Re: Re: F1D rules change proposal

From: Brett Sanborn <brett.d.sanborn_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2014 11:00:20 -0500

After looking at participation at the WC contest over the decades, we
haven't really seen a big increase after the initial ramp up in competitors
from 1961-1972. The best attended WC was in 1986 at Cardington with 51
competitors from 17 countries. The average number of competitors from
1972-2000 when the rules changed is 34.667 competitors (not sure who is the
2/3 of a competitor). Then, from 2002-2012 with the advent of the 1.2 g 55
cm the average number of competitors was (surprisingly) 34.667.

Did the new rules breathe life into an otherwise dying hobby? Maybe. There
was a slight rise in participation. In the two years before the rules
change, the WC was attended by 24 and 27 competitors. The three cycles
following the rules change there were 31, 36, and 31 competitors. These 5
contests were all held in Slanic. The number of teams attending these
contests also dropped from 11 to 10 in 1998 and 2000, respectively, then
increased to 12 and 13 countries in 2002 and 2004. So could the overall
rise in participation be due to some other factor like funding of teams?

Is the goal to make the F1D WC have 100+ competitors flying in a gym
(quiet, Deloach)? I think the stated goal to reduce flight times might not
be achieved since people will come up with more efficient designs beyond
the traditional approach with the new rules that will yield times that are
only a bit less than what we're doing now. I thought the desired outcome of
the 55 cm class was to reduce times? I'll be no one guessed that we'd be
doing 40 minutes with these. It's also interesting to note that the best 65
cm time was 53 minutes done by Steve Brown and the some of the best 55 cm
times are all in the 42-43 minute range.

I'm not sure we need to keep tinkering with the rules.

Brett


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 9:05 AM, Nick Ray <lasray_at_gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> Thank you for bring this to our attention Tapio.
>
> The CIAM Proposal indicates that main rational for changing thenrules is
> to limit flying times, in order to allow contests to be held in shorter
> time periods. I think that could be accomplished by flying three rounds per
> day. The current two round per day structure is a little slow even from the
> standpoint of a full team. If we switched to a three round per day schedule
> we could shorten the contest schedule by a full day without having to worry
> about any other consequences that might come about from changing the model.
> Shortening the contest by a full day saves both time, and money.
>
> The second point made in the Proposal is that due to unavailability of
> Y2K2 we need to raise the model weight. I agree that lighter covering gives
> an advantage in that it allows more of the model weight to be allocated to
> structural components. Nevertheless, since the Proposal doesn't ban Y2K2
> or microfilm the current weight advantage will continue to apply. It is
> possible build a model with the current rules with OS and it will continue
> to be advantageous to use Y2K2 if the rule change is adopted.
>
> Regards,
>
> Nick Ray
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 8:40 AM, mkirda_at_sbcglobal.net <mkirda_at_sbcglobal.net
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> The North Koreans might have a chance then...
>>
>>
>> --- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, Don Slusarczyk <don_at_...>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> The only debate will be height of the
>> > contestant launching his model so F1D teams will have NBA players
>> > launching models they bought on the internet :-)
>> >
>> > Don
>>
>>
>
>
Received on Wed Feb 05 2014 - 08:00:21 CET