Jury Report on Free Flight European Championships 2010 F1E for Seniors and Juniors
FAI Jury
Andras Ree |
Hungary |
President |
Wilhelm Kamp |
Austria |
Member |
Marius Conu |
Romania |
Member |
Dates
Location
Turda, Romania
Information
Two bulletins were sent out to NACs before the event in time and additional information were issued on the spot at arrival and contained the necessary information. One meeting was organized for the team managers, the main officials and the jury on the training day (after the opening ceremony).
Participation
The final entry was a total of 29 senior competitors from 10 countries (9 full teams) and 22 juniors from 7 countries (7 full teams). This entry was about at the usual level. The registration was on the flying site on the training day.
Accommodation and food
Accommodation was organised in different versions. The hotel for the officials was good. We haven’t heard about major problems. The food in the hotel and at the contest site was good and plentiful.
Flying site
The flying area was the Bogata hills (known also as “tankodrom”, a military training area), the actual slope selected according the wind direction. In general, the wind direction was not optimal, except for the last two rounds on the senior day.
The official training was at the same slopes as the ECh.
Competition
JUNIOR DAY
Medium to low wind (1-4 m/s), forenoon sunny, afternoon partially cloudy.
Maximum flying times were 3, 3, 3, 5 and 4 minutes, round times were scheduled for 60 minutes with 15 minutes breaks and 60 minutes lunch break after round 3. After round 1 the break was extended for 30 minutes, because some models landed unexpectedly very far, in the safety area of a military shooting ground and we had to wait for the permission of retrieving the models from that area. The starting line was moved after round 3 (in the lunch break) and back after round 4, in addition for the fly-off.
During the three forenoon contest rounds the wind was light and the slope was tricky, so the number of full houses was dropping down to 7 from 22. After lunch it continued, the wind speed and direction have changed, therefore only two competitors could get into the fly-off. The fly-off was flown from a much lower altitude, and led to a very surprising result. First the Slovak competitor made an 11 sec attempt, because the model turned back to the slope. His second attempt was similar but longer and scored only 26 seconds. Then the Polish competitor launched his bunter with absolute chance to win, but the model pumped down in 22 seconds.
SENIOR DAY
Low, unstable, changing wind speed and direction (0.5-3 m/s), influenced strongly by thermal activity, sunny, clear sky for the first two rounds. In the afternoon rounds 3-5 m/s, with gusts up to 8 m/s, partially cloudy sky. The forenoon weather conditions caused hard task for the contest director and competitors as well.
The first two rounds were flown with 4 min max and were influenced strongly by luck. Round 3 (with 3 min. max) was cancelled before any flights happened in the round, because the wind ceased then turned by nearly 180 degrees. The line was moved, the round re-opened after 30 minutes break with 5 min. max. The last two rounds were flown with 5 min. max within strong thermal activity and some models were DT-d nearly on the starting line. As a result of these conditions, the number of full houses reduced fast, mainly in the first two rounds, down to only one competitor for the last two rounds. This way there was no fly-off.
This was a historical event, because the son of the senior winner won the junior event and his daughter placed third.
Trophies
The CIAM trophy register does not show any ECh trophy for this class. On the other hand in 2008 the German organizers gave a trophy to the senior winner – donated by the “Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Segelflugs auf der Wasserkuppe” – with the intention to have it as perpetual trophy, but it has no name (Engraved text only is: “F1E Europameister”) and it was not announced to the CIAM, therefore was not registered. It was engraved by the defending champion and was handed over to the new winner. Now the representative of the previous German organizers was interviewed by the FAI Jury, and they want to call the trophy as Rhon Pokal. The F1 SC chairman has taken photo on this “Rhon Pokal”. By this report the jury intends the trophy to be registered. The trophy has no box.
In addition to the trophy mentioned above, another not registered senior individual trophy was going around through several years in the past, but recently there is no information about where it is. This situation should be cleared as soon as possible.
Ceremonies
The simple opening ceremony was organized on the training day afternoon at the main square in Turda before the town hall in the presence of local authorities and inhabitants. After greeting the participating countries short speeches were held by the vice-major and the jury president who also opened the championship. A group of dancers showed up some nice national dances.
The prize giving (also for the WCup event before the E/Ch), the simple closing ceremony and the banquet were organized together in the evening of the reserve day at the main hotel. The place was rather small for the prize giving with rather small (for the teams) podium.
Other
On the reserve day an excursion was organized to visit the Turda salt mine and a fun F1E event for the team managers.
Conclusions
The 2010 European Championship in class F1E was a successful event for the seniors and juniors as well. Thanks and congratulations to the hard working local organizing staff and the timekeepers, local ones and from abroad. The experienced contest director, Viorel Salistean, was powerful to keep the contest well in hands.
The organisers, led by Mihail Zanciu, used well the experience they collected through the previous events, several world cup contests, world and continental championships. The weather was good, except the wind direction, which was not ideal in some rounds, but that was out of their responsibility. Thanks to them for the work and efforts made for the F1E modelling community.