Jury Report on Free Flight Junior European Championships 2011 F1A F1B F1P
FAI Jury
Wilhelm Kamp | Austra | President |
Cenny Breeman | Belgium | Member |
Joze Cuden | SLO | Member |
Dates
July to 17 2011
Location
Sentjernej near Novo Mesto, Slovenia, site of several World Cup Competitions (Krka Cup) in the last years.
Information
3 bulletins on time with the necessary information in the internet. Approach to the net was sometimes difficult, certainly also due to the problems FAI had with its electronic communication. Only change from bulletin 1 to bulletin 3 was the opening which took already place on Sunday evening instead of Monday. One team managers meeting on practice day.
Participation
F1A 41 competitors from 15 Countries, 13 full teams
F1B 25 competitors from 10 Countries, 7 full teams
F1P 12 competitors from 4 Countries, 4 full teams
Total participation 15 countries.
No defending Champion in any class because all over age
2 countries tried to enter 11 weeks after the entry deadline of April 1st 2011. First the organiser denied acceptance of the entry because of already advanced preparations. After some e-mail discussions between the FFSC Chairman, the Jury president and the organiser, the latter agreed to accept the entry of those 2 countries. Only one of those two finally entered. The second retired because they did not want to pay the increased entry fee (+ 20%) for late entry.
One country showed up on site on arrival day without having entered before and wanted to enter. Comprehensibly the organiser denied. However the Jury and the organiser discussed and found a way to let them participate without rendering all the prepared paperwork worthless. Unfortunately they had already left.
For the organiser it would be much easier if a nation enters early and for what reason ever retires later instead of doing nothing before and trying to enter late or too late.
Accommodation
Different hotels in the surrounding villages, some of them with air-condition.
Catering
Breakfast included in room-price
Warm lunch served on the field, included in entry fee
Dinner on own costs and own choice
Flying site
Agricultural area. The same site is used since several years for the Krka Cup – World Cup event. This takes place in autumn when most field are harvested.
Contrary to the preceding announcement of the organisers that there would be no maize, there was a lot of it. This of course made retrieving rather difficult. The main problem was that starting positions which would have been intelligent for some wind directions could not be chosen because the view for timekeepers on low flying models was obstructed by the maize. So the full size of the field could not really be used.
Weather
F1A day: hot, 35°C, few clouds, turning winds between 1 and 3m/s, only in rounds 2 and 3 up to 5m/s
F1B day: hotter, 37°C, thin stratus, turning winds between 1 and 3m/s
F1P day: cooler, 20°-30°C, most of the day cloudy, wind between N and NE, 2 – 6m/s
Competition
Model marking: Done quickly and efficiently in 3 lines for the 3 classes, marking with small stickers. At the F1P-desk there was a bottle with solvent to clean the surface from oily remnants so the sticker would stick.
Starting poles: Drawn under participation of the FAI Jury, pole plan for each round distributed in printing at the team managers meeting. Poles for fly-offs were drawn by the Jury and published on the information board.
Start and finish times: By loudspeaker. This worked very precisely on B- and P-day when a special agent was charged with the announcements.
Scoring: An interesting idea was to have two score cards for each competitor. ?Carton A? for rounds 1,3,5,7 ?Carton B? for rounds 2,4,6, fly-off. This gave the time of one complete round for data processing while the other card was at the starting pole. This needed a certain attention to handle the cards which worked quite well apart of some mistakes when the wrong card for the particular round was at the pole.
Scoreboard: A bigger one close to the data processing tent, a smaller one near the starting line (on B- and P-day), both handwritten and thus very close to the actual state of the competition.
Random checking: Only a few on A-day, more on B- and P-day. One disqualification on A-day for about 1m overlength of towline. No problems on B- and P-day. Electronic scale without 1/10 g display, no calibration weights (which by the way still are not obligatory).
Check of winning models: With simple tools, calculations by hand and pocket calculator, under supervision of the Jury. No problems. On B-day the models of 2nd, 3rd and 4th place could be checked before dark. The winning model was not back in time so this check had to be postponed to the next morning.
