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Judging Perspective

Bruce Naylor reports from the Judging chair at this years European F3C Championships in Sibiu, Romania

Thursday July 15th

Arrived safe and sound this afternoon in Sibiu, Romania after an early morning flight from Heathrow to Vienna, Austria, and then a 90 minute turbo-prop jaunt across to Romania. Time zone is 2 hours ahead of the UK, the weather is beautiful – mid 30's but always threatening to brew into a thunderstorm, and I am slowly melting.

The hotel allocated to the organisers, judges (thats me), and jury is a modern building in a city that just screams out "old Warsaw pact". Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt from when it was part of the Austrian empire) is still a very beautify old city, and the people are extreemly friendly. This I know since the journey from the airport to the hotel involved what seemed like 3 attempts to cross through the city in search of the "bypass", and a number of navigation requests from the general public.. Roads appear mostly primitive ("bloody scary", according to Mark Christy) with the exception of the new 2 lane highway that now runs though the country. We eventually arrived at the hotel without ever seeing this infamous bypass – I'm sure we will before the trip is over; they seem very proud of it.

After a quick shower I hitched a lift with organiser Marius to help in whatever manor I could with some of the preperations. First task was to build a 1 meter cardboard circle. This was so the centre circle in the FAI F3C course would have a harder inner defined edge than if the circle was sprayed white by hand. Some 4 hours and a lot of scrap cardboard later,  we had a circle. A circle accurate to 1mm. Remember that this template was to be used to spray gloopy paint on a grass runway. I repeatedly questioned the need for such accuracy since spraying paint on grass was not going to need, in my mind anyhow,  a +-0.5mm accurate 1 meter circle, but was told that 1mm accuracy was what was requested, and that was what they would produce.

The circle (nicknamed the "circle of blood, sweat and tears"), along with a wooden stick with holes in to paint the outer 3 meter circle (known as the "wooden stick with holes in to paint the outer 3 meter circle"), were loaded carefuly into the back of a mini-bus, and off we went to paint some circles.

Arrived back at the hotel gone 8 local time, ate food, drank beer, attended an organisers/judge/jury meeting, and then hit the sack.

Friday July 16th

The next day we hit the field again, a field now sporting a rather magnificent pair of freshly painted white circles, a discarded cardboard circle, and a stick. More used to departing and arriving microlight aircraft, and probably the only flat area this side of the mountains, this field was to host the 2010 F3C European Championships, and was alive with the activity of unofficial practise. Being an airfield, and given that 2.4Gh is the norm, team of different nations littered the length of the runway. With over 90% of the competitors flying electric, there was the constant undertone of blade slap, whistling motors, and 240v generators idle'ing everywhere you went.

Lunchtime, a selection of cold meats, hot potatoes and saurcraut – jshame no knives or forks provided, and from a wooden hut on the edge of the strip I can see the distant mountain range made famous in many a Vampire film. We are in the region of Transalvainia, and I have already seen my first live werewolf – how cool is that?. I did check my neck first thing this morning in case I'd been visitied in the night by a flapping count, but so far no bite marks.

Bumped into the British team earlier (checked necks, all clean), and they all seemed in good spirits. Noticed that the German team were all new faces to me, but the French and Austrians were the usual suspects.  27 pilots are booked in to compete – much lower numbers than expected, but it should make my life a little bit easier with later starts and earlier stops each day through the competition, and since the top 15 pilots  go through to the flyoffs it should  benefit those mid-field pilots looking for, or trying to keep, sponsorships deals.

Model processing, a task runing in parallel with unofficial practise, seems to be winding down; the Finnish team have just turned up and I think they are the last, so hopefully I'll get a lift back to the hotel for some lunch and another showers. Horace Hagen, the FAI official at this event has just been walking about flapping his arms – I've not checked his neck.

Saturday July 17th

Official practise. Each team gets 15 minutes per pilot to check out the competition site. Kinda went without a hitch as each team arrived for their alloted time space on the course. A very hot day – no cloud cover, gentle wind, hot hot hot and humid.

After dinner Horace (the FAI representative) invited the jury and judges out to the "old town" – first stop was an ice-cream parlour, 2nd stop was an ice-cream par ... wait a second, I see a theme starting.

