Report on the F2A World Champs 2002 in Sebnitz

By Ian McIntosh, Senior Judge, F2A

In general terms, the F2A section of the 2002 WC Sebnitz went off without any problems.

I would like to pay tribute to the team that was assembled to run the comp - they did a really good job. Especially I must mention Bernd Kordisch, without whom I could not have managed so easily. He solved all the communication problems.

The F2A comp suffered no protests so that we may believe that we were doing everything right!

The only remarkable thing (apart from the close competition at the top and Parramon's World Record) was the large incidence of tactical "attempts". Due to the very changeable weather, it became clear that many flyers were prepared to use their first attempt as a practice run. Many made two takeoffs but did not put the handle in the fork, then calling an attempt. They were then given a refly at the end of the round - meaning after 15:00. On the third day this tactic reached epic proportions. 38 attempts out of 55 flyers, including the eventual winner and the four runners up.

I fully understand that each competitor should be able to have the very best conditions to make his best flight but one must question the point of making a draw at all and also the feelings towards the minority who flew according to the draw. The draw is changed every round in order to give the competitors a fair crack at the same type of weather over the course of the competition.

It might well be fairer to apply similar rules to that of F2B which insists that a re-fly must take place not later than 30 minutes after the scheduled flight time. There was a time some years ago when the F2A field was broken down into groups of ten or twelve and the reflys were all made at the end of each group - not at the end of the day. This seems to me to be more fair to everyone. There is strong feeling among the competitors on this point but I think the Committee should look into it.

During the course of the F2A competition we ran the results by watch parallel to the figures given by the Goran Olsson optic timer. The optic results were not used but have been sent to FAI for analysis as I feel that if we do not do something about this, then we will go on for ever saying that the machine is not proven.

Roughly speaking, we found that there was no discernible variation between the optic and the watches. The speed was as likely to be better as it was to be poorer if using the optical timer. There was no clear indication that the optical timer would award better times. It did so in some cases but it also gave poorer times in others. We hope that we have at least contributed something positive to the discussion.

In general terms, the entire WC 2002 went off well, prectically the only problem encountered being that of communication. I agree with everything Loet Wakkerman says on flyaways in F2D, for what it is worth. Something has to be done and silencers (real silencers) ia a good idea.

Thanks once again for having me and for a trouble free comp - as far as I was concerned.

Ian McIntosh