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SEN 2859

  1. “Altimeter” part of the Sporting Code
  2. Not happy with this – this is a different game
  3. October Forecast

Altimeter part of the Sporting Code

Seeing there is discussion around this , here is the section of the Sporting Code.
General Regulations for Free Flight Contests

SC4_Vol_F1_FreeFlight_21 Effective 1st January 2021 Page 12

F1.1.4 Additional Flights in Open Internationals
In the specification of each outdoor free flight class a procedure is defined for additional flights to decide the individual placings when there is a tie. The maximum flight time is increased for each additional flight subject to conditions. This procedure must be followed at Championships and should be followed at Open Internationals.
At Open Internationals the organisers sometimes have a problem completing this regular procedure. For exceptional reasons of strong winds, poor visibility, inadequate field space, or unavailability of the field for continuation on the following day, Open Internationals may use a non-standard additional flight procedure for all outdoor F1 classes except F1E with the following conditions:
a) A non-standard procedure must be used ONLY for these exceptional reasons of strong winds, poor visibility, inadequate field space, or unavailability of the field for continuation on the following day.
b) An “altitude flyoff” may be specified when F1 altimeters have been approved by CIAM EDIC:
i) The procedures for a regular additional flight for the class are followed
ii) A maximum flight time is defined which should be at least two minutes.
iii) The flight is timed up to the maximum time
iv) For all competitors attaining the maximum flight time, the altitude of the model at the maximum flight time is read from the altimeter and for scoring purposes this value is rounded to the nearest metre.
v) The individual placings are determined by the highest altitudes for all flights attaining the maximum, followed by time order.
vi) Equal altitudes are considered to be a tie, which may be resolved by another additional flight.

Not happy with this – it is a different game.

From:Pierre Chaussebourg

I  don’t see anything  good with altimeters .
Free flight évents are based on a duration flights compétition .
These flights are timed by human being timekeepers according to specific rules published in the FAI sporting code with a risk  of error as nobody is perfect, but this is part of the game  (even with VAR system)
If compétition results are based on anything else than Flight times directly observed by human timekeepers, then it is no more Free Flight and complete new sets of rules must be invented with new specific definitions .
When final classification cannot be obtained because of weather night or anything else, rules say that w/cup points must be shared!
There is nothing else to add to that!
Pierre

October Forecast

The recent announcement from the CIAM starts F1 World contests  on 1 July.  As they say the CIAM announcement the Covid situation is still evolving and no matter where the events are held it may or may not be practical for people to attend. That’s clearly a personal decision or situation.

In an earlier SEN we said that various contest organizers from the February events were looking at moving the 3 Lost Hills February events to be held in conjunction with the 2 World Cup contests, Sierra and Kotuku that are normally run in October.  At that time no one  knew if the World Cups would be active, it covid situation or if travel rules would permit attendance, etc.  Since that time, we have got comments or seen in social media about people who want to attend, or not, just some of the events or all of them.  We know from running World Cup contests that significant preparation is required for these events especially if a large number of people plan on attending from outside the USA.  Back some months ago we asked people about how many people would attend  events in the USA. The number of people who said yes was less than 10, plus a few more provided the stars were aligned. We have seen more than that recently on social media.

So, we would like an updated forecast of who might attend.  A full plan would have 5 F1ABCPQ World Cup events and 3 or 4 F1E events, plus mini-events and some AMA events.  This would start on 2 October and go to 17 October   This involves 3 weekends flying plus during the week. This means that  out of town, out of country  people wanting to attend all would need to arrive before the first weekend and leave just after the last. While people want to “catch up” on their World Cup events, that might be too much of Lost Hills given the circumstances, so we want to know how you feel about it and plan on attending, so we can set up things appropriately.

So here are the questions:

  1. Where are coming from –
    1. outside the USA (what country),
    2. travel more than 1500 miles in the USA,
    3. local.
  2. How many flyers in your group?
  3. How many World Cup events would you take part in ?
  4. How many non-World Cup events would you take part in ?

The tentative schedule we showed had one World Cup on the first weekend and  2  world cup events on each of the following  2 weekends. That makes 5 with other events fitted in between.  The plan is to group the F1E events close together.

  1. Given that would you come for:
    1.  one,
    2. two or
    3. three weekends ?
  2. When would you make your decision?
    1. July
    2. August
    3. September
    4. October
  3. Any other comments?

By weekend we mean the actual weekend and possible a day or before or after.

Send your reply by replying to this SEN.  If you have difficulty with that you can send it to my regular email.  r_morrell@yahoo.com