National Free Flight Society

Jury Report on Free Flight Junior World Championships 2014 F1A F1B F1P

Jury Report on Free Flight Junior World Championships 2014 F1A F1B F1P

FAI Jury

Held at Salonta, Romania from July 28 to August 3
Ian Kaynes GBR President
Ivan Horejsi CZE Member
Cringu Alexandru Popa ROU Member

Dates

July 28 to August 3

Location

Salonta, Romania

Information

Three bulletins were distributed and published on the Romanian Modelling Federation’s web site. However, there were small differences between the distributed bulletin and the web version.

Participation

There were competitors from 21 countries covering 3 continents. There were no defending champions. Participation in each class was: F1A 50 competitors from 21 countries, F1B 31 competitors from 13 countries, and F1P 18 competitors from 7 countries. All these numbers are increased over the 2012 Championships.

Accommodation

A list of hotels was given in Bulletin 1, and teams booked their own accommodation direct with the hotels.

Adequate lunch packs were supplied on the field.

Flying site

The flying site is a large area of grassland only a few kilometres outside Salonta. It has been used for many previous events but part of the site is now being developed for buffalo farming. Thus large areas of one side of the field were enclosed with substantial steel fences and some fields contained buffalo. Farm staff were available to recover models from these fields occupied by buffalo, but starting positions were adjusted to try to avoid those areas. At times this meant flying quite near to the small canal and when the wind changed models were taken across the canal and into the maize beyond. The nearest bridge was about 300m away and, while additional simple bridges had been provided the nearest was 800m from the start position which was used. As a consequence a number of team helpers crossed by wading through the water and mud.

Access to the field was by a stone surfaced road and an organisational area had been established beside this, including food, toilets, and tents for processing, etc. On two nights during the Championships there was storm during the night, on each occasion the damage limited by staff action during the night and normal services were restored quickly on both mornings.

Weather

The storms mentioned above were during the night and did not affect flying. The first contest day had a steady easterly breeze of 2 or 3 m/s and the other two days had gentle winds with variable direction. There was some rain in the morning of the F1B day. Visibility was good at all times.

Competition

Model processing was held in the sports hall in Salonta. A schedule had been established but was not adhered to as all teams were processed whenever they arrived in the hall, resulting in queues at some times.

The jury had been told on arrival that a system of processing and tagging every rubber motor had been discussed and agreed with all team managers during registration. This had not been mentioned in any bulletin nor discussed with the jury. Since it had apparently been discussed and agreed with all teams, the jury president reluctantly agreed to this action which was outside the Sporting Code. However, it was then found that not all teams had agreed, since France submitted a protest against this marking of motors. The protest was upheld and the French team were processed without tagging their motors and on the understanding that they would be processed at random during the event in accordance with B.17.11. The motor tagging considerably delayed processing. It had been stated that timekeepers would be equipped with scissors to remove the tags, but it was found that none had scissors and competitors had to remove the tags, further increasing the inconvenience.

F1A. A starting position was established well before the start then adjusted to allow for the wind and then revised to reduce the risk of running on rough ground. The start position then remained in use for all the rounds, with a steady wind from a constant direction. The start signal for the first round was not heard clearly and some pole started flying before others. The PA system had been positioned in time for the end of the round and there were no complaints about the apparent shortening of the round. All other rounds ran smoothly. The flyoffs were held from a position further upwind and a final and clear result achieved after two flights.

F1B. The start was delayed due to rain and an unclear wind direction. The competition started 90 minutes late and a further move was needed after the first round. This was close to the canal and the wind then dropped and became variable so that some models drifted over the canal to land on the grass field or maize fields beyond. The start position was then moved a little away from the canal and the only other problem arising was models drifting to a farm. For the flyoff the organisers chose a position in another extremity of the field from which the different wind direction took models to the farm for the first round. The wind was directly down the field for the second and third flyoff. There were just three competitors in the third flyoff and a clear result was obtained as all models for the complete flights.

F1P. The start was slightly delayed while score cards were provided from the storm-damaged organisational base and then ran smoothly through the day at a position in the middle of the field. No flyoff was necessary.

Processing of the winning models was carried out in a tent. On the first day the organisers were poorly equipped for measuring areas, but this was rectified on the following days. No problems were found with the winning models.

Timekeeping

A few problems of timekeeping inefficiency were noted on the first day and thereafter all ran very smoothly without any complaints.

Opening and Closing Ceremony

The ceremonies were held in a sports hall in Salonta.

One time arrived late for the opening ceremony as a result of working from the web site version of the schedule which gave a starting time 30 minutes later than the download bulletin file. The public address system was almost incomprehensible due to echo in the hall, which kept speeches to an absolute minimum.

The award ceremony and closing ceremony was held without using the public address system except for the anthems.

A new trophy donated by the USA for the F1B team classification had been accepted by CIAM Bureau just before the event. At the award ceremony, Chuck Etherington, representing the donors, presented the trophy to the CIAM F1 Chairman ready for presentation to the 2014 winners.

Protests

As noted above, France protested against the intent to tag rubber motors. The protest was upheld and the protest fee returned. However, during the F1B competition, the contest director followed a path of excessively concentrating on the French team for “random” processing and then on other issues.

Observations

The President of the Jury produced a list of suggested improvements for the European Championships F1A F1B F1C which were to be held at the same site from the following week. The document was sent to the organisers and copied to the FAI Jury for the European Championships and at least some of the suggestions were adopted.

Conclusions

The Championships were successfully completed. The Jury thank the Romanian Modelling Federation for their organisation.