Jury Report on 2005 Indoor Free Flight European Championship F1D for Seniors and Juniors
FAI Jury
Ian Kaynes | GBR | FFSC Chairman |
Luca Gialanella | ITA | CIAM Secretary |
Pierre Chaussebourg | FRA | CIAM Assistant Secretary |
Dates
October 3 to 8 2005
Location
Velodrome Stadium, Bordeaux-Lac, France.
Information
Two bulletins were produced, but the second one was not distributed to everyone
Participation
There were 30 competitors from 12 countries in the Senior Championships and 9 competitors from 3 countries in the Junior Championships.
Accommodation
Competitors were accommodated at the Hotel Campanile within 500m of the flying site which was very suitable and convenient. Breakfast and dinner were served at the hotel and lunch was provided at the Stadium. However, there was no contact from organisers for competitors when checking in at the hotel.
Buffet lunch was provided at the Stadium on each day. Of course, being in France, the food at the Championships was good.
Flying site
The ceiling of the site is not high but there were good flying conditions and the site was suitable for the Championships. Each day the conditions were much better in the later round than the earlier one.
Competition
There was no registration of competitors on arrival and no information was distributed. A team manager’s meeting had been scheduled for the evening but was brought forward. At this the major discussion was about timekeeping since it was apparent that the organisers had far fewer than the 30 timekeepers the French Federation (FFAM) had specified. Team managers were not keen on having timekeepers called from a pool and so it was decided to have one official timekeeper allocated to each team and to have one team member act as the second timekeeper. The Jury acted as timekeepers for the three single-person teams. Although not desirable, the solution provided a trouble free way to conduct the Championships in the circumstances.
On the first competition day it was found that the organisers had only three stopwatches. The start of the first round was delayed while they bought more. Two rounds were scheduled for each day, 10.00 to 14.15 and 15.15 to 20.00. Given that flights of over 30 minutes could be launched just before 14.15, this gave a late lunch time for the timekeepers. It was apparent that competitors would not fly late in the evening and so the scheduled was modified on later days to 10.00 to 14.00 and 15.00 to 19.00.
By the usual practice for F1D, the models were checked before each flight and the motor weighed after the flight. The model check covered weight and wingspan but the wing chord and tail span were not checked. The scales provided for weighing motors (600mg) had a resolution of 50mg which was not accurate enough. A French competitor provided his scales with a resolution of 1mg and these were used for all 3 days.
Scores from the scorecards were written on paper on a board and recorded on a computer provided by FFAM. Throughout the competition FFAM maintained the scores and produced updated results lists after each round. A master copy of the final results was produced within minutes of the end of the last flight but the local organiser failed to produce the copies for participants promised for the banquet. As a result many people left the Championships without copies of the official results.
Clear results were obtained in both the Senior and Junior Championships, with the Senior placings changing up to the last flight to leave second and third places separated by just 2 seconds.
Opening and Closing Ceremony
The opening ceremony was postponed to the first contest day after delays from considering the timekeeping problems. Further delays in starting the contest then caused the competition to be started without an opening ceremony. A reception by the mayor was held in the local municipality of Pessac, notable for lack of advance information and the sudden announcement that the bus would go directly from the stadium to Pessac without time to change or to leave models at the hotel.
The closing ceremony was held in the stadium after the last round. The FAI diploma and individual trophies for the senior and junior winners were awarded. Additional prizes were representations of F1D models inside glass blocks from FFAM for individual top three places junior and senior, and a single cup to each team in the top three places of senior and junior. No medals or other awards to team members were provided.
The banquet was held in Pessac, not a completely pleasant function for being rather drunken, finishing late and having the organiser criticise the FFAM.
Protests
One protest was received when a competitor had a collision after the end of the round and was prevented from taking a reflight because the round was over. The protest was effectively upheld and a later reflight allowed when it was found that collision flight time had not been recorded. In view of the time of the collision a reflight should not have been offered as an option if the round time was to be observed.
The question of when reflights are allowed has been raised in previous jury reports but no action taken. There is a mismatch between the Sporting Code which states that reflights are to be taken before the next official flight (carried over from the days when rounds were not used) and the Organisers Guide which supports flights and reflights having to be launched within the round.
Observations
There were shortcomings of organisation at this Championship. The local organisers appeared to run it in the same way as the smaller open competition held annually in the site. FFAM had supplied copies of the Sporting Code and Organisers Guide and held a meeting specifying how many aspects of the Championships should be arranged. However, since that meeting the local organiser disregarded these recommendations despite messages from FFAM reinforcing the requirements. This was particularly unfortunate since France has demonstrated the expertise to run very successful free flight championships, such as the Junior World Championships in 2004.
Conclusions
Despite the organisational shortcomings the Championships were successfully concluded with good sporting results, for which the Jury wish to thank FFAM.