Hi All - I haven't been on this site for quite some time so I hope I will be forgiven; particularly for this long post. Our F2B Nationals have been held this past weekend at a venue outside of Sydney - Australia. Unfortunately the weather wasn't kind on Saturday and that days flying had to be cancelled though due to heavy rain and the field being flooded. We were however able to fly 3 rounds on Sunday. One of the competitors - PJ Rowland of Victoria had the urge to post some complaints of the organisation, judging and venue of our contest on facebook. Unfortunately this post has gone around the world and has shown the Association of which I am President (CLAS) in a poor light. I am not able to comment on PJ's post due to his settings and so hope that the following will at least reach some of the USA aerobatic fliers and explain why most - if not all - of what PJ has complained of is incorrect. I hope that I am not in breach of any rule to post my reply here; PJ made a public complaint and I am making a reply to the world of modellers in a manner I think will reach the intended audience - as he did. If I am breaching a rule and this post is deleted I apologise for any inconvenience or embarrassment caused to you. Thank you.
"It saddens me that I feel compelled to reply and make some explanations in relation to some facebook posts made over the past 24 hours by P J Rowland from Victoria who has complained of the organisation, judging and venue for the 69th Australian National MAAA Control Line Aerobatic championships. This post unfortunately has shown the Control Line Aircraft Society of New South Wales (CLAS) in a poor light – not true according to all other competitors present at the event and by doing so on facebook PJ has broadcast his own opinions to the world.
The event was held over this past weekend at Whalan Reserve west of Sydney and hosted by CLAS; the Control line organisation in this State of which I am President and so in that position hold the ultimate responsibility for the running of this event. Whalan Reserve is in the Blacktown City Council area and CLAS has specific permission to use the oval by application for important competitions such as the Nationals.
The F2B portion of the event was planned to be held on both Saturday and Sunday of the June long weekend with two rounds each of ‘Expert’ and ‘Advanced’ on each day. Monday (the public holiday in New South Wales) was set aside for both the ‘Vintage’ and ‘Classic’ Stunt competition. The competition was to be held on the main cricket oval where there are facilities for shelter and also a canteen; the ground was prepared by CLAS members on the Friday preceding the event with 2 x contest circles and 2 x practice circles marked and mown. Within 100 metres of this oval is the home ground of the Doonside Aeromodellers club with another 2 circles in good general condition.
Unfortunately on Friday afternoon and most of Saturday there was an extreme amount of rain across NSW and over Sydney resulting in pools of water across all the flying sites making flying impossible for all and subsequently flying for Saturday had to be cancelled.
As the President of CLAS I announced to all present that fact and that flying would hopefully commence at 9am on Sunday – weather permitting. I also requested all competitors to be ready to start at their nominated ‘Draw’ number and if practicing at another location advised that it was up to them to be present when called to fly. The reason for this was explained as it was hoped to get as many rounds as possible flown and to do this it was also required to fly both Advanced and Expert concurrently on separate circles within the oval.
Luckily Sunday arrived and the oval had fortunately dried out enough for the competition circles to be used although it was still very wet underfoot. I arrived at the site at 8am and at that time could see models being flown for practice on the Doonside club ground nearby. PJ Rowland was one of the competitors making use of this venue for practice though I didn’t realise that at the time; the draw for round ‘1’ had been made on Saturday and PJ was listed to be the first ‘expert’ flier to fly in that round.
At 9am the competition was commenced however PJ was not present and subsequently in his absence was given an ‘attempt’ and the next competitor readied himself to fly. At approximately 9.10am PJ arrived and I spoke to him. He advised that he had had trouble with the undercarriage of his model which made him late. I did discuss with him the possibility of him flying at that time as the competitor drawn as number ‘2’ was also not completely ready at that point, however PJ needed line testing and other preparations to be ready so the original decision to award an ‘attempt’ was held.
There were 12 competitors present to fly and realistically each round is expected to take approximately 2 hours, however there are comfort and food breaks given to Judges and while these were kept to a minimum it is easy to see that 3 rounds will take substantially longer than 6 hours. As it was, there was a heavy cloud cover most of the day and luckily no rain except for a few light drops in the late afternoon.
PJ spoke to me during the third round and asked if a fourth round would be run – I answered ‘no’ as there was not time enough to do so. As it was the third round ended around 3pm; the sun was due to set at 5pm (it's winter here), there was a full cloud cover and it would be too dark to fly long before that.
PJ complains in his FB post of the Judges, scoring and basically wants to understand why he didn’t place higher in the rankings. He came fourth with an untried and new model which in anyone’s book isn’t a bad result.
Judges are difficult to come by; one in this competition has International judging experience having travelled overseas many times on invitation to do so, the other two judges are experienced F2B fliers. As anyone who has Judged would realise, to do so is not an easy task. The conditions for them was not great either, extremely wet underfoot and cold when out on the oval all day.
To complain about only flying 3 rounds instead of 4 is ridiculous; with the horrendous weather experienced over Friday night and Saturday we were extremely lucky to even manage that! We had been looking at moving the event to another nearby club field where there would only be one flight circle and no practice area however that field also turned out to be flooded.
PJ had the opportunity to use the nearby practice circles of the Doonside club and as mentioned he did so. Perhaps not ideal but the best we could manage in the prevailing wet conditions as the spare practice circles on the main oval were unusable due to water still lying in puddles in those areas. He turned up late for his flight after using that practice circle after all competitors had been requested during the briefing on Saturday to be on time for their flights – a small delay caused by him but a delay nonetheless and one which may have been averted if he had had the forethought to contact the CD or me and advised us of his inability to be at the field by 9am ready to fly.
PJ may have been of the belief that some rounds could have been held on Monday thus enabling four rounds to be completed. However there were other events programmed to be held on that day; to hold over a round or more of the F2B event would have impacted on the ability to hold those events. Also, the Judges may not have been able to remain for a further day and other interstate competitors (some who had driven 3000 kilometres to compete) may not have been prepared or able to spend a further day at Whalan. It was not a suitable solution – the best we could do was to hold 3 rounds on Sunday.
I wish him well in the future with his young family and hope that his proposed trip to the USA where he intends to compete in their ‘Nats’ goes well. With luck the weather for them will be more kind than ours was this past Saturday, the venues remain dry, the Judges will score him high and that he can practice nearby."
Bruce Hoffmann
President CLAS
12th June 2017
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