SEN 2440
- DT flyoffs
- DT Flyoff – is there a better solution ?
- I’m with Frederic
- Two Issues
DT flyoffs
From: Aram Schlosberg
Last year I was present at a DT flyoff on a very windy day on the last day of the Swedish Cup cycle. Models were out of sight in a minute and a half and contestants were getting ready to drive or fly back home.
To my surprise a DT flyoff, set for one minute, worked very well. It tests two features – pure performance and air picking. (For example, looking at altimeter graphs for B models shows the effect of a thermal or down draft as soon as the model begins to cruise.)
The third flyoff component – the time above the DT time (one or two minutes) till say 8 or 10 minutes has a large component of luck, depending on how well the timers can follow an incredibly distant model against a distant background far off the field, as the sun is setting in the evening or rising in the morning.
I think that flyoffs should skip the third component. They are unjustified when models would land in areas that are difficult to retrieve from, particularly in the dark.
(A long time ago, a C model flown by Andrei Kirilenko landed far to the south in the direction of route 46. By the time we packed up and drove down to route 46 it became pitch dark. Andrei disappeared for a long time and eventually found his model on a ravine garden by a large black snake.)
The thrill of the chase or bragging that one’s model did 10 minutes makes us feel good. But this should not be the reason to hold long flyoffs risking both flyers and retrievers.
Local conditions and common sense should trump formal flyoff rules.
Aram
DT Flyoff – is there a better solution ?
From: john carter
DT fly off at Equinox cup and other events .
We have as at Equinox cup had a number of World Cup events using a form of DT fly off . We have however to consider the reasons for making this to some extent un popular end to a contest . It does provide an conclusion and a result, not unlike the penalty shootout in football ?
I have said in the past the problem we have is our models now have far to much performance and this needs to be addressed.
Many flying sites world wide that we use are not big enough. The U.K. site we use is at Salisbury, over the years it as been planted with many trees . We also have been given new restrictions by the Military who operate the site. This make flying more difficult We need to prevent as far as possible models leaving the sites boundaries and we have as organisers a responsibility to see any rest to both flyer and models is keep to a minimum . The world is now a much different place to when most of us flyers stared in free flight and we must adapt to this new world Free flight must adapt to survive.
It is inevitable that DT fly offs will be used more and more.
If we don’t like them we need to find an other solution to providing a result post rounds in a contest (having everyone who maxes out and no fly off then all given first place is no result )
It would nice to see a debate (positive) on what we can do to solve this issue
Good flying John Carter UK
I’m with Frederic
From:RIGAULT Mickael
In answer to the message of Frederic Aberlenc:
I agree with Frederic and do not agree with this type of fly off. it is not free flight. I was there and participated at this fly off. all competitors were consulted. but I did not agree and i said it.(otherwise, the rules say before fly off have been changed after the fly off). when contests will respect by the FAI rules?
Regards,
Mickael
Two Issues
From: The Editor
So we are looking at two issues here, mainly around World Cup events. World cup events are important to the continuation of Free Flight. World Champs are important but only a small number of people get to take part. And with some strong Free Flight countries it can be very difficult to get on the national team. World Cup events give us all the opportunity to fly against the best “sportsmen” on the well known flying sites that in the past we just read about in the press. For taking part in these events to be a positive experience they have to be conducted in in a fair way giving a “fair sporting result”. Compared with a World champs the World Cup events have to be fitted into our daily lives so the events are much more compressed giving less flexibility around bad weather.
Firstly, How do we get a sporting result when we just run out of time to finish a flyoff, generally because of weather. The issue is that people have used DT flyoff to do this ns this is not officially in the rules.
The second issue is that in some events approaches have been taken to come up with a “sporting result” but some approaches are not included in the sporting code, so what’s OK. For example contest directors sometimes shorten or lengthen both the max and length of regular and fly off rounds, this decision is typically made in the interest safety or a sporting result such as the ability to retrieve the models in time for the next competition flight or even site departure. The DT fly off stretched the rules a bit further and as some of our readers think too far. In the rules we go to great lengths to describe all cases making the contest fair for everyone, from the correspondence we are departing from that so should address it.