National Free Flight Society

SEN 3273

  1. Re the OOS fly off
  2. Answers
  3. From BiFF Ma and Aeromodeller
  4. Fab Feb Question
  5. Champs date ?

 

Re the OOS fly off 
From: John Carter

Re the OOS fly off
Well UK CAA article 16i is clear the pilot must be able to see model when flying it’s also unaided line of sight (of course if pilot goes down wind during flight line of sight and time in air should be longer
Clearly flying models OOS deliberately is in UK an offence and beyond the regulations .
I believe most of Europe follows the same rules  essentially.
The FAI really does need to address this situation and amend FO rules before we have an incident that easily could put an  end to FF .

John Carter


Answers

From: Bernd Hönig

Hello
Subject of the questions.
RDT. It would certainly be a consequence of this that all models must have an RDT. Although I am of the opinion that hardly anyone in the FAI classes flies without an RDT.
Air law states that you are not allowed to fly outside the visual range.
The pilot may also not use any optical aids.
Basically, it is the pilot who has to make the decision. Whether someone else can still see the model is not defined. It is naturally assumed that the majority of model pilots are piloting an RC model. However, no distinction is made between the models.
But as a competition leader you are not allowed to give the go-ahead if it is clearly recognizable that a visible flight is not possible. Last weekend, the competition organizers at the West Bohemia WC Cup also interrupted the run because the cloud cover was very low.

Bernd Hönig


From BiFF Ma and Aeromodeller

Because of the cosmic alignment of international travel and postal services I just got  my September 2024 copy of Aeromodeller in the “Heard at the Hanger Doors “editorial section . Aeromodeller reports that BMFA = British model Flying Association the NAC for the UK have made the decision to require RDT on FF models that weight more than 25 grams.  The Aeromodeller comments that the rule needs some more work and comments on the conflict between the use of binocular in most modelling sporting codes and requirement in some civil aviation regulation that refers to unaided visual line of sight.   Also in that issue is a letter from the well known but outspoken British Freeflighter, Dave Hipperson who also points similar issues that need work.

We believe that we have heard the BFMA being pronounced as Biff Ma, so while we observe that English pronunciation is a little challenging for non-native English speakers we give this pronunciation aid.

But I must admit I was a little surprised that English flyer John Carter who wrote the first article above did not refer to the BFMA action.


Fab Feb Question

As usual this time of the year we have received a number of questions about the dates etc. for Fab Feb 2025.  We give our usual reply that getting all together requires that coordination of 3 different NACs plus the FAI/CIAM and coordination of a whole big group of organizers.  Fab Feb finishes with MaxMen International and that always finishes on the President’s Day Public Holiday.  That is on Monday 17 Feb in 2025.  The plan is to provide the usual online entry with physical sign up at Lost Hills on Friday 7 Feb 2025.  When all the details are finalized and approved that will be printed. As soon as we can.

As a side comment at the October World Cup events and the USA Team Selection event we found a different flight line location on the Lost Hills  field that reduced the number of early morning trips to the pits.


Champs date

On the subject of Dates , after the USA Team Selection some of those who earned Team Places were looking at planning there 2025 travel but were concerned because the could find the Champs dates ? Did we miss that ?

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…………..
Roger Morrell