I am sure this came up last time but can someone tell me the point of the world cup contest? I dont understand why they have a world cup contest and then the world championships??
Hi Doug,
A summary from the FAI website:
World Cups are a series of international competitions held during the competition flying season. The season generally begins in February and ends in October in any year. A World Cup is held each year in various categories including FF, all of the four FAI CL events, and various RC events
The World Cups take place in various countries and in various classes. Essentially, a competitor may enter as many World Cups in his particular class as he wishes but only a limited number may count for classification purposes.
Each category of World Cup has a Coordinator who regularly publishes the results during the season. There is a “leader board” for each of the classes which is also updated regularly. The final results and rankings are published at the end of the season. At the annual meeting of the FAI Aeromodelling Commission held in Lausanne, Switzerland, each World Cup winner is presented with an FAI medal and diploma. The second and third placed competitors are presented with an FAI diploma.
At the World Championships, the host country can choose to run a World Cup competition prior to the start of the Championships. For F2B, during the recent past, the host countries have and have not held a World Cup competition. At the 2014 World Championships in Poland, there was an F2B World Cup competition. Two members from our F2B team (Howard Rush and Kenny Stevens) entered the event (which was limited to 33 entries if I remember right). Registration was first come, first served. Needless to say, there was a lengthy back-up list. (Orestes did not make the registration cut off.) If I remember right, Howard placed a very credible 5th place and Kenny had lost his airplane at the time the contest was run.
There are reports each year in the foreign model press about the F2B World Cup series. Most contests are held in Europe, but I believe Brazil has hosted at least one in the recent past.
Hope for fair weather to our team members in the World Championship competition that starts tomorrow, Monday May 9.
Keith