Final 2010 F3J WCs report.cwk (WP) - F3X.no

ack and fly out of the forbidden zone. Yet at the same time no official with a
sighting device was installed to define the boundary with precision.
In the end after two days of continuous badgering, a pilot was penalised 100
points and the protests began. The penalty was unfair in that the US junior was
only the latest of many transgressors. Having said that, the contest director had
no alternative but to penalise because few pilots were heeding repeated
warnings.
No official or jury wants to penalise any pilot. In my experience they do their
very best to avoid reducing the chances of any pilot. But somebody had to draw
the line, no matter how unreasonable it was to impose such a “no-fly zone”. I
am at least thankful that the penalty did not harm Brendon’s quest and he did
win in the end.
The event issued a lesson for CIAM. When bids to run championships are
submitted to Lausanne, then they must detail any restriction imposed by the site.
That surely is the most important question for any location. Of course,
unanticipated limits could still be demanded by the authorities at the last
minute, if there were to be a terrorist alert, for instance. In the case of Dole-
Tavaux then it should be asked why the zone came at such a late stage and when
was official permission sought to hold the contest.
Nobody worked harder over the ten days of the Jura Cup and the world
championships than Stephane Champanhet, his daughter Maite, who was
sometimes reduced to tears, his wife and their large team of helpers. Every day
saw organisational problems, sorting out difficulties with the computers and
printers, the scoring software, WiFi shortcomings, dealing with the aftermath of
the storm which flattened most of the tents, listening to the demands of airport
security, in-coming and outgoing aircraft, coping with the opening and closing
ceremonies.
Acting contest director, Serdar Sualp, did a magnificent job in keeping the
competition going fairly despite hiccups with the weather and arrangements.
The competition ran well and was fair to all. He asked my opinion on how
things were going on the third day. My reply was that the pilots and helpers
were keeping things going and competing properly. He replied: “It’s a good job
that they aren’t aware of what’s going on the the kitchen.”
Star of the show was Yannik Faivre who handled the timing system and the
announcements, ending each with his unique way of pronouncing “Thenks.”
Top marks to the independent timekeepers, who were not always F3J flyers,
against whom I heard no complaints, which is unusual. And a big thanks to the