First PWD Meeting

[terryep]

Tonight was the start of our packs PWD season. The leaders passed out rules and tips, pictures of PWD cars from the web for inspiration and sheets to draw out their car concept, side, top, front and rear views. The designs were edited with sugestions for front back, avoiding hard to build items, sharp pionts, etc. Then they sketched their ideas onto their blocks in the same views. I was there to help and offered to ruff cut their designs on my band saw for those who needed the help.

Next the cubs built their car storage boxes out of stock I had pre cut. A good start. Next week the cars will be returned so the cubs can sand/carve them and paint them.

Terry

[terryep]

Third meeting was tonight. Everyone got their wheels on and weights adjusted in time for a few test runs down the newly refurbished track. All the cars were well within a car length of each other so next weeks pack race should be tight! New start gate and stop section worked great and no cars left the track!

Terry

[TDean]

Terry --
Sounds like a great idea, breaking up the process over several nights/weeks.
How many boys/dads participate in these workshops (also, what percentage of total possible), and is this a den or pack thing? We have a particularly large Pack -- and I'm just trying to get a handle on resources necessary for the evemt...

Thanks,

[terryep]

Our park only has 10 cubs, I was the only parent (that was not a leader) that helped out. A few others acted as observers. I helped with wheel installation/lube (SB-10) and weight pockets, one leader added weights into the pockets using the district scale, one leader coated the lead weights with nail polish, one leader helped with the acrylic painting. One supervised the track.

The cars were mostly done at this point. The cubs were playing with their new and old cars on the track. Suggestions of only running a couple times fell on deaf ears for the most part. No time for alignment checks although their holes were "eased" prior to wheel assembly. They are on their own for further adjustments before next Thursday's pack race. Districts two days later!

Terry

[Den_Leader]

No time for alignment checks although their holes were "eased" prior to wheel assembly. They are on their own for further adjustments before next Thursday's pack race. Districts two days later!

This sounds like what happened in my den workshops. My son and I did perform alignment adjustments on his car at home in the week between the last workshop and the pack race. When his car won every race by a good bit, I felt like I had let down the boys in my den. I did tell both boys and parents how important a good alignment was and how to get it, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

Next year, I will schedule a meeting dedicated specifically to alignment. If they don't want a 'dead-on' alignment, that's cool, but I will sleep better if I give them a better opportunity. I will most likely shoot for two weeks prior to the race, so as to allow for unforseen circumstances.

Good luck next week.

[nosam116]

Any suggestions on what to say or how to approach parents/scouts on the importance of wheel alignment?
thanks

[Stan Pope]

How about a short before/after video tape? Show "before alignment" and "after alignment" races against a reference car. If that doesn't make believers out of 'em, they've no potential as pineheads!

You ought to be able to pack the convincers into about 27 seconds of tape, including titles and credits.
Title - 3 seconds
race 1 intro - 3 seconds
race 1 - 3 seconds
race 1 results description - 3 seconds
race 2 intro - 3 seconds
race 2 - 3 seconds
race 2 results description - 3 seconds
Comparison - 3 seconds
Credits - 3 seconds

27 seconds is well within the 5 minute attention span of most boys (and some parents.)