Timetable: Each day the competition began at 8.30 am as announced in the bulletin. During the day a duration of 50 minutes for rounds was maintained. Breaks between rounds were modified to allow time for retrieving. The beginning times of fly-offs were set to cope with windspeed and direction.
F1A saw 5 competitors in the first flyoff, 2 reached the second flyoff which gave a clear winner in clear visibility.
In F1B 4 competitors in the first flyoff, which gave the decision.
The flyoff had to be postponed several times to wait for low wind.
Complaints of two team managers because of 2 binoculars on 2 poles, on the 4th pole only one binocular (complaint correct) and because of two ladies on one pole (male chauvinist). Rule says: 3 timekeepers, 3 binoculars, 1 tripod. Finally there were 3 binoculars and 3 tripods on each pole and the two ladies separated.
The flyoff was started at 19.25 under correct conditions, windspeed 0 – 2m/s, direction SE, (nearly) sufficient open space downwind. The first flyoff gave the final result.
In F1P none of the competitors flew a full house so no flyoff. The outcome was not decided by poor performance of the models – 7 sec motor-run seems even too long. The winner was the one who made the least mistakes.
Timekeeping
Some timekeepers were not too keen to be at their pole at the beginning of the rounds. Anyway there were no complaints about timekeeping itself.
Opening Ceremony
Flight times are given in each of the 7 rounds in seconds, followed by the total for the rounds.
Times are then given for each flyoff round for competitors in the flyoff.
FAI Jury
Football field, a dancing-group of girls, a marching band which a.o. played the national anthem of SLO. The FAI anthem was played from a disc. The different teams were all announced and welcomed by the speaker, a professional lady-TV-speaker. Only two rather lengthy speeches by the Mayor of Sentjernej and the – interestingly female – Defence Minister of SLO. The Defence Minister spoke freely in Slovenian and English. The Mayor held his speech in Slovenian. A prepared and written translation into English was read by the lady-announcer.
Apart of that announcements were only in Slovenian (60% of the teams came from Slavian speaking countries). Surprisingly even to him – the Slovenian Jury member was called to open the event which he did in his own words in Slovenian and English.
After this a reception was given by the Mayor for officials and team managers.
Closing Ceremony
Prize giving in the cultural center Primoz Trubar Sentjernej, all people seated. Only FAI medals and FAI diplomas, no cups from the organisers. Interesting: the flags of the 3 winners of each class were projected on the wall above the podium.
Then followed a banquet in the same building. Opposite to some views I read, a variety of good food was provided. Unfortunately – a least for juniors – a standing party with no tables and seating. So the usual sitting together and talking to each other was difficult and the party ended rather soon.
Good: only low music in the background so it was not necessary to yell to be understood.
Protests
None
Observations
Problems with famers: Some farmers further away had obviously not been informed about what was going on. So they tried to forbid retrieving, one even called the police. The Slovenian Jury member could settle the excitement.
Medical care: Was present on site all the time, no major problems. Only one participant had to be cared for probably because of overheating.
Tour: A tour on the last reserve day had been announced in the bulletins. During the competition a detailed printed offer for a tour (for a fee of about € 20 including lunch) was distributed but there was no sufficient response so there was no tour.
Complaints about the flying site especially about the restrictions imposed by the maize mostly appeared only later in the free flight press. We were lucky the prevailing weather and windspeed made it possible to fly with only a few problems. Only one model had to be recovered with the aid of a ladder of the fire-brigade. To fly championships only at Lost Hills or Narrandera is – in my opinion – not an option.
FAI Trophies
Only challenge trophy for the overall score F1A B P donated by the President of the Republic of Poland. Former holder UKR, won again by UKR. The trophy was brought back and again taken by UKR. No box which was mentioned existing for the last time in the CIAM trophy report 2010, annex to agenda 2011 plenary meeting. UKR team manager says they have received it already without box!
Conclusions
The Championship was flown under difficult and demanding conditions especially caused by the maize-fields. Together with the given weather conditions it was possible to stay mostly within the limits of the field and to fly a regular championship. A rather small team of organisers was working hard to make it a success and has to be thanked for their effort.