Sunday July 18th

Round 1. 08:30. Dave Fisher (UK) and Aviv Levy (Israel) were randomly chosen to fly calibration flights. The 5 judges judged, and the resultant scores were discused and found to be remarkably constant; typically +- 1 point variation. Maybe I'm not such a hard judge after all. The flying order had been selected and split into 4 groups of 7 pilots. Each pilot was given 15 minute seperation start times; group 1 starting at 09:00, with group 4 finishing the day at 17:30, with 10 minute inter-group breaks, and a 1 hour lunch break.

By the time the 6th pilot in the first group had finished we were some 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and the judges had to wait for the 7th pilot to arrive and make ready. Then we had a further 30 minute wait before we restarted the competition with group 2. I think they will tighten up the timing for tomorrow - it feels like we're waiting longer than we're judging.


Weather was dead calm, slowly turning into a fresh breeze by lunch. Lots of clouds forming behind the montains that surround us, but beautiful blue skies above our heads. Pilot after pilot flew and the day dragged on. Highlights were the Ukranians who tried desperatly hard to kill the judges on a number of seperate occations. I assume it's some sort of preventative anti-humilliation tactic, something along the lines of "kill those in authority before they pass judgement upon you". Safe to say we all survived their suicidal death-plunges. So far at least.

By mid-afternoon the Brits faced toward the moon and started howling for ice-cream, so judge Bruce passed word to the organisers in his best Romanian (ok, so I just shouted loud in English) and I believe they got their wish. Since I was judging, I missed out, although I'm sure I remember Team Manager Scott promising to get me one - will try again tomorrow.

Been bitten again today, this time by vampire ants. Taking heed of numerouse B-moives, I decided to end it all then and there. Not wanting to end up a 5'10" zombie ant I reached for my emergency stake. The local were-dog (named Bella) had made off with it earlier in the day, so I was left fruitlessly trying to stab myself in the heart with a shrink wrapped plastic spoon left over from lunch. "Don't be sillY", said the resident Romanian nurse tending my polycarbonate inflicted wounds. "Were-ants only come out at night". Imagine my embarrisment!

At end of play really black clouds started forming, and my score sheets were getting the occational splat of solitary rain drops. Last pilot Lauant Lombard (France) bravely started his round against a black backdrop of sheeting rain in the distance.

All in all a good day. Weather behaved (mostly) and the Brits put in good rounds. The published positions may not reflect this, but please remember that we have the top European pilots here, and the points seperation between them is very tight.

Roll on day 2.

Monday July 19th

Partial cloud cover is keeping off the worst of the sun. These next 3 days should now run smooth - it's just a case of repeating the same processes each day. Get up, go to field, judge P round, eat ice-cream, repeat.

The rules, although somewhat lacking in clarity in some places, do say things about how a manoeuver is formed. Like the word "stop". This means the model must "stop" for "at least 2 seconds unless specifically defined". How many people realise that "stop" is also used in some of the aero manoeuvers? In the same vein, here's a spot quiz - guess the meanings of the following. 1/ "climb 2.5 meters"?, and 2/ "45 degrees autorotation".

Ok, so I can be all big headed here since I'm not flying this schedule, but there are some truly great pilots being precisly wrong in their flights and getting rightfully hammered for it, Stepping down from my soap box now, Won't mention this again. Probably.

Was given a long lecure tonight over dinner (read that as icecream and schnaps) that Romania has more going for it than Vampires. Seems it all stems from Vlad Dracul, an evil fellow who caused a lot of untimley coffin filling. This comming from a guy who looks like Uncle Festor from The Munsters, so it must be true.

There's talk of a trip out on our (judges) day off (Thursday) to a castle (large stone-walled vault of doom and dispair - a bit like Croydon I'd guess). Personally I'm stocking up on garlic and siver crosses dispite Festors reassurance.

Phoned the wife, washed the socks, charged the iPhone, time for bed. Hope that bird in the night dress hovering outside my window with outstretched arms would just bugger off.

Tuesday July 20th

Including calibration flights, I've now judged 580 individual manoeuvers. Today I get to judge 280 more, and by the end of the finals the figure will have risen just shy of 1600. Or put it another way, only 1000 more manoeuvers to go. Assuming 8.5 mintes per flight, thats's around 22 hours of concentration. And people say I'm on holiday! Off now to breakfast, and then it's a 20 minute coach trip, think Pedro De La Rosa handcuffed to a bus stearing wheel, to the field. So starts Round 3 ....

The day started very cold, very misty, and very sideways. Pedro got us into some mud at the edge of the field and for an while we were in Gods hands. Oh how we laughted as the rear axle overtook the front. A bottle of Valium later, and with 5 still slightly nervous judges in their judging chairs, round 3 started.

