Jury Report on 1996 Indoor Free Flight World Championship F1D
FAI Jury
Ian Kaynes |
GBR |
President |
George Xenakis |
USA |
Member |
John Marett |
CAN |
Member |
Dates
Location
Moscow, Idaho, USA
Information
Information bulletins had been issued at the time of CIAM approval of the offer early in 1996. A further bulletin is understood to have been issued to those nations which returned preliminary entry forms. There was no formal registration or welcoming of competitors arriving for the Championships.
Accommodation
The standard accommodation provided for participants was at University Inn, a local hotel about 1km from the flying site. The hotel provided good quality accommodation. Food of very good quality was supplied only at the flying site, for some people this was slightly inconvenient for breakfast everyday but particularly so on departure day.
Flying site
The Kibbie Dome of the University of Idaho has a ceiling about 45m high. Good control of access, openings and windows gave generally stable conditions inside the dome during the competition days.
Participation
A total of 33 competitors from 11 countries participated in the Senior Championship. China was represented only by the team manager, the competitors apparently having been prevented from travelling by problems with travel documents. Some other teams had indicated their intention to participate but had not paid fees in advance and failed to arrive, causing some inconvenience for the organisers.
The concurrent Junior Championship had only one competitor, having been particularly badly hit by the no-show participants. It is recommended that the FF Subcommittee consider the future category and organisation of Indoor Junior championships.
Contest organisation
The competition was organised with quiet efficiency. Timekeeping ran smoothly. A scores listing was maintained as times were received and a computer printout of positions produced at the end of each round. It was noted that the timekeeping sections of the Sporting Code could be clarified: (a) to allow the use of more than one watch for prop stop time, and (b) to specify the order of recording times, subtracting prop stop time and truncating to the whole number of seconds.
Competition
Exceptionally good times were recorded by competitors, aided by the good flying conditions in the dome. The longest flight was over 50 minutes. Particularly notable was the large number of high times produced by several competitors. A local rule was introduced to limit regions from which competitors could steer to avoid the obstructions away from the centre of the dome.
Prize-giving and Banquet
A banquet was held at the University Inn on the final evening of the championships. The food was good. The evening was marred by a guest speaker, unrelated to aeromodelling, boring atttendees until the jury member from the host country suggested terminating the speech. The prize-giving followed with slight confusion with regard to the FAI Trophies (of no consequence since the championship and longest flight awards were both won by the same competitor). The FAI medals were awarded, but none of the FAI Diploma were presented despite assurances (immediately before the banquet) that they were ready and available. The sole junior competitor was presented with AMA trophies but not an FAI medal.