Jury Report on Free Flight Junior European Championships 2007 F1A F1B F1P
FAI Jury
Ian Kaynes | GBR | Jury President |
Gerhard Woebbeking | GER | Jury Member |
Srdjan Pelagic | SRB | Jury Member |
Dates
August 3 to 8 2007
Location
Aradac, Zrenjanin, Serbia
Information
Two bulletins were made available on the organisers’ web site, the address of which was contained in bulletin 0 and in the Sporting Calendar entry for the event. It appeared that no further notice of bulletins or information had been provided direct to NACs or to Jury members.
Participation
F1A 40 competitors from 14 nations
F1B 23 competitors from 11 nations
F1P 14 competitors from 6 nations
Note that the participation in the power class F1P represents a small but very welcome increase in the participation compared to most Junior Championships, in fact there have only been more nations on one occasion (the first Junior World Championship in 1988). This appears to reflect the suitability of F1P for this event.
Accommodation
Bulletin 0 had listed two hotels, but an alternative hostel was added later at the same price and was used for all teams and as the organisational base. The accommodation and food at the hostel were basic. A similarly basic packed lunch was provided on the field during flying.
Flying site
The Aradac Zrenjanin flying field is well known as a free flight venue, last having been used for the World Championships in 1991. The grass field gives plenty of space for almost all wind directions. A potential problem was that the long rough access track became slippery when wet, but after the practice day there was very little rain during the championships.
Weather
The conditions were good on each day, being dry with light winds and good visibility. Sometimes it was challenging for free flight, with lift not always being easy to find. The only impact from the weather was the need to postpone the F1B flyoff from the evening when a storm was approaching to the following morning.
Competition
All competitions were completed within the scheduled day, with the exception of the F1B flyoff on the morning after the rounds were flown. The start and finish of each round was marked with a hooter but there was no form of public address system to give any further information. Round times were posted on a noticeboard, but the time of the morning flyoff was put back without informing everyone. Flight times were posted on a scoreboard, often but not always soon after the end of each round.
Timekeeping
There was not a single complaint or protest about timekeeping, which represented a good achievement. All flyoffs were seen to completion without eyesight or timekeeping affecting the results.
Opening and Closing Ceremony
These had been scheduled to be held outdoors, but the possibility of rain caused them both to hold in the restaurant at the hostel. Although more restricted than the planned ceremonies, these were completely adequate. Before the F1P flyoff on the final day of flying the organisers decided to bring forward the closing ceremony and banquet to that evening instead of the following evening. As an unusual change of plan, this allowed people who had driven to the event to return home one day early. Since the F1P flyoff was then concluded that day, all prizes could indeed be awarded that evening. The task of preparing diploma and medals for the ceremony was rather under-estimated but all was ready for a late prize giving. Results were issued to competitors. There was an error in the calculation of order for the combined F1A+F1B+F1P challenge event, correction of this swapped places 2 and 3 which had received trophies from the organisers. The only official FAI award was the trophy to the winner and this was unaffected by the error.
Protests
There were no protests. There was one complaint about adults helping at the starting pole, but it was unclear whether the adults were the team manager and his assistant or not. While competitors had numbers to wear there were no recognition markings for the team managers.
Conclusions
The Jury wish to thank the organisers for a successful Championship.