FAI Free Flight World Cup Rules

The Free Flight World Cup regulations were first defined at the 1987 CIAM Plenary meeting and have since been modified by proposals passed at later Plenary meetings up to the 1997 meeting. These amendments are included in the following rules, to be used for the World Cup from 1998. With reference to awards in section 6, note that the current awards each year are the challenge cups (Thomson Cups for F1A, B, C, Slovakia Cup for F1E), World Cup diploma for the top three in each class, and World Cup medals to the winner in each class.

1. Classes

The following separate classes are recognised for World Cup competition: F1A, F1B, F1C, F1E.

2. Competitors

All competitors in the specified open international contests are eligible for the World Cup.

3. Contests

Contests included in the World Cup must appear on the FAI Contest Calendar and be run according to the FAI Sporting Code. The contests to be counted for a World Cup in one year are to be nominated at the CIAM Bureau meeting at the end of the preceding year and are to be indicated on the FAI Contest Calendar. A maximum of two contests may be selected for any one country.

4. Points Allocation

Points are to be allocated to competitors at each contest according to their placing in the results as given in the table and the following items:

Placing  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  
Points  50  40  30  25  20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13   

Placing 13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24
Points  12  11  10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1 

Each competitor awarded placing points is eligible for a bonus according to the number of competitors they have beaten in the competition. The bonus points are calculated as 1 point per 20 people beaten in F1A, 1 point per 10 people beaten in F1B or F1E, 1 point per 5 people in F1C. The number of bonus points is rounded down to the nearest whole number. The number of people beaten by someone in place P is (N-P) with N the number of competitors defined in (b) below.

a) Points are awarded only to competitors completing at least one flight in the contest.

b) Points are awarded only to competitors in the top half of the results list (if N is the number of competitors who completed at least one flight then points from the above table are awarded only for places 1 to N/2, rounding up when necessary in calculating the N/2 place).

c) In the event of a tie for any placings, the competitors with that placing will share the points which would have been awarded to the places covered had the tie been resolved (round up score to the nearest whole number of points).

5. Classification

The World Cup results are determined by considering the total of points obtained by each competitor in the World Cup events. Each competitor may count the result of all competitions, except that only one competition may be counted from each country in Europe (taking the better score for any European country in which he has scored in two competitions). To determine the total score up to three events may be counted, selecting each competitors' best results during the year.

In the event of a tie the winner will be determined according to the following scheme. The number of events counted will be increased from three, one at a time, until the winner is obtained. If this does not separate the tied competitors then the winner will be determined by considering the points obtained in the best three events multiplied by the number of competitors flying in each event. The winner is the one with the greatest total thus calculated.

6. Awards

The winner earns the title of Winner of the World Cup. Certificates, medals or trophies may be awarded by the Subcommittee as available.

7. Organisation

The Subcommittee shall be responsible for organising the World Cup and may nominate a responsible person or special subcommittee to administer the event.

8. Communications

The Free Flight Subcommittee should receive the results from each contest in the World Cup and then calculate and publish the current World Cup positions. These should be distributed to the news agencies and should be also be available, by payment of a subscription, to any interested bodies or individuals. Latest results will also be sent to the organiser of each competition in the World Cup for display at the competition. Final results of the World Cup are to be sent also to the FAI, National Aero Clubs and modelling press.

9. Responsibilities of Competition Organisers

Competition organisers must propose their event for inclusion in the World Cup when nominating events for the FAI international Sporting Calendar. The final selection of events from these proposals is made by the CIAM Bureau as defined in paragraph 3. Immediately after the event, the competition organiser must send the results to the World Cup organiser, at least within one month as required in the Sporting Code B.6.5. Any failure to return results promptly will be reviewed by the CIAM Bureau when considering the competition calendar for the following year.

10. Jury

A Jury of three responsible people shall be nominated by the CIAM Free Flight Subcommittee to rule on any protest concerning the World Cup during a year. Any protest must be submitted in writing to the Free Flight Subcommittee Chairman and must be accompanied by a fee of 80 Swiss Francs. In the event of the Jury upholding the protest, then this fee will be returned.

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