BMFA Freeflight Tech Committee news. Issue 40



FFTC Meeting

The FFTC met on 15 September and the following are notes on items of interest.

Grantham Falcons Gala

The Grantham Falcons Gala will be at Barkston Heath on 7 November with a 9am start.
Events are Combined Rubber, Combined power, Combined Glider, Mini Vintage and Catapult Glider all to BMFA rules.
Toilets on Salisbury Plain

It is a requirement that toilets are provided on Salisbury Plain for the major events which include the Stonehenge Cup, the London Gala and the Southern Gala. All arrangements for this provision are to be made through Bernard Aslett.

FFTC Web Site.

Please note that the new FFTC web site continues to be developed and can be found at
http://www.freeflightuk.org/.

FAI Licence Renewal

There is now a link for FAI licence renewal on the BMFA web site.

2011 World Championships

The date for the championships in Argentina has not yet been confirmed but is expected to be some time in April.

Successful competitors in the Team Selection events will be asked to confirm that they will take up their team positions soon after the third selection event due to the limited time available to make preparations for the championships.

UK Internationals

As a number of you have said you wanted more "proper" FAI events it has been agreed that a second Free Flight UK World Cup event will be run in 2011 on the 17th and 18th September. The venue for this International is to be Barkston Heath (subject to confirmation) and it is planned to run it in parallel with the Space International run by the space group as the Equinox Cup. We are looking for a volunteer to organise the free flight event so if you are keen to promote an additional “proper “ FAI event please contact Chris Strachan on 01223 860498 or at chris.strachan@btinternet.com.

Rule Change Proposals for 2011

The proposals for rule changes for 2011 received during the year were circulated together with the comments received. The proposals were considered at the FFTC meeting on 15 September 2010 and final decisions reached on their acceptance or rejection.

The following shows the proposals (in bold) and results (underlined) together with a brief summary of the committee's reasons (in italics). At the end are the actual changes in number order as and where they will appear in the rule book for 2011. Some of these do not appear in the original list of proposals and are for safety reasons or to meet organisational requirements.
  1. Reduce the length of Fly off periods at Area Centralised meetings. Accepted. The fly- off slot for 'all' events to be reduced to 10 minutes. This allows for up to 6 slots within the one hour period at Area Centralised events and also gives more flexibility at Centralised events.
  2. 049 plain bearing glow motors to be permitted in mini vintage. Not accepted. This would be a character change to mini vintage which would do more harm than good.
  3. I.C. Engine run timing. No change. The extensive arguments put forward by both proponents of change (to either the American "last power stroke" approach or the adoption of pressure) and the "it has been OK for50 years" lobby were considered at length. At the end the committee felt that any change was simply going to raise a fresh set of problems.
    4.
  4. P30 class specification – introduce further restrictions. No change. The committee was persuaded by the argument that whatever the restrictions the experts will come out on top. Making the class more restrictive tends to make performance more difficult to achieve for everyone and may even mitigate against the newcomer.

    5.
  5. Frog Junior and Women's Cup at the FF Nationals to be held as separate contests. Accepted. The Frog Junior, and Women's Cup events at the FF Nationals will now be separated from the main BMFA class events. The previous allowance of 'doubling-up' scores in the BMFA classes at the Nationals had caused confusion and more problems than it solved.

  6. Change CLG to seven flights. Accepted. CLG class contests will now be of seven flights. This is the correction of an anomaly, bringing separate CLG in line with HLG and combined HLG/CLG.

    7.
  7. Reduce performance in the E30 class. Accepted. Introduce a one minute motor run limit and no moving surface other than DT restriction. This was proposed by the electric Sub Committee as a solution to excess performance and a removal of the perceived possible risks from running LiPo batteries to fully flat.

    8.
  8. F1B rule correction. Accepted. The minimum airframe weight of an F1B is 200 gms. This is to correct the anomaly of 195 gm shown in domestic rules –uncorrected from a previous rule change.

    9.
  9. RC/DT. The FFTC are minded to permit RC/DT in all classes in 2012. Comment is invited.

    Actual changes to the Free Flight rule book to take effect from January 1st 2011

    Objective 1 To solve organisational problems at all competitions where fly-offs in more than one class are required.

    3.1.4.3 Fly-Offs

    (a) (iii)   The additional flights will determine the order of placing. These flights will be subject to the attempt
    rule 3.1.6 and must be made in a 15 minute period specified by the CD.
    (b)     In Area Centralised contests any competitor returning a maximum score for each of his official flights should make this additional flight even if no other maximum score has been returned in his area. The additional flight must commence within the hour following the close of the contest and must commence within 15 minutes of the starting signal being given.

    Change to read:

    (a) (iii)   The additional flights will determine the order of placing. These flights will be subject to the attempt
    rule 3.1.6 and must be made in a 10 minute period specified by the CD.
    (b)     In Area Centralised contests any competitor returning a maximum score for each of his official flights should make this additional flight even if no other maximum score has been returned in his area. The additional flight must commence within the hour following the close of the contest and must commence within 10 minutes of the starting signal being given.

