SEN 3171
- Timing Flights
- About Time Project
Timing Flights
From:Gauthier Brière
Hello SEN readers,
An altimeter is an altitude measuring instrument and not a time measuring instrument!
Our free flight competitions are duration competitions, not altitude competitions.
Apart from the altimeter flyoff, which is, I think, a good solution to close a competition when the weather conditions or the terrain do not allow otherwise, but it is not the norm.
Given the recognized difficulty in finding competent timekeepers, and given the difficulty in timing our scale models, perhaps we may indeed need an automatic timing system.
But we have to start at the beginning and define real specifications.
Retired after a career dedicated to new technologies, I have too often had to respond to customer needs expressed in the term of solution and not of need and as a general rule, this method has always given the worst solutions.
An altimeter may be part of the automatic timing solution for our free flight models, but it is certainly not the complete solution we need.
It is urgent that the self-proclaimed members of the “CIAM EDIC” correct this unfair rule of the use of an altitude measuring instrument allowing the timekeepers to be challenged during the fly-offs of international championships!
Especially since this damn rule is in complete contradiction with the other parts of the sporting code which precisely define the way to specify the flight time.
And what should we think of having left in the sporting code the possibility of using non-certified altimeters when the certification specifications have been defined and certified altimeters are now available?
Dear sirs of EDIC, do your work!
– Write a real “free flight automatic measuring flying time specifications” document,
– launch a call for tenders,
– carefully study the answers ,
– discuss, propose, test and made choice,
And only after this, change the rules in the sporting code:
– Suppress the incompatibles manual timing rules,
– add the automatic timing rules and process.
As an ex (but not too old) new technologies professional I can help you if you need.
@++;
Gauthier.
About Time Project (Part 1)
Editorial
After the recent World Champs the group that runs the Fab Feb got the planning the 2024 event. Lots of work to do and things to talk about. At Fab Feb we like to run a great event and do a something a little extra. There has lot of discussion around topics like Gauthier talks about above.
One of the subjects was the use of the altimeter to protest a fly off flight time and why do we do that anyway. The reason why we do it is because a number of good flyers we not happy with how their flights were timed at major events. This was not a complaint about a particular event or organizer . It was saying it is really hard to time these flight and some of us that are organizers just can’t find enough good timekeepers. One observation from the France was that even with the top flyers and experienced Team Managers they still got some of the process wrong in the F1A so some use of an altimeter was disallowed, so it has to be easy to use. One comment was it’s only for the rich guys who can buy the gadget to get extra seconds. Then someone pointed out that it not always the case because timing errors don’t only deprive people of seconds because the timer can’t see the model but sometimes they can give the sportsman extra seconds when they time wrong model because they lost sight of it and then saw it again, except that it was actually a different model. So even if you had one of these altimeter challenge the time gizmos you can’t challenge the time of another sportsman who may have been gifted extra seconds.
Like Gauthier we wanted to do something. We understand that this is a big changes and that there are many issues and concerns. Some of us have been involved with companies that faced difficult issues and went through drastic efforts and changes to fix things. The structure of the FAI is different from a company and it can’t always do the same things. We all like Free Flight and decided we would like to do something to push this along a bit further. Some of us had used the Neuron because it is works well and is certified and because it has some extra features that would facilitate on board flight recording and timing. We are very aware that it is not just a clever gadget we need but something that fits into the Sporting Code and can be used by the event organizer to run an event and produce a sporting result. For example as an event organizer I think that with the 4 second motor run for F1C I do not think I can time that fairly and have even considered not providing F1C because it is so hard to officiate. So what we did was come up with the idea of doing a parallel run and time model with the good old stopwatch and binoculars for the official result and at the same time with a special version of the Neuron with some extra features. There was already some description of possible timing using an onboard flight recorder on the Free Flight EDIC papers. We went to the Flying Neurons and discussed what we wanted to do and offered to finance a few new features. We also spoke with Ian Kaynes as we did not want to upset any plans that the CIAM and FFTSC might have in this space. Both came back with a positive reply.
So we will be offering this as an option at the Fab Feb events. Some people have already seen sone of the details and we will publish more details. One thing we were sure of is the word altimeter would not be used in the description of the project. But we lacked a name for the project. But we modelers are a creative lot with words as well as building and Bernie Crowe of the SCAMPS club in So Cal and a long time Rubber, F1Q and E-36 guy came up with About Time
So this is enough talking from me for now. We know it not the full answer, we know we will need to modify the Sporting Code, we are flyers and organizers just like all of you, so help us push this along.
Part 2 that gives more details real soon now …