It took the sun a further 20 minutes to cut it's way through the blanket of mist covering the airfield. It was like a furnace door had suddenly been opened above our heads - one second cold, the next burning hot. As the rest of the mist vapourised, off came the jackets and on went the sun cream. Crazy Romanian weather. It's all turned out hot again. Bugger.

Flying-wise most people put in solid rounds today. Everyone except Steve who decided to miss all the flags in his hovering, probably just to anoy me. It's the sort of thing he'd do. It couldn't have been flying mistakes since Steve is, at least in my eyes, a heli flying God, and thus doesn't make mistakes. Oh, and Dave's flight unfortunatly didn't set the world alight either. In fact, now I've thought it through a bit harder, the only person in the British team who had a sold round today was Mark. It's like he woke up this morning,looked in the mirror and said, "Mmm, maybe I'll try today". His piroetting loop was the best of the competition so far. Please try again tomorrow, Mark. Go on. For me?

Talking of near-death experiences, I fogot to mention an incident yesterday where a Greek electric machine decided to tip over in the direction of the judges chairs whilst turning'n'burning in the centre circle. The pilot had just landed in the box to start his round, and had turned his back on the machine to walk to the pilot circle. People yelled out as the blades started churning the dusty soil. I was in the centre chair directly in line to where the machine would launch should collective be applied. Although a large Greek caller was technically in the potential flightpath, I decided to take no chances and prepaired to make a quick dash to the right. Thankfully the Greek slammed in the opposing cyclic before anything went too far. Close call.

Talking of close calls, rumour has it that Mr Sensui, Japanese former F3C World Champion has had a nasty accident plugging lipos together by mistake in his heli. Claims that he has lost full use of a thumb, and has black skin down the lenght of one arm are very disturbing. Here's hoping for a speedy and complete recovery.

Wednesday July 21st

Arrggh, stomach pains and half hourly trips all through the night to the bathroom. Not sure what I ate, but it's turning me inside out. Only brought a small selection of medication with me, but all stocks are now depleted and the cramps continue.

Spent the day judging Round 4 half in the seat with clenched buttocks. After each set of 7 pilots I made haste to the port-a-loos. Sorry, probably too much detail here. Suffice to say that I narrowly managed to get through the day without staining my reputation.

Competiton-wise a good day. Those pilots who already had 3 solid rounds could relax and enjoy this final day of premiliminaries whereas those who had already thrown a round were under intense pressure. Stefano Lucchi (Italy) had a power failure of some description in his BlackShark fuselage'd Hirobo Eagle as he completed his cuban-8 and had to make a distant auto. Mark Christy put in some good hovering, but his aeros had uncharacteristic variations in depth. As he walked back to the pits after his flight you could see he was distressed and later it became apparent that a mix of sun cream and sweat had played havoc with his eyes.

If you've been looking at the scores, you would have seen that it's all really tight at the top. One reason is that the weather is, on the whole, just perfect allowing less well setup machines to perform. The other is that since the manoeuvers are so difficult everyone is making mistakes - I don't believe I've given more than an 8 for any hovering manoeuver throughout this competition. The finals will probably be even tighter as the complexity goes up. Leaders Ennio Graber (Switzerland), Ari Holmstrom (Finland) and current European Champion Bernard Egger (Austria) lead the day with just 3 points seperation between them. Steve Roberts came 5th just 7.5 points further back.

The only judging issues came with the enforcement of the 60 degree elevation rule. If a model performs a manoeuver at a height greater than 60 degrees elevation (ie out of the "window") in respect to the judge, the score get a 2 point hit. Laurant (France) managed to accumulate 2 such penalties in this round. The issue is that this angle is subjective - there is no mecanical device to measure, so it is up to the judges to make the call. One judge being addament can influence other judges who are 50:50 regarding the call and tip the majority balance in favor of the penalty. To put it in context, these 2 deductions dropped Lauant from 12th to 18th. I feel this issue needs addressing.

Jury member Dag Eckhoff (Norway) managed to badly twist his ankle this evening needing the attention of an ambulence. This is a reoccuring issue for Dag so he knew exactly how to strap it up for best effect, but the ambulence crew knew better and Dag was left a little upset. He needed a pair of splints and some robust strapping, so I took it upon myself to find a hardware store. A roll of Duct Tape and a pair of 18" long wooden paint brushes later had Dag happy again. Or maybe it was a side effect of all those pain killers.

