Jury Report on Free Flight World Championships 2009 F1E for Seniors and Juniors
FAI Jury
Andras Ree | Hungary | President |
Wilhelm Kamp | Austria | Member |
Bernhard Schwendemann | Germany | Member |
Dates
September 14-18
Location
Rhon, Germany
Information
Three bulletins were sent out to NACs before the event in time and were available on the homepage of the organizers. One meeting was organized for the team managers, main officials and the jury on the day of registration.
Participation
The final entry was a total of 40 senior competitors from 13 countries and 22 juniors from 7 countries including the defending champions.
Accommodation
The organisers offered different versions for accommodation. Booking had to be organized by the teams themselves. The hotel for the officials was good. We haven’t heard about problems. The food in the hotel was good, the lunch on the site was on snack level.
Flying site
Different slopes were selected beforehand in the Rhön region for different wind directions. The flying area was decided daily, based on the meteorological information and was announced at the morning briefing at the place announced by sms message at the previous evening. There was acceptable access to the slopes by car.
The juniors and seniors had separated contest days, which was appreciated.
Both events were flown on the same slope at Kaltenwestheim. The slope was not ideal but flyable. It was easier to fly on the junior contest day, but it was harder on the senior contest day. Trees, bushes and a medium voltage power line further away was disturbing the landing area. Another one was closer on the right side of the starting line. One model on the junior contest day exploded on the further away power line and two on the senior day on the closer line.
Competition
On the junior day the start of the contest was delayed up to 11.15 because of the need to change the slope and poor visibility. The wind speed was low (1-3 m/s) and the direction was rather stable. The maximum flying time was 180 seconds, 240 then 300 including the only one fly-off as well. There were 3 competitors in the fly off and one round was enough to have the winner. During the second round the model of the defending junior champion exploded on the electric power line running far away in the area where several models landed.
On the senior day the contest started at 10.00. The wind speed was a bit higher (2-4 m/s) and the direction was not as stable as it was on the junior day. The maximum flying time was 300 seconds in all rounds. There was no need to run fly-offs as only one competitor maxed out. The harder conditions led to such results in which experienced competitors and teams were placed on the high end of the ranking.
The starting line was moved further from the power lines after round two in which one Italian and one French model exploded on the closer power line within a few minutes time. Both competitor got re-flight possibility.
The round time on both contest days was one hour with no break, shorter or longer breaks between rounds, as it was appropriate.
Opening and Closing Ceremony
The opening ceremony was organized at the main square and in the festival hall in Gersfeld in the presence of local authorities and a number of inhabitants. The mayor of the town, the representative of the NAC, the local organizers and a sponsor greeted the participants, officials and organizers. The German and FAI anthem were played then the FAI jury president officially opened the championships. A local music band played and a sport group showed up their ability on the so called “Rhönrad” sport equipment.
The prize giving and closing ceremony was in the festival hall in Hilders, combined with the banquet at the evening of the excursion day. Nicely built scale RC gliders decorated the hall.
The banquet was running in good and friendly mood.
Protests
One complaint for the already mentioned re-flights and two connected protests were handled by the jury concerning the senior event. The first protest against the granted re-flights was upheld and the original flight times were reinstated. The second protest arrived just before the prize giving ceremony against the decision taken on the first protest and also against several other organizational details was rejected.
Later, within the allowed two weeks time window the French NAC protested against the results, asking for the re-fight time of the French competitor. There is no decision yet.
Conclusions
The 2009 World Championships in class F1E was successful event both for the seniors and juniors. Thanks and congratulations to the hard working local organizing staff, led by Jürgen Schild and Werner Ackermann, the timekeepers, local ones and from abroad. The experienced contest director, Klaus Salzer, kept the contest in his hands in cooperation with the jury.
The organisers used the experience they have collected through previous events and the 2008 continental championships. Thanks to them for the work and efforts made for the F1E modelling community.
The weather conditions were not good, but flyable.