I cannot do a better job at describing this contest than what Jose has already posted in this thread. The corners displayed by the top half dozen to ten flyers at this contest coupled with how deep and consistent and accurate those corners are is remarkable. The second recording above posted by Brent Williams at 10:54 on July 17 shows what I think Jose and I are trying to explain. On that recording, at about the -10 minute remaining point is the start of a practice flight by what I am sure is Igor Burger with his Max Bee. Though there is some distortion in the frame because of the wide angle lens used, the camera is in a good location to view the shapes of most of the maneuvers. You will be able to see how deep that model goes into the bottom corners, the flat pull outs at the consistently 4 to 5 foot level -- EVERY TIME! The turns are almost instantaneous.
Our shining light over there was Chris Rud. His early practice flights were impressive, but left room for improvement which occurred over the next several days of practice. During qualifications, his first flight on the paved circle left room for improvement. His second flight, he posted one of the highest flight scores on the grass circle. He got a strong score on his second flight on the paved circle which assured his qualifying and finished 7th overall in the qualifying rounds.
The organizers had scheduled each of the four qualifying rounds to be completed on each of the first four days of competition. All three rounds of the finals were scheduled to be on the fifth and final day of competition. The organizers realized by noon break of the fourth day that the schedule they had established would require the judges to judge the three flights of the 15 Senior finalists (45 flights total) plus the three flights of the three Junior finalists (9 flights) for a total of 54 flights on that final day of competition. This was over the maximum number of flights (50) a judge was to observe allowed by the FAI rules. (It was not certain, though probable at that time, that a Junior would be in the top 15 finalists which would bring the total number of flights during the final day to 51.) The decision was made that the first round of the finals would be flown "one hour" after the last flight of the qualification rounds on that fourth day. So, the judges on that fourth day had to work the 42 or 43 flights of the fourth round plus the 15 flights of the finalists first round plus the 2 other juniors (given that one junior was in the top 15 finalists) for a total of 59 or 60 flights judged that fourth day. Remarkable decision. 10 of the 15 finalists posted their lowest score during that first round flown late that fourth day of qualifications where the wind was not a significant factor.
On Finals day, Chris had time to go to the practice circles to put in several flights. Those two flights were the best I had seen Chris fly all week. As Jose mentioned above, his rounds were above reproach. His bottoms were all at 5 feet or even slightly less, clean and level, the best he had flown all week. Then, on his first official flight that day, he missed several bottoms and did not fly some of those bottoms level, scored essentially the same as his first official the previous day. His second flight that day (third finals flight), was slightly better and was scored better, but still did not show the same as he had practiced earlier that day. However, his total score placed him in 7th place. If he could have scored his second flight as well as his third flight, he would have moved up a couple of places. A very respectable showing given the two previous world champions were ahead of him that also were against some very strong competition.
Keith
Topic: Worlds in France (Read 5280 times)
