SEN 1866
Table of Contents SEN 1866
- CIAM Summary
- FF Forum @ NFFS Pubs
CIAM Plenary Meeting Summary
(lifted from Ian Kaynes’ report)
15.2 Volume ABR, Section 4B
· i) B.9.1 (F1 Sub-committee) – People on the flight line – Passed. The rule will now read: Spectators are not allowed within 25m from the starting line. The only people allowed at the starting position are contest officials, the competitor, his helper, the team manager, and the assistant team manager.
· j) B.13.6 (F1 Sub-committee) – Rounding Flight times – Passed 14 for/10 against. The rule will now read: The time recorded is the mean of the times registered by the timekeepers, rounded to the nearest whole number of seconds to the resulting mean time (0.5 second rounded up to the second above) unless the difference between the times registered shows evidence of an error in the timing, in which case the organiser will determine, with the FAI Jury, which time will be registered as the official time or what action should be taken.
· n) B.17.6 (Austria) – License numbers on models: Defeated 8 for/30 against.
15.5 Section 4C Volume F1 – Free Flight
Indoor
· F1D a) 3.4.2. Characteristics of Indoor Model Aircraft (F1 Hungary) – Increasing model weight to 1.4g and reduce the motor weight to .4g. Passed 22 for/6 against.
· F1D a) 3.4.6. Collision Rule (F1 Sub-committee) – Reflight rule – Passed. The rule stating that reflights must be made “before his next official flight” is extended to read: in the case of a reflight from the last round, the reflight must be launched within an hour of the end of the round.
Outdoor
· F1C b) 3.3.2. Characteristics of Model Aircraft with Piston Motor(s) F1C (F1 Sub-committee) – F1C Safety – Withdrawn. It was recommended that the FFSC investigate changes to F1C to improve the reliability and safety of the models.
· F1E c) 3.5.8 Classification (F1 Sub-committee) – Passed. The rule will now state that when calculating percentage scores, they should be rounded to the nearest percentage to 2 decimal places.
· F1Q d) 3.Q.2 Characteristics (F1 Sub-committee) – Passed but modified to incorporate useful parts of the Finland, Italy, and three USA proposals. The rules will read as follows:
Nickel Metal Hydide (NiMH) and Lithium (Li) batteries can be used.
Lithium type battery packs must be in “as manufactured” condition with the covering around the cell surface. If more than one cell is used a balancer connector must be fitted.
External Battery packs are required to have a safety tether to the fuselage.
Safety locks must be used to prevent unintentional restarting of motor(s) after motor(s) have been stopped.
Rule B.3.1. of Section 4b does not apply to class (No builder of the model requirement.)
The motor run time will be determined by a maximum energy amount. In addition, motor runs over 40 seconds are regarded as overruns. The energy budget of each model is 4 joules per gram of the total weight. For energy calculations, weight exceeding 500 grams is to be ignored.
Models must have provision for connecting a Static Energy Test (SET) device between the battery and the models systems via 3.5 mm male and female bullet connectors. The connectors from the battery should be male positive and female negative. It is the responsibility of the competitor to supply any adapters needed to connect to the SET.
Energy limitation will be by an energy limiter or by a motor run limit related to measured power.
a) For models with energy limiters. The allowed energy amount starts to be calculated with the release of the start button and finishes when the ESC has stopped supplying energy to the motor. The energy limiter has to calculate the energy consumed in real time. After coming to the end of the limited energy supply, the motor(s) must stop irreversibly.
For energy limit verification a SET is to be connected to the model to allow measurements to confirm the energy used between the release of the start button and until the ESC has stopped supplying energy to the motor. To synchronise the time of release of the start button the model must include a cable connected in parallel with the start button and terminated with a 2-pin female connector with 2.54mm pitch. The SET must store and display energy or store the time and power data.
b) For models without energy limiters the motor run will be controlled by a timer. The motor run is calculated as the allowed energy divided by the measured power and rounded down to the nearest whole second below. After the motor has reached full power, the power is measured with a Wattmeter at a time equal to half the planned motor run. A fully charged battery (4.2V per cell for lithium, 1.2V for NiMH) should be used for the power measurement. The calculated motor run should be clearly marked on the model. The motor run will be timed statically on the ground by timing from start button release to motor cut-off. The motor run will not be timed in flight.
F1Q models may use radio control only for irreversible actions to control dethermalisation of the model. This may include stopping the motor if it is still running. Any malfunction or unintended operation of these functions is entirely at the risk of the competitor.
The number of models eligible for entry by each competitor is four.
· F1S j) Class F1S (F1 Sub-committee) – Introduce new FAI class for E36 models. – Unknown – Not covered in Ian’s report but I will find out and report on this forum.
Championships news
· The venues for 2016 FF Championships were selected at the Plenary meeting this year. Serbia withdrew their bid for the 2016 Indoor World Champs and the Plenary awarded it to the only other offer, Romania.
· Bids for the F1ABP Junior World Champs had been submitted by Romania and Macedonia.. Macedonia won the vote (MKD 27 –ROU 10).
· The F1ABC Euro Champs had bids from Romania, Macedonia and Serbia. In this case Romania and Macedonia withdrew, leaving the Plenary to award it to Serbia. It will be at Zrenjanin.
· The F1E Euro Champs bids were from Romania and Serbia. Serbia withdrew and Romania was awarded the event. The said that they planned to use a new site near Brasov, said to be better than Turda (but I will be visiting it to check…)
Chuck Etherington
USA CIAM FF Representative
2014 FF Forums Available at NFFS
The new FF Forums are available in the US. I expect them to be posted on the NFFS website by April 20 (at the latest). Available now from NFFS Publications Services, PO Box 1775, Albany, OR 97321. Cost is unchanged at $25 per copy plus $5.60 postage.
Bob Stalick <freefliter@aol.com>
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Roger Morrell