Tomorrow (Thursday) is free day, set aside in case weather issues cancel a round. Will probably just loaf around the hotel and relax. There is a swimming pool / sauna complex within the hotel that so far I've not had the pleasure to use. If a newly aquired pack of Imodium does the trick, I might give it a go.

Thursday 22nd July

So glad today was not a competition day since I would not have been in any shape to judge. Spent whole day in room with pillow strapped to stomach. Hoping I can break this bug before tomorrows 2 fly-off rounds. One thing missing from this hotel room is tea making facilities - really fancy one of my wifes herbal teas right now. Wallowing in self pity and not really much interesting to write about.

Friday 23rd July

Made it to the breakfast table this morning after a few bouts of speaking to God on the ceramic telephone - I hope it's just a side effect of the Immodium and nothing more sinister. Felt a bit better after a sip of coffee but still couldn't eat anything. I think this is day 3 of no food. Really must try and eat today. Got to the field around 08:30 and took one last look at the F schedule rules to make sure I was up to speed. So many more places for pilots AND judges to make mistakes in this one. Pilots who had previously nailed the P schedule were now flying like club pilots in the F. Hesitations, lack of commitent - their nervousness showed through. In the second round flown this afternoon the standard rose with overall more consistancy in speed and depth. All in all a good day. Managed a pot of natural yoghurt (which I have to say tastes discusting, but was assured it was for the best) and some mint tea before hitting the sack.

Saturday 24th July

The final round. Just 15 flights left to judge. Also one of the hotest days, peaking close to 40 degrees. No wind so everyone was broilling in their own juices. Ennio had already secured 1st place, but 2 thru 14 were still to play for. Competitor after competitor made their way through the course. The list was getting shorter. Is this feat of endurance really comming to an end? Last man to fly was Steve who managed to keep his mind on the task and put in a splended flight. It's so easy to just give up at this point, so hats off to him for fighting to the end. Then began the long wait for the final scores.

Mark though now would be a good time to whip out his little Rave 450 for some F3C smack down. That lasted about 2 minutes before the tail gears shreadded and a new Rave tree was planted in a distant airfield in Romania. Still bloomin hot, still no bloomin wind, and no word on the final scores. Time dragged.

Half an hour later the devil in me took over and I walked into the jury area (an off-limmits area where the calculations were being performed) and acquired some sheets of A4 from Mannfred the Contest Director. I then walked gingerly with the papers back to where the UK team were based and feigned a conversation with Mark, occationally pointing to areas of the sheets, which were just blank, in my hands. My subterfuge had the desired effect as people start crowding around us. Well that killed a few more minutes. You can probably tell I was feeling a bit like the old Bruce now, even in this oppresive heat. So what to do next? When modellers get sheets of A4 paper, the natural progression tends towards an impromptu duration paper airplane competition. Dave, Mark and myself quickly produced alternate designes and off to the FAI square we strode. Half a dozen F3C teams looked on wondering what the brits were up to now. Photos are available on Marks blog over on AllMyRc.com for those who want to see the majestic machines (and a soon to be bent Rave) in action. Not wanting to boast, but I won the official times flight. However after some re-trimming both Mark and Dave produced >10 second flights. Ok, planes in the recycling bin, what now.

Results appeared. The "On the field" award ceremony ensued. Jury, Judges and Pilots started to keel over in the blistering early afternoon sun. We finally trudged back to the hotel to spruce up for the banquet. I set my shower to "full impulse" and tried fruitlessly to re-hydrate my skin.

Sunday 25th July

The banquet was really nicely done last night. Good food and a large selection of drinks in a room full of friends and F3C familly. Apart from the sun-burn, being poisoned, bitten and ravaged by wild wolves it's been a really good event. Being a judge strips you of nationallity in these events, and I've really missed being part of the UK team. But it's been an education, and hopefully I can impart my new found knowledge to the team to benefit then in future championships.

Off to the airport now for the return flight via Vienna. Looking forward to home cooked meals, and the Dartford comp this comming weekend. See some of you guys there.  


Bruce.

The UK F3C Team fininshed overall in 5th place in a very fierce battle for the top spots. I'm sure you would like to join me in congratulating them on their result.

Well that's it for another year, next year will see The UK F3C Team head off to Italy to do battle in the World F3C Championships. So for now a big thanks to Bruce for providing an insight from the judges point of view during this competition. We wish Bruce and the UK Team a safe return journey to Blighty and I look forward to seeing them all at our Dartford competition next weekend (1st August) at the Nomads site.