Jury Report on World Air Games Junior European Championships 1997 F1A F1B F1J and World Cup Open International F1A F1B F1C
FAI Jury
|
Pierre CHAUSSEBOURG |
France |
Chairman |
|
Martin DILLY |
New Zealand delegate |
Member |
|
Rone KOHEN |
Turkey |
Member |
|
Sandy PIMENOFF |
Finland |
FAI Aeromodelling expert |
Dates
Location
Ankara, Turkey
Participation
All together 148 competitors from 19 countries. In the European Championship for Juniors only 10 nations entered. For the first time, F1J was flown by juniors: only 9 competitors from 3 countries.
The fact that the entry fee for the World Cup event was the same as for a World or Continental Championship: 250 USD explains the low participation: the fee here was exactly 10 times the usual entry fee for a normal World Cup event.
Accommodation
Most competitors were accommodated in two high class hotels; Dedeman and Class, distant from 200 m in the centre of ANKARA, very comfortable.
Breakfast was taken in a buffet with plenty of different rood. A packed lunch was provided at the competition site. Food was good but in low quantity (half a small tomato, 6 or 8 potato crisps) and the same thing everyday.
Dinner was served at hotel. It has been exactly the same menu for all the week, including the banquet where the only difference was that the first drink was free.
Apparently, it has been very different from the pre-contest, the year before.
Flying site
The Flying field was very convenient for Free Flight. A large flat area with dry grass bordered at a distance by some farmers fields and high hills in the back ground. Retrieving was not too much a problem except on the F1B day when models landed close to the highway. Some models were found hidden under dry grass or branches. Some others were not found at all, even one FlA model has been smashed and deliberately broken by somebody who was seen running back to the starting line where he could never be identified. . . In return, it must be mentioned that an F1C model which flew away during practice day, had been found by farmers, far away from the flying field, behind the high hills, was taken back to the flying field in perfect condition.
Weather
The weather has been fine for all the week, cold in the morning and evening, and warm during the day. The wind was very light and changing, except on the F1B day when it has been rather strong but still well within the speed limit.
Competition
Direct communication was not possible between key officials and jury members (contest directors and chief timekeeper were speaking only Turkish language). It also appeared that organisers guide and timekeepers instructions which are a part of the Sporting Code supplement, if used by the Aero Club officers, had not been translated and were unknown from contest officials.
Consequently, the contest was organised as it could have been some 30 to 40 years ago but not according to the current rules. The Jury had to patch everything all the time, and of course it took time, through interpreters who were good and helpful but knew nothing about aeromodelling, to explain and convince Turkish organisers what to do and how to do it.
Example: The idea of telling team managers and individual competitors from the World Cup contest what poles they would fly from, before the start of the contest had been completely ignored by the organisers, and despite the demonstrations from the jury members on how to do it, nothing was in progress until the very beginning of the contest.
Timekeeping
It was done by young people who had been selected among young students from college and university. They were volunteers and in exchange, they got free food and opportunity to meet people from abroad.
This was very nice, unfortunately, they had no experience of timing models, using a stopwatch and binoculars. What about the knowledge of the Sporting Code?.
Soon after the end of the first round we had complaints from team managers who mentioned that maxes had been given to local flyers, flying from the next pole, and they had been seen making only poor flights. The Jury had to investigate, and found a 131 changed into a 180 etc. Some timekeepers had to be replaced, as an example, and it did not happened again. It seems that cheating, there, is a common practice.
Processing
It was OK, after the Jury said exactly what to do and how to proceed, during the contest as well as for the three winners in each class.
Flying
In FlA, two flyoff rounds were enough to get the winners, the last round was flown just in time before the sunset.
In F1C and F1B, considering the wind and some problems in retrieving, it has been decided to have the flyoff at sunrise, with a 10 minutes maximum duration which has been enough to get fine results.
For the flyoff, the Jury added experienced foreign timekeepers plus Jury members at each pole to supervise the timekeeping.
Opening and Closing Ceremony
There was a local opening ceremony at GOLBASI stadium were teams and officials had to wait for more than an hour for the local Major. Despite this, it has been a good opening ceremony.
Closing ceremony was held at the Dedeman hotel swimming pool. We could also “participate” at the General World Air Games Opening Ceremony at ANKARA Horse Race stadium. The President of TURKEY came to this event where national air patrols demonstrated their skill, manoeuvring at low altitude over the centre of the capital, ignoring the elementary principle of safety.
CIAM President PIMENOFF, followed by his first vice-President and the F3C Chairman was going to join the FAI President in the official tribune, but we were thrown away in the Public area, and finally stood up on the grass, along with the W.A.G. Coordinator.
Observations
Turkish Jury member Rone Kohen should get an FAI medal for all his efforts. He was the only person to save the situation in many circumstances. Without his help, it would have been a disaster. He also provided transportation with his own private car for Jury members and FAI expert President PIMENOFF. He was more than a perfect interpreter with the local officials. He also spent several hours with Martin DILLY to sort out the FlA results and took the control with other Jury members to run the different flyoff.
It must be also mentioned that the FAI Jury got more power with the FAI expert, President Pimenoff who must be thanked for his usual and well known efficiency in such circumstances.
Conclusions
It is a fact that running a European junior Championship (B.2.3.) which is a team event, along with a World Cup contest which is an open International event with the deliberate idea to give team prizes when “this contest is for individual classification ONLY ” (B.2.J.) was not an easy task.
If a Free Flight event is organised in the future within a World Air Games project, it must be only a Team event and it is absolutely necessary that at least several open international contest should be organised before in the same place, with the same Jury and the same officials.