Inspections at Championship

[Ed Sparks]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

.......One of the biggest complaints I heard from teams was "But we passsed at XYZ Regional." As Al pointed out, it does not matter if you passed inspection at your local regional, at Championships the rules will not be overlooked, at least by this inspector.........

I hear this logic all the time. What many team members apparently do not understand is the vast range of experience that the volunteers have at most of the regionals. Some inspectors have been involved with first for over a decade now, some basically started the weekend they volunteered, but most are somewhere in between. Odds are, that if you happened to be inspected by an inspector with little experience, mistakes were made.

The Championship is a little different. The level of experience is higher. You should expect that these mistakes will be found. You should expect that the inspection process will be tougher especially if you're pushing a boundry on a rule (exploiting, bending, etc.).

My suggestion to those who do not agree with an inspector's ruling is to request an appeal to the lead inspector. Our job as lead inspectors is to insure, to the best of our ability, that the inspection process is consistant from team to team and division to division. All of the lead inspectors are very experienced.

Please, Please, Please follow the advice in this thread. Be SURE that you are not using illegal motors (old FP, van door) and last years FRC gearbox. I found several this year at regionals and I'm expecting we will find a few at the championship.

Lastly, please understand that the inspectors do not make the rules, we just enforce them. I understand, from an engineering point of view, that some of the rules just don't make sense, but that's the crazy world we live in. A classic example is "holes in the flag stick holder". It's against the rules so just don't go there......

Nuff said ......