SEN 2328
- The World Champs is over
- The Crazy Grand Parents have nice friends
- The Woodhouses
- SEN at the World Champs
- What’s happening?
- What no chairs?
- Cancelled once before
The World Champs is over
We don’t need to publish the results they are on the organizer’s web site at
If we look just at the flying one the big surprises was that a number of the strong countries, for example USA and Russia did not make it to the podium. Same with the top flyers, quite a number dropped the critical rounds 4 and 5 where the thermal conditions were very tricky. The hot weather and sometimes difficult retrieval conditions favored teams with young sportsmen who were in good shape and well organized. The F1A flyer who are typically in the best physical condition had to do 2 days of chasing before flying their event.
We sometimes forget that FAI events are competitions for FLYING model airplanes and all classes had people do well with airplanes that were “not the very latest with all the hot gadgets” We saw simple F1Cs do well and straight tow F1As make the fly off. Not every F1B had an all carbon wing either.
We are not familiar with that field but understand that the prevailing wind is a southerly. Certainly the field was set up that way. But during the event the wind blew in just about every other direction and often towards the east where there the most difficult retrieval conditions. The organizer did not react quickly enough if at all to those conditions.
The Mongolians have expressed disappointment at the quality of the timer keeping. At their event they recruited, equipped and trained a very capable group of young people. In addition they did great job of managing the timekeepers with regular reviews and meeting throughout the event. Here many other sportsmen had similar experiences with substandard timing at this event compared with Mongolia. The only example of time keeper cooperation I saw was the time keepers all clocking off their stop watches at the same time even when they were not watching the model. Too many of them did not use the binoculars and had no tripods for the long flights.
It appeared that the facility used for the banquet and awards ceremony was overwhelmed by the number of participants and the temperature. I’m not sure how many people attended but I only saw 3 waiters serving, not enough for several hundred people. You could not see the awards presentation nor the entertainment. There was no raised stage like we saw in France.
The entry fee for such an event are high at 300 Euros per person plus 50 for helpers and 50 for the banquet so the total funds available were probably well in excess of 100,000 euro and we did not see that reflected in the support of the operational, ceremonial or social aspects of the event. Perhaps the CIAM should review the accounting before the upcoming Euro Champs in 2019. Woodhouse for auditor!?
It is very easy to be critical of the organizer and much of the criticism comes people who have not organized such an event themselves. A few SEN issues back we talked about the future of F1C and in that piece I made a comment that “We have met the enemy and he is us”. Hungary was the only bidder for this Champs as Macedonia another possible bidder withdrew. So the CIAM did not make a bad decision, they made the only decision. So if you don’t like the people who run a particular World or Euro Champs, step up.
The Crazy Grand Parents have nice friends
A few issues back we reported on the boy with crazy grandparents who took him on is first European trip to a field in Hungary with a slimy canal and a swamp. Now the boy is back home and reported to his parents and brothers. So here is more news.
There were only 2 things he didn’t like. Firstly he had sinus infection and/or allergies that caused his nose to run with breathing difficulties. Secondly he was sitting too far back in the banquet to see the belly dancers.
He did report that while his grandparents might be crazy they have nice and interesting friends. Here are some of the remarks. Paul Lagan, the other F1B sportsman on the NZ team is nice and easy to work with. Paul is a former Royal NZ Airforce officer, who at one point in his service did the training program to turn just out of school recruits into operational airmen. He compared notes with a young Danish flyer, only a few months older than him on getting their driver’s licenses. Learned a lot about model flying and the Ukraine from Igor and Maria Vivchar. Mike Woodhouse’s jokes he can understand but Chris Edge is whacky and incomprehensible. He is grateful for the Geralyn and Janna’s mobile pharmacy that stocked Sudafed.
He did like the (anti-)Communist museum in Hódmezovásárhely but not so hot on the exhibition of the artist Zsuzsa Pereli in a local art museum that the crazy grandparents liked.
The Woodhouses
From: Michael Woodhouse
Sir,
I wish to emphatically deny that the Woodhouses that were constructed on the site are not related to me or any of my extended family. Comments such as thick as two short planks will be ignored as will any other thoughts about wooden out-houses.
However thanks to the organisers asking for the top models in each of the three classes to be delivered to the Woodhouse I am now in possession of a winning fleet of models that I could use at a future championships.
He would (wood) say that wouldn’t he?
Thanks for the well ordered covering of the event from which I’m now trying to recover! 40C an unheard number in the UK.
Michael Woodhouse
SEN at the World Champs
At the World Champs we use SEN’s news flash capability because we can do it from the field. One down side appears to be people keep unsubscribing themselves by accident. The other is that it is difficult to reprint posting from people. At this Champs we had some issue with internet access at out hotel so regular SEN was more difficult
What’s happening?
From: Gene Ulm
Where is the daily newsfeed? We’re dying out here?
Gene – Note to organizer’s of 2019 Champs how about having a press officer to make regular flashes as well as putting the results online promptly.
What no chairs?
From:Terry Kerger
No chairs and only one tripod for the time keepers?
Keep the news blasts coming. Let us know how F1B fly offs and F1A turns out.
All our F1A big names hopefully will survive 5 rounds to get to the big boy rounds.
—
Terry Kerger | PE
Editor’s Comment: Terry, you are correct there were not tripods. There were chairs but not enough for the extra time keepers allocated for the fly offs. But at that point in the fly off the wind had swung so it was only a few degrees off the line and the timekeepers moved to get a better view point so none were using their chairs.
Cancelled once before
From: Jim Bradley
Roger,
First off thanks for the daily updates. I have enjoyed your day to day reports. Your report of F1B day said the first round was started, stopped, and the then canceled and completely re-flown and that you have never heard of this happening before, at least at the World Champs. Actually there is at least one instance I know of that this has happened before.
At the 1983 World Champs in Australia F1B was started and a couple of rounds were flown but during the 3rd round, I think, it got very windy and started to rain. The organizers stopped the round and ended up canceling that round and everyone who had flown had their time canceled. As it turned out the rest of the day was suspended and the remaining rounds were flown on the reserve day, in a light rain. I was there flying on the F1A team.
Jim Bradley
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Roger Morrell