by Ian Kaynes Chairman, CIAM FF Subcommittee March 1996

The 1995 Free Flight World Cup has again had good participation, support and prestige. In 1995 there were two more F1A/B/C competitions than in 1994 and the total participation increased in 1995. There were more competitors in F1A and F1E classes but slightly fewer in F1B and F1C, the differences being related to different patterns of support of competitions around the time of the World Championships.

F1A was won by Gerhard Aringer flying for Austria, with 140 points scored for two wins and a second place, out of the notable total of eight competitions at which Gerhard placed high enough to be eligible for points. Ferenc Kerner and Dusan Fric were the only other challengers to score more than 100 points.

There was a two-way Ukrainian tie at 150 points at the top of the F1B results. By considering the fourth event flown the victor was determined as Igor Vivtchar, over his compatriot Alexander Andrjukov. Alexander won the F1B World Cup in 1994 and on several occasions before that. Third place went to the 1994 runner-up Anselmo Zeri of the Netherlands with 130 points, that number of points also having been obtained by Bror Eimar of Sweden. The top seven places in F1B had 100 points or more, including Klaus Salzer as another much-travelled flyer who had placed in the points at eight competitions.

F1C was won by Kaarle Kuukka of Finland. He achieved a straight four victories in events in Scandinavia. He was challenged by Gerhard Aringer in second place with 140 points and Andreas Lindner of Germany with 110 points. Gerhard's second in F1C and first in F1A is the first time that anyone has placed in the top three of two classes - at any time, let alone in the same year! It was notable that the entries in F1C have declined in 1995, so that some competitions have only minimal entries.

The F1E World Cup has been won by Milan Valastiak of Slovakia, his victory having been achieved with the best result of a second place in the Brezno World Cup event in Slovakia just after the World Championships. Bohumir Berger (Czech Republic), Peter Nosko (Slovakia), and Felix Schobel (Austria) took the following three places within nine points of the winner's total.

The organisation of the World Cup ran smoothly apart from the usual slightly late receipt of results from some competition organisers. There was again a delay of two months in receiving results from one competition, this year the culprit being the F1E competition in Slovakia.

Once again the fastest results came form Scandinavia, results reaching the UK 5 days after the competitions from each of the Holiday on Ice, Scania Cup, Nordic Cup, and Autumn Max. The F1E events in Austria were close to achieving the same speed. The Sierra Cup results appeared to arrive on the day of the competition, until investigation showed that the competition had been brought forward two weeks. No complaints were heard from potential competitors and so presumably they had been informed of the change. During the year results and news have been issued to organisers in the form of 4 issues of a World Cup newsletter.

There have been no protests in the 1995 Free Flight World Cup. An enquiry was received about the eligibility of a competitor flying on an FAI licence issued by the Aero Club of a nation different from his usual country of residence. This demonstrates a need for the two aero clubs involved in such arrangements to issue some paper confirming the mutual agreement to the situation, which is not required under the current Sporting Code rule.

The 1994 Plenary meeting passed a proposal from the Free Flight Subcommittee that medals be awarded to the winner and diploma to the top three people in each class of the World Cup. A design by Andre Schandel was selected at the December CIAM Bureau meeting but finalisation of the design has not yet been completed.

Number of competitors per country, only those scoring points in 2 or more events:

Total number of participants in all four classes: 2261