Hello;

As most of you know, the Plenary passed a rule back in March that mandates wrist straps for F2C. This rule has been discussed here and many other places since that time. The supporting arguments have been made, and the reasons why this is a bad rule have been identified.

The rule was passed as a "safety rule" in a year when there was no F2 Technical Subcommittee meeting held. As a "safety rule" it has an effective date of 1/1/2010.

This rule will be addressed at the Bureau meeting this fall with the desire to have the Bureau delay implementation until the entire F2 Technical Subcommittee can discuss it at the March Plenary. The Bureau is comprised of the president and various other elected officials, plus the chairmen of the various technical subcommittees. It is obvious that getting the Bureau to address this problem and take action will rest highly on the support or lack of support by the F2 Technical Subcommittee Chairman, Bengt-Olof Samuelsson.

I am asking you to do two things.

First, please write to Bengt-Olof at

        bengt-olof.samuelsson@lottingelund.se

and ask him to please support delaying implementation of this rule when it is discussed at the Bureau meeting this fall. Perhaps if B-O hears directly from folks all over the world he will reconsider his previous support for this dangerous rule. I have already done so and will send a copy of my e-mail to anyone who asks to see it.

Second, please visit this site:

        http://www.wrlee.com/WristStrapPetition/

I have prepared an electronic petition that everyone who wants to see this rule overturned for F2C should sign. Rule-change proposals to that effect will be submitted for consideration at the 2010 Plenary.

Your support in this effort is appreciated.

Regards,

Bill Lee

Hi, Dale;

Yes, you're missing something. 

The proposal was made by the French Aero Club and was supported by at least one of their World-class F2C teams. It boggles my mind that that is so! But then you hear the rationale:

"Pilots become too aggressive when they know they can switch hands to get out of it!"

If the problem is overly-aggressive pilots, there are a dozen ways that the F2C Judges can control the situation, and this  rule is NOT one of them! It has introduced a significant safety hazard into F2C (and any CL Racing event which bases the rules off of the FAI F2C rules).

Bill

Changing hands proved to be an effective way to avoid and clear line tangles and we used it all the time in COMBAT until wrist straps were mandated in ALL events.  Due to this rule, countless lines and airplanes have been destroyed, and matches have been ended prematurely, depriving us of the fun of flying out the match.

The logic in COMBAT and RACING is identical with the only exception of the ability to minimize damage in racing by triggering the (mandatory) shutoff.

The safety rules MUST be consistant across ALL events.  Flyaways shutoffs and wrist straps in ALL EVENTS or NONE!

As usual: Nonsense.

Paul, one of these days you need to look at issues sensibly instead of always trying to "get back" at someone for some imagined problem.   

Bill, you are America's voice in the FAI, with more FAI rules power than the whole rest of the USA combined.  I can't imagine why you would feel a need to ask for support - just exercise your vast power.

It's not just me - the entire world of F2D blames the USA and specifically YOU, for the shutoff rule.  If F2C gets an unwanted new rule, so it goes.  It's a lot easier to just install one little wrist strap than retrofit a whole fleet of models wth a still unproven "safety" gizmo.

To repeat an earlier post: Nonsense.

Pete,

You are right, sir.  That works well in Racing.  It used to work well in Combat, too, until the practice was banned in the interest of SAFETY.  Now we just tangle the lines and wreck airplanes. 

But the powers that be decided we couldn't be trusted to switich hands without letting go of the handle now and again and maybe hurt something. 

So, in the name of SAFETY, we use wrist straps in ALL events, except Racing, at this time.