2016 Control Line World Championships
by Mark Rudner
rudner@mit.edu
At the time I am writing this, it is early June, and the main event of the F2D Control Line (CL) Combat season is already over. In May, the CL World Championships were held in Perth, Australia. This was the first time that the CL World Championships have been held in the Southern Hemisphere, and this novel location brought with it some unique twists and challenges.
For North and South Americans, as well as Europeans, the most-pressing question was how to physically get to Perth with equipment in tow. Western Australia is about as far from everywhere as anywhere could be. From most locations, it takes at least two, if not more, airline flights to reach Perth. Tickets were expensive, but traveling with models and all of the associated baggage added an extra layer of complication (independent of how far one needed to fly).
There are various approaches to traveling to CL Combat contests by airplane. Some prefer to carry everything on the flight, checking in models in specially designed bags or boxes. To minimize the chances of getting smacked with high oversize-baggage fees, it’s good to keep the model bag as small and as lightweight as possible.
Although it’s common to find model bags in bright colors, black actually tends to be the best for going “stealth.” To avoid having models damage each other in transport, it’s a good idea to remove all of the control horns. This also allows the aircraft to be packed much more tightly, gaining valuable space.
The alternative approach to checking airplanes as baggage is to send equipment by the postal system, UPS, or FedEx well ahead of time. When bringing model airplanes as baggage, there is some uncertainty as to what will happen at the check-in counter. With FedEx, you always know what to expect, and the actual travel itself might be more relaxed.
Because of the perceived time and cost of getting to Perth, many in Europe questioned the potential for whether this World Championships would draw a good turnout. Noticeably absent were teams from Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and Austria. In some cases, cost was certainly a factor, but I’m not sure what the reasons were with others. Nonetheless, we still saw a respectable turnout of 53 pilots from 18 countries.
In the past year or two, the team
from Indonesia has hired Stas Chornyy to come for a series of intense training sessions. The Indonesian team’s performance has improved as a result—they all put in solid performances both in the World Championships and the preceding World Cup competition. It’s always great to see new pilots and teams stepping into the spotlight.
At a competition of this magnitude, stress levels can be pushed to the limit, and things may not run as smoothly as they do in a “normal” contest. This was particularly true in Perth, where we saw an unprecedented number of protests. The contest’s pace was severely impacted by the need to resolve a handful of protests in nearly every round. The problem was made worse by the inefficient procedure through which protests are handled at the World Championships.
You might wonder why there were so many protests in the first place. It’s not totally clear. The judges were definitely working hard and doing their absolute best to hold a fair and professional competition. Many situations might arise during the heat of battle where a snap decision must be made. Is it a disqualification? Is it a refly? Is nothing wrong?
A natural tendency is to try to avoid making a wrong call by making no call at all. Decisions could sometimes be reached after a match was over, following conferral between the judges. It’s great that the aim is always to try to get the correct result, but such delays might also contribute to confusion among the pilots, leading to more protests. I don’t know what the solution should be, but it’s something to think about.
When the dust settled, Illia Rediuk, from Ukraine, took home both the Junior and Senior gold medals (a first in F2D). Pasha Narkevich, from Russia, took home the silver, and Alex Prokofiev, who lives in New Jersey and was flying for Latvia, took home the bronze medal in the Senior category.
Among the Juniors, Eriks Kochunts, Latvia, won the silver, while our very own Sasha Nadein, Pennsylvania, took the bronze. Congratulations go to Illia and to all of the other medalists. Way to go!
SOURCES:
Miniature Aircraft Combat Association (MACA)
www.macasite.org
2016 Control Line World Championships
www.cl-wch2016per.org
