National Free Flight Society

SEN 2557

  1. Looking at World Cup points in 3 parts
  2. SidusG2 Altimeter Readout

My personal opinion about new point allocation rules for Free Flight World Cup Contests-Part I
From:Ismet Yurtseven

When FAI Free Flight World Cup 2019 results updated by Mr. Ian Kaynes, I realized that the point allocation rules were completely changed. http://www.freeflightnews.org.uk/wcup/WC19/WCP19F1.HTM

I want to share my opinion about the new rules. First of all, I have to say that my purpose is not to compare the sportsmen and is not to criticize the rules. I am trying to understand which way is better to evaluate the performance of a sportsmen. I am using the current World Cup result list because current F1A ranking is a very good example to see the effect of the new point allocation system.

FAI World Cup 2019 top positions for class F1A

FAI ID    points   competition results
1             Per Findahl             SWE       24737    1443      MM-2 KW-2 NA-6
2             Aviv Balassiano       ISR       78419    1407         NA-2 MM-3 KW-7
3             John Carter             GBR       29438    1244       KW-1 MM-4 NA-13
4             Jama Danier           CAN       26753    1163        MM-1 NA-1 KW-20
5             Jim Parker               USA       89827    988        NA-3 KW-5 MM-24
6             Jes Nyhegn             DEN       17200    917         KW-3 NA-5

At Lost Hills, Jama won 2 big contests (Pan American Cup and MaxMen). He was 20th at Kiwi Cup. In world cup results list, now he is placed to fourth place. If we allocate the points using the old rules, he should be in first place.

Using the new rules, according to my calculation, he should be 9th at Kiwi Cup to be placed in the first place in World Cup ranking. If he was tenth at Kiwi Cup, then he should be placed second place. As a summary, a competitor with 2nd, 2nd and 6th places are getting more points than the competitor with 1st, 1st and 10th places.

The question is: What is the value of winning in strong contests against strong competitors?

In my opinion, assigning the number of points in a linearly decreasing manner will not fairly show the performance of the competitors. I think, getting 1st, 1st and 10th places are higher success than getting 2nd, 2nd and 6th places.

I know that it is highly difficult to find a way to express the performance of a competitor in terms of points. I respect to new rules and all different ideas. And thanks to Mr. Kaynes for his great contribution to free flight and World Cups.

Regards,
Ismet Yurtseven

My personal opinion about FAI Free Flight World Cup Rules 2019 – Points Allocation – Part II

From:Ismet Yurtseven
My personal opinion about FAI Free Flight World Cup Rules 2019 – Points Allocation – Part II

There was a need for some small improvements in the old rules but I am worry there may be the possibility of more problems in the new rules. I don’t want to bother you with long details, but I want to show one of the cases.

Assume that there are two contests: Contest-1 with 50 participants and Contest-2 with 10 participants.
Assume that Sportsmen-A and Sportsmen-B met in these contests and the following results occurred:

Contest-1 (50 participants)           Contest-2 (10 participants)
————————————           ————————————
1-Sportsman-A                                1-Sportsman-B
2-Sportsman-B                                2-Sportsman-A
3..50 Remaining participants            3..10 Remaining participants

After these results, independent of the number of participants, in any point allocation methodology, Sportsmen-A and Sportsmen-B should earn the same number of points.
(Note: In case of allocating points for full max, allocating points for max in flyoff and allocating points depending on similar performance criteria, the results may differ, but this is another situation)
Now look at the situation:

Previous method for points allocation (used in 2018 and previous years):
————————————————————————————————-
Sportsman-A: (Contest-1: 500 + 49 = 549) + (Contest-2: 400 + 8 = 408) = 957 points
Sportsman-B: (Contest-1: 400 + 48 = 448) + (Contest-2: 500 + 9 = 509) = 957 points

New method for points allocation (used in 2019):
——————————————————————
Sportsman-A: (Contest-1: 500 + 49 + 13 = 562) + (Contest-2: 400 + 8 = 408) = 970 points
Sportsman-B: (Contest-1: 480 + 48 = 528) + (Contest-2: 500 + 9 + 3 = 512) = 1040 points

As you see, the previous methodology is generating same number of points for both of the competitors. New methodology is generating different number of points. And, more interestingly, winner of the smaller contest beats the winner of the bigger contest. My believing is this is a kind of logic error.

Regards,
Ismet Yurtseven

 My personal opinion about FAI Free Flight World Cup Rules 2019 – For clarification, one more example – Part 3
From:Ismet Yurtseven

My personal opinion about FAI Free Flight World Cup Rules 2019 – For clarification, one more example – Part 3

I shared my opinion in Facebook and some different replies received. In order to me more clear, I want to give one more example:

Contest-1 (50 participants)           Contest-2 (10 participants)
————————————          ————————————
1-Sportsman-A                                1-Sportsman-X
2-Sportsman-X                                2-Sportsman-B
3-Sportsman-Y                                3-Sportsman-A
4-Sportsman-Z                                4..10 Remaining participants
5-Sportsman-B
6..50 Remaining participants

Now, look at the situation:

Previous method for points allocation (used in 2018 and previous years):
————————————————————————————————-
Sportsman-A: (Contest-1: 500 + 49 = 549) + (Contest-2: 300 + 7 = 307) = 856 points
Sportsman-B: (Contest-1: 200 + 45 = 245) + (Contest-2: 400 + 8 = 408) = 653 points

New method for points allocation (used in 2019):
——————————————————————
Sportsman-A: (Contest-1: 500 + 49 + 13 = 562) + (Contest-2: 300 + 7 = 307) = 869 points
Sportsman-B: (Contest-1: 420 + 45 = 465)      + (Contest-2: 400 + 8 = 408) = 873 points

Is there any mistake that I cannot see in my calculations? I hope, I am interpreting the rules incorrectly.

According to new rules, after Contest-1 and Contest-2, Sportsman-B have more points than Sportsman-A.
Would you decide that if this result is fair or not!

Regards,
Ismet Yurtseven

SidusG2 Altimeter Readout
From:ffelectronics

Hello Roger,
thank you in advance for publishing the ad below on SEN newsletter:

New SidusG2 Altimeter Readout feature
This new feature is compatible with all existing SidusG2 e-timers of all classes and versions, and it just requires a tiny and cheap device named SidusG2 BTbox.

The SidusG2 BTbox downloads the altimeter data from any SidusG2 e-timer and makes it possible to plot, magnify, analyze, compare, save, share it etc. on a mobile phone or tablet running a dedicated App.

It has internal LiPo and integrated microUSB recharge socket. It has only one push button and a multi color LED, along with the popular IR beam transceiver in the front side (like any Sidus programmer) and built-in Bluetooth low energy (BLE) module.

It must be initially paired to the phone/tablet through a simple procedure.

How to use: after model landing the sportsman just opens the App on his phone/tablet, aims the BTBox to the SidusG2 timer IR window on the model, and pushes the button to retrieve the flight data: information is quickly transferred and plotted to the phone display and it is available for detailed analysis, comparison, storing, sharing etc.

Two dedicated Apps are currently available:

– “Altitude Charts” for iOS (and soon for Android) – By Dmytro Merzliakov (UKR), 2016 Junior F1B World Champion and Stepan Stefanchuk’s pupil
– “SidusG2 ADA” for Android – By Kasif Yuksel (TUR), experienced software developer of the staff of the well known F1B sporstman Ismet Yurtseven

Some photos and screenshots are also available on the main FAI free flight groups on Facebook.

Thanks
Massimo