SEN 2451 - How bad is BAD? How much Jail Time ? who is the Judge? which Jury ?

Table of Contents – SEN 2451

 

How bad is BAD? How much Jail Time ? who is the Judge?  which Jury ?

 

  1. Sporting Code violations
  2. Misdemeanor or Felony 
  3. Fly offs or bust
  4.  

 

Sporting Code violations

 

From: Leslie Farkas

 

Many of the comments are trying  to emphasize and confirm that we do have a sporting code. We are all aware of this. What we are trying  to discuss is that when serious violations are being committed,  there no accountability for the offenders. A reprimand or suspension would serve as a deterrent and ensure in the future that individuals or federations will be penalized. Pierre, Sergey and others mentioned that abide by the Sporting Code. If this is the solution, could anybody confirm how it is and will be enforced? Clearly a jury at the competition is not the answer. CIAM should have a judicial panel to rule in case of violations. The penalties can be a disqualification, a monetary fine, or both. This will make people and federations more accountable. Running a major competition is a serious commitment which comes with obligations. It is not enough to simply collect the entry fees, but these fees should fund the services and organization we should expect as international competitors. I am not worried about minor deviations but when the fundamental rules are ignored or changed for a competition, that is a major issue and should not be tolerated. 

 

This problem must be addressed because deviations were made not just at World Cups, but also at World Championships.  I can give one example from about twenty years ago when at the World Championship, modelers of a country continued ignoring the organizer's request to stop launching models from the spectator area, Mr. Sandy Pimenoff stepped in and in very clear language told the people that if one more model was launched, the responsible nation would be disqualified for a blatant safety violation. The result was that the unwanted activity  stopped. That is what I consider taking steps to ensure that rules are followed.

 

Regarding the high performance of the models and the large number of fly off participants, I found it interesting that a rule change was introduced to reduce the number of rounds from seven to five. Based on the Mongolian  World Championships, I submitted the stats to CIAM that in the sixth round, eight percent and in the seventh also eight percent of flyers dropped. With five rounds we did not reduce the number of flyers, but actually increased it. To this we also added the fifth extended rounds with the midday strong thermals. In my opinion this defies any logic and common sense.   

 

I would like to thank  Per for his comments and detailed explanation about our present situation. I found out years ago that  Ian is  not getting remunerated for all the work he is doing. At the time I said to him "this should be changed".  I understand that we are only volunteers but I know that in many sports like hockey, baseball, basketball, swimming, athletics and others, volunteers are used and organized in a much more efficient manner.Yes, I know that IOC and FIFA are not the best examples because of the politics and corruption but I was making a reference about their structured organization.

 

With regards to the high performance issue, we have enough professionals like Eggleston, Makarov, Babenko, Andriukov, Findahl,  Summersby, Breeman or Mathews, just to mention some of them, who should be involved in the process of how to reduce the model's performance. By the way, Brian Eggleston is the one who revolutionised our sport with his new LDA profiles and improved the performance of the models which we are having difficulties with. 

 

Together through dialogue and cooperation we need to resolve the issues that plague our sport. Without the adequate adjustments and enforcing the Sporting Code, I'm afraid our sport will disappear. Logic and common sense can not be legislated, but with a soundly organized and well thought out system, we can assure that competition and sportsmanship will prevail.

 

 

 

Leslie Farkas

 

 

Misdemeanor or Felony** 

 

Editor’s Comment 

 

Isn’t one of the issues – what is a serious violation?  I think we all agree that something like permitting models that are too light, towlines too long, rubber motors over 30 grams, oversize motors or motor runs too long are all serious violations. Same with letting the “local hero” fly after the end of the round, because he is the “local hero”

 

But what about flying from a line rather than moving poles? Or with sportsmen timing each other ?  Without these violations we just would not have any events .

 

So the current “hot” violation is getting a winner by means of a D/T fly off.  Some people don’t care, some people think it is a good idea because it gets a winner, some people think it is not a sporting way to finish  Free Flight event,  some people don’t like it because they don’t like “any” departure from the sporting code and some people don’t like it because it materially effects the World Cup.

 

** in some country’s legal systems there are two classes of crimes - misdemeanors or felonies. The first are considered less serious and the penalties and additional consequences minor while a felony is considered a major crime with serious penalties and consequences.

 

 

 

Fly offs or bust

 

From: Jeff Ellington

 

 

 Good day everyone, Lynn Pulley and I were at a contest about 5 years ago, we were  the only F1C fliers in the fly offs. We were at lost hills, fly offs were set at 4:30, wind was out of the north, blowing about 15 mph, neither him or I wanted to chase our airplanes into the trees or over highway 46, without asking anyone else, we both decided to quick DT our airplanes, no one was upset and the contest was decided.

  

   I am sure in different circumstances, things would be more difficult. I didn’t get the chance to read, what happened at the contest but I am sure he did the best he could at the time, using the sporting code as a guide line to finish the contest. 

    

Jeff Ellington