SEN 97-01 - 16 Jun 1997
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SEN 97-01 16 June 1997
Sezimovo competition
Dear Scat,
Enclosed you'll find a letter Anselmo Zeri and me sent to the FAI. Maybe
it is of interest to all of you who come to Sazena in August.
Please be alerted for 'local rules'.
The following is the letter sent by Allard Van Wallene and Anslermo Zeri.
Subcommissie Vrije Vlucht
Koninklijke Nederlandse
Vereniging voor Luchtvaart
To:
Fédération Aeronautique International
Department of Aeromodelling
From:
Allard van Wallene
Oudeweg 35
NL 2631 PA Nootdorp
Netherlands
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Anselmo Zeri
De Colman 21
2291 JK Wateringen
Netherlands
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Subject: World Cup competition at Sezimovo Usti 1997
Nootdorp, 27/5/97
Dear Sir,
We would like to report some serious deviations from the FAI regulations
in the fly-off of the 1997 Sezimovo Usti World Cup competition. Not only
were the fly offs in F1A and F1B not flown according to the current FAI
rules, the rules as applied also seriously affected the result of some of the
flyers participating in that fly off. Here are the objective data:
16.00 Announcement of the fly off times by the contest director:
17.00 - 17.10 F1A fly off, max. 5 minutes
17.20 - 17.30 F1B fly off, max. 5 minutes
18.00 - 18.10 F1A fly off.
18.20 - 18.30 F1B fly off.
17.00 Start of F1A fly off
17.10 End of F1A fly off
17.20 Start of F1B fly off
17.30 End of F1B fly off
Flyers moved downwind to retrieve their models
Between 17.30 and 18.00 the contest director changed the time schedule
and maximum flight times for the second fly off for both F1B and F1A,
without informing all the flyers, some of them being still downwind
retrieving their models:
18.00 - 18.02 F1A fly off, max 5 minutes (2 minutes working time)
18.20 - 18.25 F1B fly off, max. 5 minutes (5 minutes working time)
These fly offs were in fact flown according to this time schedule.
To our opinion, rules can not be changed like this without informing all the
flyers involved. It is even questionable if the working time can be
shortened, as this falls outside the FAI regulations. These sudden and
unexpected deviations from the FAI rules resulted in the following:
Fritz Wilkening, one of the flyers who was not informed about these
changes, lost his model in unaccessible terrain, because he set his timer to
7 minutes, while some other flyers could set their timers to 5 minutes, and
retrieve their models for the next fly off. He could not fly the last fly off
round.
Allard van Wallene suffered from at least 2 line crosses due to the fact that
14 flyers had to launch in 2 minutes time. The model of Allard crashed and
was severely damaged because of this. Being convinced there were still 8
minutes of working time left, he rushed to prepare another model for the
second attempt, when the 2 minutes (should be 10 minutes in accordance
with FAI regulation) working time expired, leaving him with a flight time
of only a few seconds.
Anselmo Zeri had set his timer to 7 minutes. At the very start of the second
F1B fly off he discovered the maximum flight time was changed to 5
minutes. Anselmo had to reset the timer to 5 minutes, losing precious
working time. At launch, his model was hit by turbulence and flew for 5
seconds. When the model was quickly prepared for a re-flight, the working
time of 5 minutes (should be 10 minutes in accordance with FAI
regulation) ended. Maybe needless to say that according to the thermistor
readings, a re-flight of Anselmo could have resulted in a max and a 1st
place.
It is very probable that also other flyers were affected by these FAI rule
deviations.
It is noted that the presentation of the local rules as indicated above, does
not comply with Part B.5.4. (Local Rules) of the FAI Sporting Code
Section 4b.
The tight flying schedule in combination with retrieving difficulties
prevented us from filing an official protest during the competition.
We hereby respectfully request that measures will be taken to prevent such
kind of poor organisation in contests falling under the World Cup label,
and by consequence under the F.A.I. responsibility.
Furthermore we would like to be informed about the justification and
implementation (in disagreement with Part B.5.4 as indicated above) of
these local rules that you will undoubtedly receive, not later than the 30th
of June, by means of the report from the President of the Jury in
accordance with Part B.4.1. (FAI Jury) of the FAI Sporting Code Section
4b.
Sincerely yours,
Allard van Wallene Anselmo Zeri.