National Free Flight Society

Jury Report on Junior Free Flight European Championships 2015 F1A F1B F1P

Jury Report on Junior Free Flight European Championships 2015 F1A F1B F1P

FAI Jury

Gerhard Wobbeking GER President
Wilhelm Kamp AUT Member
Gringu Alexandru Popa ROU Member

Dates

August 10 to 16, 2015

Location

Salonta, Romania

Organiser, Venue, Schedule

April 2013 the Romanian Modelling Federation was allotted the 2015 F1ABP EuCh for Jun-iors. The Federation team, now lead by Gringu Alexandru Popa, is one of the most experi-enced at all, having organized more international championships than any other in the world. For free flight, Romania offers several good fields, with Salonta close to the Hungari-an border as the favourite. It hosted already the F1ABP WCh in 2010 and several World Cups, offering advantages not easy to beat. Not only that the field is huge (about 4 x 4 km), it is as well situated just a few kilometres from the hotels. Thus, after the end of the seventh round about 14 h, one could spent the afternoon in the shadow. This healthy interruption made it easier to stand the heat raising from 20° in the morning to 38° at the end of the rounds. The weather was very stable with wind speeds from zero to four m/sec.

Endangered were the superb conditions by a farming project of bisons. These biggest Euro-pean mammals were grown behind huge metal gates. Two times the flight line had to be shifted to avoid models landing inside these fenced areas, and actually very few had to be retrieved out of them.

Another advantage of the venue is the Salonta Modelling Club which – using the field regu-larly – trained a reliable crew of timekeepers and provided a competent Contest Director. Szilard Sijjarto from Salonta won a few days before F1A-Bronze at the WCh in Mongolia; technical assistance came from two-times F1A-World Champion Per Findahl (SWE).

For processing, opening and closing the town gave their big, well built sports hall at the championships disposal.

Participation

Participation at F1ABP EuCh for Juniors remains constant over the years. 2011, 2013 and 2015 always 15 teams showed up, with 40 (2011), 36 (2013) and 38 (2015) individual com-petitors in F1A. F1B was well supported too: 25 (2011), 29 (2013) and 26 (2015) individuals. The figures in F1P are not that promising: 12 (2011), 12 (2013) and 13 in 2015 attended the contest. Team Managers were not happy either and proposed to switch F1P for an electric class (F1Q or F1S). They see three advantages: Less prone to injure hands, less noisy and a motor class not dedicated to juniors only. Russia even claimed that electric propulsion is eas-ier to handle in a cold country.

Contest Organisation, Protests

Processing took place in the Salonta sports hall and was very well prepared and handled. To measure the line length 50 m were marked and combined with a sound system activated with the right pull. A calibrated test weight proved that the electric balances worked well.

All rounds started at 7 h and lasted 55 minutes, with five minutes pause to change poles. The few shifts of the line gave some delays but went smoothly. Fly-offs started about 19 h. As on the second day for F1B the wind still remained quite strong, CD and Jury agreed to delay the start to 20 h and to go for 7 minutes. Indeed, the models stayed visible and their times gave a clear result.

After the fly-offs, the models of the top three were checked; all nine fulfilled the rules. Not so one F1A from Romania; during the random checks around round three it was found to be 5 g underweight and the poor contestant had to be disqualified (ABR B.20.1.). – No protest had been filed and no complaint put forward.

Time processing took place under shelter which contained as well a powerful loud speaker system and a restaurant. Result lists were timely published on a board. Plenty of drinking water was available and distributed to teams and officials.

Ceremonies

The Opening was celebrated in the sporting hall mentioned. Traditional dances were nicely presented and regional authorities welcomed the teams. The Closing was twofold. Prize giving was again in the sporting hall, well prepared with po-dium and flags to be flown. Just the awarding procedure didn’t really comply with the SC (ABR B.16.4) and the FAI Protocol. – The trophy for the F1 Challenge had been brought by the former winner and taken back by the same team – Russia.

The banquet later on took place in a nice garden restaurant some kilometres north offering plenty of food and supporting the good feeling amongst the competitors.

Conclusions

Very good championships in excellent weather conducted by an able contest team with ex-cellent timekeeping.