National Free Flight Society

SEN 2095

Table of Contents – SEN 2095

  1. More of the FAI Rules Changes Proposals
  2. Sporting Code
  3. C Fuel
  4. One Size ?

More of the FAI Rules Changes Proposals
Germany F1Q 3.Q.

Change weight limit for energy calculation:

The motor run time will be determined by a maximum energy
amount. In addition, motor runs over 40 seconds are regarded
as overruns. The energy budget of each model is 4 Joules per
gram of the total weight. For energy calculations, weight
exceeding 550 grams is to be ignored. Energy limitation will be
by an energy limiter or by a motor run limit related to
measured power.

Reasons
After the point of establishing the maximum weight of 550
gram to energy allocation into the rules, many sportsmen have
invested a lot of time to build or money to buy new models to
meet this requirement. Since the implementation of this
requirement only a short time past and these models are in best
condition.

If the new limit of weight will be valid permanently, all these
model airframes and the big effort to make these ready to flight
are obsolete. To reach a target with a rule change (in this case
performance reduction), it should be carefully selected the best
way and not a multiple rule revision at the same time. This will
lead to the situation, that a number of sportsmen will no longer
follow the rapidly rule changes and will quit fly F1Q. It’s not a
good impulse for further increasing of participation in this
class.

This new amount of weight limitation doesn’t have a
significant influence of the performance reduction which
should be achieved with the rule change last year. It will only
give a disadvantage for the larger models in opposite to the
smaller ones.

Due to the 2015 rules with reduced energy and extended motor
run time there is a trend to slow, long time climb models with a
low wing load. Thus the safety argument to reduce the weight
and to minimize the energy and the risk of damages in case of a
crash is no longer a very important one. The high speed
climbing models were a requirement of the rule with battery
weight and motor time limitation. These climb figure will have
a disadvantage under the new rules, so the high speed; straight
climbing models will lose importance.
To play with energy amount and motor run time is a good way
to find an acceptable level of performance. It’s to avoid make
imprudent changes at the airframes of the models in the future.
To change some technical components or setup parameters is
much easier, although in the past there was also some
turbulences (e.g. in the case of detailed limiter specifications).
The last season has shown that slower models become
advantages in the competition. This will lead in the future to a
process of replacing the less competitive heavier models by
model designs which have better adapted characteristics for the
new rule without the need of an extra rule change. By avoiding
making old models obsolete, rule changes will be more easily
accepted by the competitors.

FFSC: F1 Annex 1 World Cup – 4.Points Allocation

Multiply points awarded for places by 10 and simplify bonus
points to one per person beaten by replacing first part of (4) by:
Points are allocated to competitors at each contest
according to their placing in the results and the number
of competitors beaten as given in the following table and
the following items:

 Placing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 Points 500 400 300 250 200 190 180 170
 Placing 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
 Points 160 150 140 130 120 110 100 90
 Placing 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
 Points 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

Each competitor awarded placing points is eligible
for one bonus point for each competitor they have
beaten in the competition. The number of people
beaten by someone in place P is (N-P) with N the
number of competitors defined in b) below.

Reasons

The current system awards bonus points for every 5 or 10
people beaten so there is a jump of one bonus points as each
threshold is crossed. The proposed system introduces a smooth
increase of bonus points for every single person beaten. To
maintain the relative magnitude of bonus points and place
scoring points without resorting to decimal points, the scoring
points in the table are the current values multiplied by 10. The
smooth progression of bonus points will reduce the advantage
of adding a specific number of nominal competitors to an event
to increase the winner’s bonus points.

FFSC: F1 Annex 1 World Cup – 4.Points Allocation

Change para (b) to:
b) Points are awarded only to competitors in the top
half of the results list (if N is the number of
competitors who completed a flight in the first
round of the competition, then the points from the
above table are awarded only for places 1 to N/2,
rounding up when necessary in calculating the N/2
place).

Reasons
This ensures that the number of competitors is known after the
first round, fixing the number who can be awarded World Cup
points and the maximum number of bonus points available,
with no possibility of change by introducing late entries.

FFSC: F1 Annex 2

Update organisers guides

FFSC Volume ABR B.17.6 Identification Marks

Remove the free flight specific words from the end of
paragraph B.17.6.b which require the organisers to mark each
part of free flight models.

