I think the air needs to be cleared about numerous problems that I either experienced or was told about at USIC this year.
There has been a standing rule at USIC that you are not allowed to interfere with the flight of another competitor. If your steering or retrieval line or balloon touches another person's model it is supposed to mean automatic disqualification from that event. If you are attempting to retrieve a model at a time other than a specified retrieval time you do not have the right of way over people who are in the air or who are trying to launch. In past years I have been sternly reminded of this rule on a number of occasions.
I know that is extremely frustrating to have a promising model hung – especially if time is running out to finish your flights. This doesn't give you the right to interfere with another person's flight or launch location. We pick our launch locations to give us the best chance of safe flights. It is grossly unfair to expect someone to change their launch spot to get away from your retrieval attempt.
Another aspect of this problem is that the victims seem to usually be people who are new or relatively new to competition. How many of us would refuse to move if Jim Richmond or Larry Cailliau or John Kagan (fill in your own choice of names here) were attempting to launch?
I would like to see the officials being more active in policing this problem in the future. If a retrieval attempt is being made during the flying period then it should be observed and disallowed if problems are occurring.
At least one contest official this year was willing to step in when a violation of rules occurred. This happened when my attempt at an F1L practice flight on Thursday night got away from me and came close to where F1D's were flying. It was upsetting to get yelled at but I was in the wrong. It would be good in the future if contest officials could enforce ALL the rules this effectively.
Received on Fri Jun 04 2010 - 11:44:46 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:46 CET