Jury Report on Free Flight European Championships 2018 F1A F1B F1C
FAI Jury
| Pierre Chaussebourg | FRA | President |
| Wilhelm Kamp | AUT | Member |
| Andras Ree | HUN | Member |
Dates
July 23 to 28
Location
Szentes, Hungary
Information
Information bulletins were produced with all necessary information and sent to NACs.
Participation
In F1A, 76 competitors from 25 nations
In F1B, 75 competitors from 26 nations
In F1C, 44 competitors from 20 nation
Accommodation
Teams, jury and organizers found accommodation at a range of hotels in the region, often entailing 30 minutes journeys to reach the flying field or the organizational base.
Food and drinks were available on the field, under a large tent with tables and benches. Wives and daughters of the contest officials were holding the buffet and providing hot coffee or tea and cold drinks at a very reasonable price.
Team managers meeting
This took place at Kentaur pension. The draw for starting pole had been prepared in advance and was distributed to team managers, as well as the processing schedule for the day after. .
The new paragraph F.1.2.7 of the Free Flight General Rules, concerning the use of altimeters has been printed and distributed to all team managers, as we discovered that very few people knew it and had red it before….
According to this new rule, we discovered that very few people used altimeters: 2 in F1B, 3 in F1A, 5 in F1C and finally, no one asked to use this procedure and the times recorded by the timekeepers were not contested..
Back to this new rule, one competitor argued that the altimeters were not yet commercially available. In addition to that, no competitors and altimeter manufacturers were prepared to use this option according the relevant rule paragraph..
The jury discussed also about how to determine the moment of landing which is not very clear with the rule F.1.2.3 End of the flight. At the moment, it is clear that the probability of accepting a time recorded by altimeters is very low.
Opening Ceremony
After the TM meeting we waited for the night to start the opening ceremony. A minute of silence has been observed in memory of Ray Monks, Anton Van Eldik, Peiter de Boer, and all other flyers who left us during the previous year. .
The ceremony was then followed by very nice fireworks.
Processing
This took place in the large room of the Kentaur pension. It was very smooth and went very easily. Scales were available, and a special device to check the towline was available outside.
The organizer chose the option to put two stickers on the models: one on the fuselage and one on one wing.
Flying site
The flying site is in a national park. The surface is grass covered but with some cracks and holes in places. We were afraid of some problems for the F1A flyers towing their models, but nobody complaint about that and no accident happened.
The starting line was in the middle of the field and could only be rotated to face the wind. This did not make too much problems even if the models were going out of the field for most of the rounds when we had medium or higher wind.
Models had to be retrieved on foot, but when the wind was taking the models at more than 2 – 3 km, the organizer allowed competitors to go out of the field by car, using the allowed track only. The cars could then be parked out of the field, along the main road, and be used out of the field.
A very effective sound system was used to indicate the start and the end of the round and for other information. It could be heard clearly over the whole length of the starting line. A countdown was given before the start and before the end of each round. The start and finish sounds were different and could be easily identified. The speaker had a very clear voice and was the same person from the beginning to the end.
The Jury had a special place with a table and three chairs, under a tent, close to the computer, so it has been easy to communicate with Laszlo Patocs, contest director, and Anita Gorocs in charge of announcements, timetable and partially data processing.
Weather
The temperature has never been over 30°C.
The wind was quite strong every day, coming from the north, but never over the limit. The visibility was good. During the three days we had cumulus growing up to storms, but only at the end of the glider day, after the seventh round and before fly-off, we had a strong shower which made the track quite slippery, but no car got stuck…
Competition
F1B started at 07.00 on the Wednesday morning as scheduled, with a wind from north at 3 – 4 m/s.
In the second round, the wind speed increased to 5 – 6 m/s so we decided to increase the break between rounds from 5 to 10 minutes.
In the third round, the wind speed increased with gusts up to 8 – 9 m/s but still in the limits. The break was extended to 20 minutes.
No change in the 4th round.
Fifth round started at 11.50, then, at the end of that round, we announced a two hours break for lunch.
After the 6th round, 24 competitors had full score.
The Jury decided to keep the flying time at three minutes for the 7th round.
Then we had 20 competitors in the 1st fly-off at 6 minutes flying time, starting at 18.00 with 7 minutes working time.
Then we had 6 competitors in the second fly-off starting at 19.00 for an 8 minutes max, and nobody made the 8 minutes.
The F1A day was less windy, but still from the north, with good cumulus and strong thermals.
Some storms could be seen around and a quite strong shower started after the end of the seventh round. We waited for the end of it and started the first fly-off with 16 competitors for a 6 minutes flying time. Only two competitors made it.
Then, we had a very light wind, with cool air, after the rain and no thermal activity. We had a very clear fly-off, one competitor released about half a minute before the other one, and the two models flew together and landed at the same time.
The F1C day was about the same weather with a lower wind. The competition went smooth, with no problem. We had 22 competitors for a first fly-off at 6 minutes, then 11 competitors qualified for a second fly-off at 8 minutes. Only one competitor succeeded.
Processing of the results was running smoothly. The results were dictated to the computer operator by mobile phone after the end of each round. Than the rankings were printed and displayed on a scoreboard and the web site of the event. This way it was possible to follow the standings on the start line and in the depo by mobile phones or tablets.
Protests
There was no protest.
We had a complaint when a team manager came with several others, protesting against the time given for a fly-off, at the moment the Jury was discussing to delay the start of that fly-off. The Jury President told them that the Jury was just discussing about that and that was the end.
Banquet and Closing Ceremony
The Banquet was at Kentaur pension. Only 62 competitors and team managers and about 20 officials were participating. The banquet was excellent with a very good buffet with several different food of excellent quality.
Then, the large room has been open to everybody and the closing ceremony started. Everything went well. The organization was based on two families, plus two or three individuals. The President of the Jury called them on the podium and the audience gave them a hearty round of applause for their fine efforts.
Conclusions
The Hungarian Association of Modellers and the Foundation for Hungarian Modelling must be granted for a very successful Championship.