Reasons

There is currently confusion between the requirement in
B.17.6.b to mark every part of a free flight model and the later
rule in B.17.13.a that the indication of a free flight model
having been processed must be by a single stamp or mark by
the FAI sticker. B.17.13 had introduced simplifications of
processing free flight models to reduce the time spent in
processing. The model identification identifies the model
processed without the need for a lot of stickers or stamps on
every component. While there might be some slight risk of the
rule being avoided by a competitor having a number of
components with the same identification number, it is
considered that this unlikely to be a significant risk to set
against the overall simplification of avoiding lots of stamps or
stickers which often come off or are washed away during a
competition.

FFSC All Technical volumes.

Change the numbering system in the technical volumes to
replace the leading numbers of the current numeric system
N.x.x by the class abbreviation.

Reasons

The numbers used in the Sporting Code originally related to its
position as part numbers of the single book which contained
the Sporting Code. Since the Code now appears only as
separate volumes it is redundant to continue the use of the
numbering system starting with 3 and higher for specific
classes.

Instead it is proposed that all paragraphs in volume F1 start
with “F1” , those in volume F2 start with”F2”, etc. This serves
to identify the volume within the current format of the Sporting
Code. Furthermore by adding the class letter, the specification
for each class can be considered alone with completely selfexplanatory
evidence of the class to which the rules apply. Any
cross-references to rules (for example from Annexes) are also
made more comprehensible. You do not need to make the
mental conversions such as “3.4 applies to F1D” or “5.2
applies to F3D” since it is obvious which class a rule covers.
When rule changes are being considered there is also greater
clarity in knowing which class is affected by a specific
paragraph.

To give some examples:
In volume F1 Free Flight paragraph 3.4.7 in the F1D
rules becomes F1D.7.
In Volume F2 Control Line paragraph 4.3.6 in the F2C
rules becomes F2C.6.
In Volume F5 Electric paragraph 5.5.4.7 in the F5B rules
becomes F5B.7
In Volume F4 Scale paragraph 6.3.4 in the F4C rules
becomes F4C.6

Some technical volumes start with a general section applicable
to all classes within the volume, this would be numbered with
the basic volume letters, e.g. F4. Currently the different
technical volumes use a variety of schemes to number the
annexes, these can be transferred by the inclusion of the
volume indicator to the number.

FAI SPORTING CODE 2016

The volumes of the 2016 Edition of the Sporting Code Section
4 are now published on the FAI website.
These documents can be found at: http://www.fai.org/ciamdocuments
(then scroll down to find the heading “Sporting
Code”)
For the full rules governing free flight you will need the
technical Volume F1 and the general rules Volume ABR.

Re: SEN 2094
From: Douglas Galbreath

I think the F1C fuel rule should have been changed to synthetic oil only. It is so much better in every way. Klotz was always the same and very good.
Happy New Year
DG

Douglas Galbreath

Re: SEN 2094 – one Size ?
From: Paul Crowley
usa2298@comcast.net

Roger,
First, Happy Birthday !!
Would you please tell me how the one size fits all works? I have always paid my entry fees up front, can you still do this?
How does the long range weather forecast look? I already have my plane ticket so I’ll be there.
will I see you at Eloy next week?

Thanks,
Paul Crowley

Paul – Not sure what you mean about the one size fits all – I presume you are talking about the online entry for the Fab Feb.

In the past the MaxMen required all USA entrants to pay in advance, the other two contests [Kiwi/Ike and North American) did not.

In the past the three contests exchanged some information about the entrants.

If you enter online your entry information will be given to 3 contests. It helps us in preparing the scoring information etc ahead of time. One of the very time consuming activities done by the Kiwi/Ike is the AMA Associate memberships for the international visitors. This involves providing name, address and email information and filling out a form that is not in the sportsman’s native language. By giving us this information ahead of time we can prepare those forms and make sign up much faster.
The First 2 events do not have pole allocations but the Maxmen does and they will use the information to make pole allocations.

So far we have about 60 people who have entered online.

Because the 3 events are run by different groups and the participants come from many countries (about 30 last year) we have not worked out a way of paying in advance for everything that is not to cumbersome or expensive. The MaxMen flyer give information how US contestants can pay in advance for that event.

On the weather we did get some El Nino rain yesterday and today but it is against California Law to suggest that the weather might be bad for some important event .

Hopefully this week’s rain will cause some grass to grow for the Feb events.

Roger

……………….
Roger Morrell