"Dear friends,
The rumors were correct! Tonight the final decision has been made.
The Viking Race next year will be organized by our Slovak friends.
The time will be around mid September.
The site will be the hills
around Donovaly some 15 miles north of Banska
Bystrica in central Slovakia. That site is famous for several successful F3F
Donovaly Cup contests over the last few years with local and international
participation from neighbour countries.
At http://www.f3f.sk you
will find information about the latest Donovaly
Cup four weeks ago. That will also be the site where you will be kept
updated on the planning of the Viking Race.
The decision was made
by the Viking Race Site Selection Committee which
was set up at the Viking Race in Lisbon last year with members Timothy E.
Cone, USA (no, I can't write TRB), Rudolf Masny, Slovakia, Branislav
Legersky, Slovakia (interpreter) and myself (chairman). Shortly later Ron
Russel, Scotland joined the committee.
Rather soon the bids were
shortlisted to Scotland and Slovakia and it has
not been easy at all to select only one organizer among the two very capable
organizers. Several parameters have been judged, also including the tragic
Foot and Mouth disease (F&M) situation in Britain. We would have liked to
make the final decision earlier, and it would have been far more pleasant to
make the decision on an "equal basis" based on a Britain where F&M
had been
history only, but sadly that could not be the case. Hopefully we will never
again have to deal with F&M when Viking Race sites shall be chosen.
Please do not assume that
Scotland would have been the winner and Slovakia
the loser in case of no F&M problem. F&M was one parameter which delayed
our
decision.
We wish our Slovak friends
good luck with their preparations for the
Viking Race 2002. And stay tuned on http://www.f3f.sk for further details in
the near future.
If you have any questions
right away, don't hesitate to contact either me
or Branislav Legersky (or Brano, I dare to write that) depending on nature
of the question to either preben.p.eriksen@ope.shell.com or branol@f3f.sk
Best regards, Preben Norholm
Godthaabsvej 7, DK-7400 Herning, Denmark
Tel. +45 4818 0012 Mobile +45 4096 7550
E-mail: preben.p.eriksen@ope.shell.com
Tom Copp (USA) meint:
"Welcome race fans,
I was thinking of a possible
concept for the next VR or large F3F race. This
is similar to the way major Golf comps are played.
First each country chooses their 2 or 3, 3-man teams.
Take 100 pilots and fly for 3 or 4 rounds. (2 days)
The top 50 go on and fly 3 or 4 rounds. (2 days or less)
The top 25 go on to fly
for 6 to 8 rounds (2 days) and decide the winner.
The scores can carry though the comp or you could start again, whatever you
decide is most fair.
This way you could get
more pilots entered that want to compete and end up
with a smaller number of pilots = better competition flying more rounds for
the overall placing.
Come and get me.
Tom Copp
COMPOSITE SPECIALTIES
www.F3X.com
ph/fax 949-645 7032"
Preben sieht das so:
"...
I have no exact figures
about number of flights during the previous 7 Viking
Races. Wales '98 must have the record, me thinks, must be close to 600. Kev,
do you remember?
But what we know, on a
good day with experienced pilots we can manage
somewhat over 200 flights per day.
I remember June 4th 1989
the day before last day of the very first VR, the
only one I have CD'ed, that we ran a very relaxed contest because most
competitors were new to F3F, we easily managed 160 flights that day with an
11 a.m. start which was probably a record until VR in Derbyshire, England in
1990.
When talk has been about
the duration of the VR, then I have always
recommended minimum time for maximum (10) rounds (assuming perfect weather
all the time) plus 100%.
About rule changes - I
recommend the following procedure:
1. get good ideas
2. test them at relevant, local contests
3. check the opinion among the participants
4. widen the test "areas"
5. check again
6. let your national aeroclub (AMA etc.) submit a proposal to the FAI/CIAM
7. tell your CIAM glider subcommittee delegate about every aspect about the
proposal
8. tell the same to me and I will spread it to all CIAM glider subcomm.
members in the world
9. CIAM glider subcomm. members will make investigations and check opinions
in their country
10. the CIAM glider subcomm. members discusses the proposal at their annual
technical meeting and writes up a recommendation to the CIAM delegates.
11. CIAM delegates vote on it
12. since the F3F rules have provisional status, then approved rule changes
take effect immediately (as opposed to "official rules" like the F3B
class
which have a four years rules freeze).
Detailed procedures, check http://www.fai.org
Rule change proposals like
the one brought forward by Tom do have advantages
and disadvantages. And I think that all advantages and disadvantages have
already been mentioned - at least I can't add any further. How do we balance
these advantages and disadvantages. For me the formula is "maximum fun"
for
the F3F competitors. It also means for me that there is no way I can go and
with technical terms alone write down revised rules and assume them to be
"better". Good rules are measured as the grand total of the width
of the
smiles on the faces of the competitors.
But please, don't ever
go and compare directly to golf or such. Golf rules
on high competition levels are dictated by TV and sponsor money, F3F is not.
And on the day when F3F gets dictated in such a way, then I don't care any
more because I'm out of it. It doesn't mean that what is good to
professional golf is bad to us, and that we cannot collect good ideas from
also professional sports, it only means that we have a different scale on
which to measure the effect. Width of smiles instead of $$$ (sorry, haven't
got a Euro sign on this old PC). Happy landing!
Best regards, Preben Norholm
Godthaabsvej 7, DK-7400 Herning, Denmark
Tel. +45 4818 0012 Mobile +45 4096 7550
E-mail: preben.p.eriksen@o...