Jury Report on Free Flight World Championships 2015 F1A F1B F1C
FAI Jury
| Ian Kaynes | GBR | President |
| Shigeru Kanegawa | JPN | Member |
| Bold Bekhbat | MGL | Member |
Dates
July 27 to August 3
Location
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Information
Three bulletins were issued and auxiliary details given on the Championships website. However, replies to email questions before the event and web site results corrections after the event were sometimes slow.
Participation
Overall 34 countries participated. The numbers in each class were:
F1A 32 countries, 76 competitors
F1B 29 countries, 76 competitors
F1C 18 countries, 45 competitors
Accommodation
Most teams were accommodated in hotels in the area and these were generally of a good standard. A camp was provided on the flying field, but conditions were rather basic, particularly washing and toilet facilities were below the expected standard. The camp was 1.5km from the usual starting position and this was difficult for people without transport (one of the advertised benefits of the camp was to reduce transport needs).
Flying site
This is the best site that has been used for free flight anywhere in the world. It is a very large area of smooth ground with short grass. There are very few obstructions. After rain it dries out very quickly.
Weather
The weather in Mongolia was known to be very variable from the experience of two Asian Championships run at the same time of the year. During World Cup competitions before these Championships there were some periods of strong winds which curtailed flying in some events. During the Championships the weather was generally good. The wind was fairly strong for the final round and first flyoff of F1A and the second flyoff had to be postponed to the following morning because the wind was blowing directly towards the sun. Only one evening F1C flyoff could be completed because a storm brought exceptionally strong winds, which also damaged some of the organiser’s tents and the restaurant tents at the camp site. The final flyoff was held the following morning.
Competition
Registration and model processing was carried out efficiently, except that the single rubber stamp for marking models was not permanent ink and the mark was easily removed by contact with rain or fuel.
The draw for starting position was conducted with the jury and sheets issued to the team managers at meetings. In addition to the initial meeting, a team manger meeting was held on the field each day before flyoffs and these provided useful communication.
A starting line had been established measured by a marked tape and positions indicated by numbers on posts in the ground. The jury requested an alternative line be set up at another angle to ease change of start position if the wind direction change. This was not possible, but changes of line were efficiently conducted by moving the original numbers.
Each event ran smoothly under the control of Contest Director Baasanjav Amarsaikhan. The F1A results were determined after one evening flyoff and a second flyoff the following morning. F1B was decided within the single day with two flyoffs for which the start line was moved 1km upwind to avoid models landing in the airbase. F1C was completed with one evening flyoff and a second flyoff the following morning, for which conditions were good.
Scores were transmitted by mobile from the start line to the organiser’s computers and then displayed on monitors in a tent and posted on the internet. In general this worked well, but with some delays because a single official was responsible for submitting scores and there were over 30 countries participating.
The winning models were fully processed after the conclusion of the final flyoff in each class.
Random processing during the competition covered more than the required minimum of 20% of competitors. During this one F1B rubber motor was found to be over-weight and the competitor was disqualified. The initial processing of the motor was undertaken in the presence of only a helper from that team, without either the competitor or team manager who would usually be present.
Timekeeping
A large group of students had been recruited and trained for this task. They were housed in tents on the field and were always available from early morning to evening flyoffs. They were helpful and many spoke English. They were extremely efficient in their timekeeping and very few complaints about timing were received. They had good binoculars and generally one tripod for each starting position. There were two foreign timekeepers, although some other countries had previously attempted to register timekeepers.
Opening and Closing Ceremony
Both ceremonies were held in the open air at the nearby Chinggis Khaan Statue. The weather was dry and sunny on both occasions. Ceremonies were commendably short with brief performances by singers and dancers. The opening ceremony concluded with a photograph of all competitors and officials on the steps of the statues. At the closing ceremony all FAI trophies, medals and diploma were presented. It concluded with a dance by the timekeepers which indicated their involvement in the event and was much appreciated by competitors.
Protests
One protest was received against the quality of the fuel which had been made available for practice. The Jury investigated the mixing process and made some recommendations. These were followed by a second batch and this was accepted by competitors as being much better than the previous fuel. The protest was upheld. Some recommendations on the mixing process should be included in the organisers guide in Sporting Code Volume F1. The FFSC Chairman will develop this in consultation with other power classes which use standard fuel.
Observations
The banquet was held in a hangar at the Sky Friends facility. Initially there were far too few tables and chairs. There long queues for food and the meal was very similar to those which had been served at the camp site for €7. For the €40 banquet fee this represented very poor value. This situation could be even worse in future with the maximum banquet fee explicitly stated to be €50 from 2016.
The organisers endeavoured to check that the competitors were entered in the FAI Sporting Licence Database. The status of the software supplied to them was described by the FAI as “Unfortunately the system is still in it’s final testing phase and we don’t have a proper user manual for it yet.” They used the system but could not do so completely. They could not tell if failures were from misunderstanding the system (without documentation) or because the system was not fully operational, or licences not on the database. In those circumstances, for people not validated on the Database, they checked paper licences at registration.
The Championships schedule was quite tiring with some days involving early morning and late evening flyoffs. This was particularly significant for competitors who had flown in both World Cup events before the Championships which gave a flying period approaching two weeks. The Free Flight Subcommittee should consider alternative schedules for Championships.
Conclusions
These Championships were well organised. The flying field is excellent. The weather was varied but always flyable for the days of flying in the Championships. It gave a good test of competitors’ abilities in different flying conditions. The Jury thank the Mongolian Air Sports Federation and the Mongolian Aeromodelling Sport Association for a very successful World Championships.