Jury Report on 2005 Free Flight World Championships F1A F1B F1C
FAI Jury
Pierre Chaussebourg | FRA | Former 1st CIAM VP |
Ian Kaynes | GBR | FF S/C Chairman |
George Batiuk | USA |
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Dates
May 21 to 28 2005
Location
EMBALSE, Rio III, Cordoba, Argentina. Embalse is about 750 km, west of Buenos Aires.
Participation
190 competitors from 33 countries 75 competitors from 29 nations in F1A 71 competitors from 27 nations in F1B 44 competitors from 18 nations in F1C
Accommodation
Teams and officials were accommodated in two hotels and bungalows, in the same tourism complex that had been used for the World Championships in 1989. Breakfast and dinner were served in the hotels and food boxes provided for lunch. All were good quality.
Flying site
The airfield of La Cruz is a military place, which is not used very often. And most of the area is rented for farming. It had been agreed before the championship that the fields would be planted with crops leaving a smooth field after harvest, but later it was decided to grow maize… The starting area had been cut short and rolled, and most of the fields had been harvested. The visibility was quite good on long distances. At about 3 km in the north direction, there was a lake and nuclear power plant, which have made some little problems for retrieving on the F1A day. Moving the starting line upwind solved this. The field was large enough, but it was not easy to position the starting line as the wind had different and unpredictable directions at different altitudes.
Weather
The weather was good: no rain. Only the F1B day has been a windy day, but under the speed limits.
Competition
F1A: We flew the seven rounds, a five minutes fly-off and a seven minutes fly-off on the same day.
One competitor argued that his models had not been timed correctly in the last fly-off, but even if it was at the end of the day, the visibility was good enough to clearly see the landings of all models in the fly-off and there was no doubt about the winner.
F1B: It was quite windy on that day, and as the wind did not dropped after the end of the seventh round and until the sunset, the jury decided to have a fly-off on the next morning.
There were 11 competitors in this fly-off. The wind was very low and the timing was not a problem. Unfortunately, the wind direction was changing and the models drifted to a small hill where bushes stopped some models.
F1C: The F1C event started just after the end of the F1B fly-off and soon it became clear that the starting line should have to be moved. The FAI jury has done this, with good co-operation with organisers.
This line was then used all the day, even for the first five minutes fly-off. Then it has been decided that the next fly-off would be held on the next morning. This last fly-off was very clear.
The event was very well run and the field organisation was perfect. It was clear that the organisers did their best for an excellent contest. It has been a pleasure for the FAI Jury to work with them as all our suggestions were followed immediately.
Timekeeping
Held at Embalse, Argentina, from May 21 to 28
The timekeepers were experienced modellers, and there was no communication problem… All were well equipped with binoculars and tripods. Timing was good and there has been no major problem.
It has been noted that timing long fly-off at the end of a day is very difficult, particularly when the models go down under the horizon line in front of the sun, even if the sun is already under the horizon. It would be nice to find a way to reduce the flight duration of the models for fly-off. In F1A, a shorter line might be used, but in F1B and F1C, the problem is not solved… May I suggest that the Free Flight S/C takes care of that problem?
Opening and Closing Ceremony
Opening ceremony was held in the Embalse sport stadium, with RC flying and tango dance demonstration. Then a lunch was served in the Sport hall, for all participants.
Closing ceremony and banquet were held in the same Sport hall. Everything was nice and well prepared, except the fact the acoustics were terrible in the concrete walled building…
Prize giving was followed by very nice tango dance display, and banquet was in the usual very warm atmosphere of Free Flight Championships.
All FAI medals and diplomas were presented, as well as all FAI trophies, which looked in good condition except the silver trophy for F1C team. The organiser mentioned several problems for the return of the trophies: weight, custom problems etc… The report of the organiser has been sent to the CIAM Secretary.
Protests
There was no official protest, but a written complaint about the timing in the last fly-off in F1A. The team manager produced a graph showing the altitude and time recorded by an altimeter on board of the model. This altimeter records an altitude every 5 seconds, but the difference between altitude of start and landing must be added, and the end of this graph is quite critical… The accuracy of this device is not good enough to be used as an official timing device at this moment. The time recorded by the timekeepers was kept as the official time for this competitor.
Conclusions
This Championship will be remembered for a good organisation and an excellent atmosphere. The Federation Argentina de Aeromodelismo, and all the people who have worked for the success of these Championships must be congratulated.