I think what's being overlooked here with this angst about the FAI is that the FAI isn't just about model planes but it covers all types of amateur aircraft from hot air balloons to hang gliders to models and everything in between. That's why it's called the Federation Aeronautique Internationale so that any attempt at a record means that certain rules have to be followed whether it be an altitude record for a hang glider or fastest speed for a CL model so any one from any country can claim a record if they abide by the rules. F2B is just a subset of a subset of a subset under FAI rules.
I think the commenters generally know all that. Without getting into why the FAI needs to exist, or why French aviation buffs should be able to declare themselves the arbiters of international aviation (despite having contributed nothing of consequence to the development of fixed-wing aviation aside from being really enthusiastic about it) and later space (where they contributed exactly nothing, consequential or not), there is no question at all that the US invented the event, developed the rules, discovered all the important technical aspects of it, and made it the most popular CL event. After which, the FAI simply absorbed it, ran it fairly well for a while, then started screwing it up and missing the point.
You had consecutive WC champions for whom you couldn't tell the difference between the round 8 and the square 8, individual judges giving their countrymen straight 10s to "get themselves tossed out high" and thus helping keep the next highest scores, judges videotaped intently studying the scoreboards in between rounds, then getting tossed in the middle of the competition. Those are just those situations we know about, how many went on without getting caught. Through the efforts of our FAI stunt colleagues, most of that has been taken care of.
But recently, they have repeatedly held far substandard events to the typical local contest, with fields we would have rejected at WAM contests, and described very nicely by long-time French stunt stalwart Serge Delabarde as
"giving reason to the organizers who pocketed the money inscriptions and surrounded a potato field of a few panels to christen it "F2B Circle"". Australia was an exception, ask Kenny Stevens how he liked his FAI experience.
Also ask FAI notables about the problem with Australia - i.e. "it was too far away". Too far away from what, the world? Of course, they mean Europe. Golly gee whiz, I sure feel bad for them not being able to toss their RTF models in the back of a station wagon and drive half a day to a WC, what a hardship! What do you mean, you want us to not do a "pre-judging contest" AKA "World Cup" so that all the judges can judge the WC entrants, see how it comes out, and then determine what the "correct" outcome should be for the real thing?
I ask who is my voting representative is on the F2B rules committee - oops, nobody, because there is no such thing and no legitimate process to ensure that F2B and other rules are voted on by F2B participants, or are not "modified" from the original proposal with no input as a resort in Switzerland. We invented the event and have ~50% of the world's participants, but our CIAM rep has one vote just like Lower Slobbovia where one guy has a Flite Streak and the other likes reading model magazines. I can't even compete without risking my professional standing and retirement on a third-world p*ss test, and darned if I cannot recall having seen that proposal or provide any input to it. Sure there's a steering committee that carefully grows consensus and crafts proposals - that then get picked apart in secret by people I don't know and do not represent my position at all.
I think running stunt contests in a manner or at sites we would reject for a local contest shows the contempt and lack of focus on the bottom line the FAI has for *our invention*, stunt. There are certainly many qualified stunt judges in the world, but to reject the Head Judge at the greatest contest in the world, probably *because* he is the head judge at the greatest contest in the world, does not speak to a deep desire to maximize the quality of the contest. And of course they are counter-scheduling it against the greatest contest in the world, although this is hardly the first time that has happened.
Don't misconstrue this as being against or in any way denigrating of the foreign stunt pilots and judges themselves, I know and like many of them and respect their accomplishments. But the FAI as an administrator of Stunt contests has been a p*ss-poor operation, everybody who goes to it finds it an ordeal, completely unnecessarily so.
Bottom line is, I can rename the El Cerrito Flying Dons "Eat Chili and Fly Day" the "2018 Intergalactic Stunt Championship" and if I get enough quality participants, it's a better and more legitimate contest. We have a "World Series" baseball champion every year, it has no "international" teams (although many foreign players including some of the biggest stars), and we are entirely OK with that situation. We don't need the FAI to administer stunt contests.
Maybe when the EU has been overrun with bomb-throwing terrorists and omnicidal religious fanatics and renamed Northwest Pakistan, we can start over with a real international organization that actually responds to and represents international model fliers. Until then, I think I can find other things to do with my time than go to second-rate contests administered by wanna-be globalist imbeciles with axes to grind
Brett
Topic: FAI F2B Judging (world champs) (Read 8954 times)