    Objective 2 To improve safety control where competitors are required to fly from a marked line and correct the omission of class F1P.

    10. 3.1.5 Procedure of Starts
    (d)    During a Centralised FAI contest, for classes F1A, F1B, F1C and F1Q launching must take place within 5 metres of a launch line which will be positioned perpendicular to the wind at the beginning of the round. The line will be deemed to be of infinite length. For the F1A class the helper must position himself within the required 5 metres before the launch.
    Change to read:
    (d)    During a Centralised FAI contest, for classes F1A, F1B, F1C, F1P and F1Q launching must take place within 5 metres of a launch line which will be positioned perpendicular to the wind at the beginning of the round. The line will be of a finite length and marked at each end. For the F1A class the helper must position himself/herself within the required 5 metres before the launch.

    Objective 3  To reflect the proposed Trophy allocations for 2011.

    3.1.10 Plugge Cup

    (a) The Plugge Cup is awarded annually to the club scoring the highest number of points in the following contests:
      K & MAA Cup Halfax Trophy Weston Cup
      'Model Engineer' Cup Keil Trophy Farrow Shield

    together with two additional competitions at each of the eight area centralised events as nominated in the contest calendar.

    Change to read:

    (a) The Plugge Cup is awarded annually to the club scoring the highest number of points in the following contests:


    		K & MAA Cup Halfax Trophy Duce Trophy
      'Model Engineer' Cup Keil Trophy Farrow Shield

    together with additional competitions at each of the eight area centralised events as nominated in the contest calendar.

    Objective 4 To rationalise the eligibility ages and scoring qualifications for the two, yearly, overall championships.

    3.1.11 British Free Flight Championship
    (a)   The championship will be awarded annually to the competitor who gains the most points on the basis of 3.1.11 (b), in the competitions defined in 3.1.11 (c).

    Change to read:
    (a)   The championship will be awarded annually to the competitor who gains the most points on the basis of 3.1.11 (b), in the competitions defined in 3.1.11 (c). The championship is open to competitors aged over 18 years at 1st January of the year of the competitions.

    3.1.12 British Junior Free Flight Championship

    Delete all sections and replace with the following:
    (a) The championship will be awarded annually to the competitor who gains the most points on the basis of 3.1.11 (b), in the competitions defined in 3.1.11 (c). The championship is open to competitors aged 18 years or under at 1st January of the year of the competitions.
    (b) Points will be awarded as the following table but in this case the number of scores is the number of Junior scores and the place is the place in relation to other Juniors.

    Insert here Table as in 3.1.11 (b)

    At the extreme case of only one score returned that contestant would be awarded 1 point only.
    In the event of a tie for any placing, the competitors with that placing will share equally the points which would have been awarded to the placings covered by that number of competitors.

    All BMFA free flight competitions, as defined in section (c), are eligible except for team selection competitions for F1A, F1B and F1C (or P) and the Women's Cup at the Free Flight Nationals.

    At each competition a competitor may enter and fly in as many classes as desired but from each single-day competition only a maximum of two points scores shall be eligible towards the season's total score. At multiple-day competitions each day shall be treated as a single day competition.

    If there is a tie after the season's scores are totalled the number of a competitors scoring places shall be used to resolve this tie. The places used shall start with the first and then subsequent places until a resolution is achieved. For example if two competitors tied with equal points and both had equal numbers of first, second and third places, then the competitor with the highest number of fourth places would be the winner.
    (c) A list of competitions which are scheduled to be used in any particular year may be obtained from the BMFA Competition Secretary after the 31st December of the previous year. If a competition on the list is cancelled then the Championship will depend on the remaining competitions.

    Objective 5 To correct an error in the current specification.

    3.4 Characteristics of Rubber Driven models, World Championship Formula 'Wakefield (Class F1B)

    Minimum weight of model less motor(s)…………………………… 195 grams (6.86 ozs)

    Change to read:

    Minimum weight of model less motor(s)…………………………… 200 grams (7.07 ozs)

    Objective 6 To reflect the 'excessive performance' of the current class specification.

    3.42 E30 Electric

    Add after existing specifications:

             Models shall have no moving surfaces other than for DT.

             The Maximum motor run from launch of the model shall be 60 seconds.

    Objective 7     To equalise equivalent requirements between two similar classes.

    3.49 Catapult Glider Class

    (c)   The competitor is allowed five official flights, all flights to count. If the class is being flown in combination with the Hand Launch Glider class then the number of official flights allowed will be seven, all flights to count. (ref 3.13)

    Change to read:

    (c)    The competitor is allowed seven official flights, all flights to count. If the class is being flown in combination with the Hand Launch Glider class then the number of official flights allowed will still be seven, all flights to count. (ref 3.13)