National Free Flight Society

Jury Report on Free Flight European Championships 2008 F1E for Seniors and Juniors

Jury Report on Free Flight European Championships 2008 F1E for Seniors and Juniors

FAI Jury

Srdjan D. PELAGIC

Serbia

President

Wilhelm Kamp

Austria

Member

Anton Frieser

Germany

Member

Dates

September 13th to 20th

Location

Kaltensundheim (Germany)

Information

There were three Information Bulletins and a professionally prepared WEB site www.f1e-championship-2008.de contained all necessary information. Participants also received an informative booklet on the Champ at registration (in German).

Participation

European F1E Championship was participated by 25 junior competitors from 10 countries and 34 senior competitors from 12 countries.

Accommodation and food

A list of more than 20 hotels and hostels at very competable prices was offered to participants with possible half-day boarding. During all events there was a tent and a trailer in the field with different food and beverages at low prices. Transportation to the slopes was by the participants’ cars except for several officials, which was provided by the organizer, except for the excursion when three comfortable coaches were provided by the organizer.

Flying site

There were used two slopes for flying: one close to Kaltenwestheim, where two World Cups were flown and two at Kaltensundheim, where Junior and Senior Champs were flown. Most of the participants considered these slopes very conditionally acceptable, because no practical alternative was offered. Slope at Kaltenwestheim was with a lot of trees close to the starting line, so almost any change of the wind-direction caused waste of time in retrieving models from treetops with long rods. One slope at Kaltensundheim was directed to the village and a big farm. A long row of trees as obstacles, located not too close, to the slope’s left side caused the only protest (which was not upheld), because the timekeepers were not able to track a model, which flew behind the trees.

Weather

Weather was mostly sunny, partly cloudy, cold on the first day and warmer later. It was very windy during the official training day and Brener World Cup (up to 9 m/s). Sudden very strong wind bursts required some delays of the rounds and short interruptions. Weather has improved gradually during the competition, so when Senior Champ was flown wind speed in final rounds was almost zero. However wind direction was very frequently changing so much to have some down slope, but very slow winds in the last round, which caused discussions between some team managers and the organizers about complience of the flying conditions with the FAI Sporting Code. A check by the jury of the other slope available nearby showed, that due to topographic influence, there the slow wind also came in from the wrong side. So it was decided to stay at same slope from rounds 2 to 4, because there was no danger there for models to land in the village and the whole event was conducted under identical conditions for all participants.

Competition

There were difficult, but acceptable, weather conditions for flying.

Timekeeping

Timekeeping was correct. The participating teams provided some foreign timekeepers, which contributed to the impartial timekeeping.

There was a computer center in a tent in the field, with very qualified operators. Placing lists were posted at the information board after each round. Scores during the rounds were presented on a very practical foldable and portable scoreboard.

Opening and Closing Ceremony

Opening ceremony in a hangar at Wasserkuppe was organized very fine, with some speeches held by local authorities and aeromodelling officials. It was followed with attractive folk dances. Prizegiving ceremony was organized before the closing banquet at Ulster Hall in Hilders. The closing banquet was fine and friendly with tasty food and drinks.

Protests

There was one protest from Romania on timekeeping, which was not upheld.

Observations

Class F1E proved as a class of big potentials for promotion of aeromodelling in general. It is accessible for very young juniors and for very aged seniors, which ensures excellent participation. It is not very demanding in technical, organizing nor financial sense, but excellent flyability of the models presents an excellent means for attracting both public and sportsmen to the flying fields. It is also good for joining of new countries – a good example is Serbia, where only in several months many modellers joined F1E. The FAI Jury suggests to CIAM FF SC to pay more attention in encouraging new countries to join this class. Therefore, regardless of problems noticed in close obstacles like trees, weather inconvenience (frequently changed wind direction, strong wind, temporarly down slope wind etc), too much demanding maximum for juniors in the first round etc. this event was in general a positive move in DAeC and CIAM activity.

There was a full day excursion by three comfortable coaches to an eco-vilage, to a big farm near Kaltensundheim and to the famous Gliding Museum, Gliding School and a sports airfield at Wasserkuppe, the venue where gliding started in the world back in 1911. These premises should visit every aeromodeller because an impressive part of the Gliding Museum is dedicated to history of aeromodelling.

The FAI Jury made the following remarks during these events:

1. There was only one man from DAeC (the Contest Director) to run the event, without participation DAeC officials in ceremonies. Cooperation between DAeC and local personnel seemed not very good at the beginning of the events, but later improved. That was the reason why on the registration day even two of the jury members were engaged to do model processing. It was acceptable in this class because model processing did not require any measurements, which could require Jury intervention or decisions. Such things must be avoided in future.

2. Before the beginning of the competition Jury noticed that the organizer bought erroneously all mechanical instead of digital stopwatches and that tripods were missing. It was not possible to replace the stopwatches and provide the tripods because of shortage of time and the Jury required the organizer to inform participant of this fact and to make an agreement with all the teams to use these stopwatches and to watch models without tripods. The teammanagers agreed with that reluctantly at the first briefing.

3. A map of Kaltenwestheim surroundings distributed to the participants was not enough precise, so access to the slope was not easy for everybody. Also there was not a list of the officials posted, so for the foreign participants it was not easy to find who is in charge for some tasks.

4. Presentation of the results on the first day was in German style (up100% for each round and also up to 100% for total), which was strange to the foreign participants so the Jury requsted the organizer to adjust his PC program to the generally accepted style of results presentation (up to 100% for each round and up to 500% for total). Some problems with photocopying of the score lists at a distant town instead at the spot caused that they were prepared for distribution just before the prizegiving ceremony.

5. General weather forecast was not very helpful, because of a big influence of local wind-systems. Therefore, selection of the slopes was not always adequate in relation to the wind direction. Distances between the alternative slopes did not allow acceptable relocation times and senior competitors had to agree in last rounds to fly in relatively inconvenient flying conditions. It was noticed especially in the last round (side wind or very slow down slope wind), but it did not affect flights so much to require conclusion of the competition on the reserve day.

Conclusions

The organizers worked very hard to ensure a successful event, but relatively poor cooperation with the local personnel caused unwilling problems mostly at the beginning of the Championship. It was a very good move of the organizer to separate Junior and Senior Championship and to fly them in two different days. Schedule with free days after the competition days allowed additional training and rest and also improved communication and cooperation between sportsmen from different countries. The atmosphere at the Championship was very friendly and may be an example of tolerance and cooperation for other aeromodelling classes. The excursion to Wasserkuppe was a perfect conclusion of this Championship. Several teams were not satisfied with the available slopes and the organizer is recommended to think about that very carefully and to find more appropriate ones before he starts with preparations for organisation of the World F1E Championships in 2009.