EUROPEAN CONTROL LINE CHAMPIONSHIPS 1993

Pecs, Hungary


This is taken partly from the official report by the Swedish Team Manager
at the European Control-Line Championships 1993 held in Pecs, Hungary.
Together with what was heard from the returning Swedish team members and
the article in the Aeromodeller magazine, this completes the picture of
an event so badly organized that it can only be described as fraud.

The entry fees were the highest ever, and the food and accomodation were
the worst ever. The standard lodgings had appallingly dirty sanitary
conditions, cold water showers in the basement, cockroaches and maggots.
The food served was simply uneatable, and resort was taken to the
restaurants of the town. The Swedish team was able to enforce the
better hotel that was ordered and paid for, but only after much
difficulty.

In place of an organization was the contest director Istvan Mohai,
making a full-fledged Stalin impersonation. He treated the combined
elite of aeromodellers as children, having them stand in line for hours
at the check-in and punishing anyone that objected by withholding them
their entitled service. Throughout the event his whims and crazy ideas
prevailed. He was counteracted only by the efforts of the competitors to
have the contest run as decently as the conditions allowed.

The proper number of FAI jury members hadn't been secured, and Swedish
supporter Ingemar Larsson had to be enrolled.

The reigning F2B champion Kolesnikov was refused entry on the ground
that he wasn't European! (He's from Ex-USSR Kirgistan (sp?) ) He was
told he might as well go home, and only after a long dicussion he was
allowed to compete as reigning champion. (He went on to win, so what
will happen in '95?)

The officials had their basic briefing of the rules from the
competitors! The processing was in shambles. There was no attempt to
measure the model dimensions, and an item as important as the team racer
tank volume wasn't checked at all. After complaints from the team
managers and the jury it was made, only at random and improperly. The
processed models were marked with water soluble ink pens, and the engine
identification marks were made on the cylinder heads.

In F2D Combat the contest was taken over completely by the international
judges under the direction of Mr. & Mrs. Michiels of Belgium, and could
be run decently. The other three classes were worse off.

The venue was the same as used in the '86 World Champs, but it had
received no overhaul whatsoever since then, making the site only partly
useable.

F2B Aerobatics had a circle to small to allow the maximum line length,
with tree branches threateningly close.

F2A Speed and F2C Team Race had to share the same circle, and no
practice facilities existed. This in contrast to the four circles and
practice ground that were claimed in the organizers' FAI application.
The Speed timekeepers were outright incompetent, and on many occasions
there were no or just one out of three valid times from a flight. The
pylon fork was out of dimension, too weak and not properly fixed to the
ground, resulting in many unsuccessful attempts. On one occasion the
pylon bent under the force of the pilot Rietbergen, resulting in a
total wreckage. The pylon was then "straightened" using a sledge! Sad
becoming of a nation that dominated FAI Speed some years ago!

The team race heat draw was made under total confusion in a beer tent in
the obsolete manner of just drawing the nationality of the heat entrants
and allowing the team manager to do the final selection. This was
protested on the spot, and the proper procedure was enforced, but not
until the second round.

One Hungarian team was allowed to compete with a T/R model they had
acquired after the processing, and which by firm account hadn't even
entered the country at the time of processing.

Some color from the Team Race circle: On one occasion, as the starting
procedure of a heat was running, during the 30 second period between the
warm-up and the start, Mr. Mohai grabbed the mike, entered the flying
circle and started announcing apologetic rantings at length, blaming
others for the organization shortcomings. Heat blown off and everyone
frantic.

The Team Race jury chief Italian Pietro Fontana adopted the same
dictatorial manners as the contest director, resulting in hostile
feelings from several team managers. He peaked in a bad show at the T/R
final, when he ignored repeated calls to take his chair, preferring to
chat with his country fellows at the side of the circle, thus delaying
the final for several minutes.

The banquet formed a fitting disaster to end this scandal. After handing
out prizes under the same state of confusion as ever, with Team Race
awards single instead of double, there was two hours of waiting until
the food was "served" by self service at a table. At the ensuing riot,
those that brought children had to physically protect them from being
injured. All the time the organizers and jury members at the honor table
were served plenty. Most left with little or no food eaten and BITTER
feelings.

Everyone felt ripped off and suspected that they were sponsoring
Mr.Mohai's personal pension fund. In the interest of the continued
international aeromodelling contest exchange this kind of misconduct of
an organizer must get widespread attention to avoid it happening again.
It will certainly be reported to the FAI, which hopefully will take
action.