORE you arrive at Championships. 95% of what was thrown (low estimate) was garbage in every sense of the word.