I'm glad this came up. A little clarification is in order. There are really 2 issues
here. 1. My responsibility as a competitor. 2.
The legality of the model/interpretation of the rule. I'll address these 2 issues
quite separately.
1. As a competitor, it is my job/responsibility to get the very best score I'm able. I
decided to rebuild the model, and try to
better my poor distance score. It wasn't up to me to debate or interpret the rule at
this point. It was up to me to get the best
score I could. Had I been protested, and the protest upheld by the jury, I would have
been zeroed for that flight, and as it turns
out, for the whole contest. I would have gladly accepted this decision by the jury had
it come to this, and had it been their
decision. I think this more than anything is the key to the whole thing.
2. For those of you who have never flown a FAI team selections or World Champs, our
models get "stickered" on every part of the
model. So, in this instance, my Cobra had 6 stickers on it, with the model #. This one
was denoted as #3 by the officials at check
in. On each wing panel, the fuse, the nose cone, the v-stabs, there was a sticker.
What exactly denotes the "part" is what is still
open to interpretation. Is it simply the part of the wing with the sticker on it? Or,
does the part need to remain 100% the original
part? This would mean NO repairs can take place - no servo changes, no leading edge
dings repaired, not even a drop of Cya to stick
the LE back together, not even a gear change within a servo, no tape to repair a
surface hole in your molded toy, etc... I believe
somewhere in between is the correct answer - but it IS open to interpretation. Also,
if some sort of repairs are allowed, what can
be used as repair material? Now, mind you, there has been precedence set here long
before this weekend's event. I've seen models
with wingtips from other spare parts models spliced on protested. Protest denied.
I've heard of models having the stickers cut off,
and piecing them back on a new airframe. Protested - and protest denied. I've seen
models rebuilt using aluminum cans, and tons of
Cya. Protested - protest denied. I've seen WC competitors rebuild models in an evening
using basically a full model shop worth of
parts. Not protested. These issues were not for me to decide or debate. There simply
wasn't enough time. That's why we have juries,
and protest protocol.
I, more than anyone, would like to see clarification of this rule. I think it's too
vague as it's written now. But please
understand, it was never my intention to rewrite the rule, or push the policy. My
intention was to make the team. I fully expected a
protest to be lodged. I don't know how this would have come out. Debating it after the
fact, by people who weren't there, does
nobody any good. Hindsight is always 20/20. Maybe if these people were competing,
they'd have lodged the protest in a timely
fashion, and maybe the outcome would have been different. We'll never know.
I am not sorry I rebuilt the green pig. I would do it all over again. For the feeling
of cameraderie for that one hour with almost
every competitor on the field. For watching the cloud of micro-balloons escape the
model on the first throw. (I almost laughed) For
the cheers as the green pig withstood its first launch, and then its relaunch. For the
adrenaline rush of finding out I only got
beat by 2 laps with one of the worst flying planes I've ever flown!
I left my fate in the hands of the jury, and my competitors. This was my decision. I
chose to fly.
Daryl
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Jason,
I am surprised by Daryl and the Contest Director. The fact is what Daryl did
is not legal. The wing that was used as the "Repair" piece was previously
flown in the contest by Phil Renaud. FAI rules are clear a competitor cannot
fly a model previously entered and flown by another competitor in the same
contest. By definition the parts of the plane are inclusive to the model. As
you know all pieces of a model are inspected in FAI so that a competitor
cannot swap out parts as Daryl did. Further more a repaired model must be
inspected prior to being used again in the contest to check for rules
compliance. I would guess that the argument must be at which point does a
fellow competitors model quit existing as a model and then become spare
repair materials. My thinking is that a competitor could not fly repair
materials previously flown by another competitor. I doubt that this logic
would hold up at World level. Is the rule using one model per round in F3B
dumb, yea probably , but it is still the rule. Larry Jolly
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and
"unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
