Reports of Mons 2007

The initiative

This meeting was initiated by Gérard Proot and his colleagues from the "Inter Club Indoor de Mons", after the great success of two Air-Terre-Mer exhibitions held in the same hall in 2005 and 2006.

The facility

The Mons-Expo hall is a gigantic structure covering an area larger than a football field with the ceiling reaching 21m. Ideal for any kind of indoor activity, this hall is frequently used for Indoor Tennis competitions, concerts and exhibitions. The whole space can be divided in 3 sections, the smaller of them measuring about 44x44m. This was the theatre of the 2007 Indoor competition officially announced on the FAI calendar end of 2006. We could use the cafetaria for serving the meals and a side room to deposit all models between the flights. The judges and jury could use another room for their meetings. Participants were unanimous to acclaim the excellent facility with an unequalled flying space.

The program

Mons 2007 was announced as a F3P competition, running both the demanding classical "Pattern Flying" program and the so-called "Free Style". In addition, the national category "Sport" was to be run, to accomodate less proficient pilots. Three rounds of each task were flown between Saturday 13.00 and Sunday 17.00, which left ample room for training and trimming sessions, both in the official room and the second segment of the building, with a floor area of about 75x44m.

The participants

About 25 participants from the Netherlands, France, Lituania and Belgium joined the meeting. The turnup might have been larger if on the same date, there had not been a major German meeting, as well as the ETOC meeting in Toledo (USA) that attracted some prominent European pilots. Joungest participant was only 11 years old.

The Judges and Jury

Mons 2007 was placed under the scrutiny of an international jury consisting of

• Mr Guy Revel-Mouroz (France)
• Mr Guido Michiels (Belgium)
• Mr Yves Bourgeois (Belgium)
• res. Mrs Geneviève Awouters (Belgium)
  

The Judges were:

• Mr Michel Dupond (France)
• Mr Marc Weyenberg (France)
• Mr Henny Van Loon (The Netherlands)
• Mr Jean-Louis Hembise (Belgium)
  
• Mr Michel Doucy (Belgium)
• 
  

The weather and the public

It may seem funny to mention the weather when reporting an Indoor competition, but this was simply a glorious week-end by Belgian standards for April. The temperature went up close to 30 °C. The effect was certainly to encourage everyone to profit from the nice weather rather than to come and look at the show. Due to the excellent thermal performance of the roof, the flying hall remained nicely temperate during the whole period. The estimated total number of visitors over the two days amounts to 1500 according to the personnel of the City of Mons. All by all quite a significant achievement.

The organiser

The "Inter Club Indoor de Mons" counts a dozen enthusiasts who filled most key sport functions during the meeting, while the bar was manned by personnel from the City of Mons and the catering was in the hands of a professional.

Key persons on the sportive side were:

• Gérard Proot, general manager
• Robert Herzog, contest director
• Robert Denuit, sport director and chief scorer
  
• Dino Palmieri, timekeeper and start caller
  
• Jean-François Lothaire, general arrangements
  
• Eric Lekeux and Joachim Delnest, music desk
  
• Xavier Claus and Philippe Mutsaarts, presentation and public address
• Benoît Palmieri, electronics and accessories
  
• Bernard Delhaye, logistics support
• Patrick Lezy, secretary

A round of Aero Musicals

In the perspective of the World Air Games to be organised in 2009, where several aeromodeling categories will be presented, it was decided to ask volunteer competitors to take part in a round of Aero Musicals, (FAI sporting code, section 4, volume 6 (Promotional classes), class F6B). Eight pilots participated in this experiment for which the judges were handed over the specific scoring sheets. The outcome is that the 2008 edition of the Mons Indoor contest will probably be considered among the selection contests to identify worldwide the 10 to 15 pilots who will be invited to take part in the 2009 World Air Games.

Prizegiving ceremony

The mayor of the City of Mons, Mr Elio Di Rupo came over in person to congratulate the organisers for the excellent work in running this event and to hand over the trophies to all winners, together with Mr. Sakkas deputy-mayor for the Sport. Mr Di Rupo was welcomed while entering the hall by the "Doudou", a flying version of the celebrated Dragon of the city, on the tunes of the City anthem, sung in choir and applauded by the numerous public present in the hall at that time

The results of the F3P, Freestyle and Sports

The list of participants

The results of the experimental F6B round

Acknowledgements and thanks

The organisers want to express their gratitude to the following people for their help and support in getting access to the facility and setting up and running the event:

• Mr Elio Di Rupo, mayor of the City of Mons
• Mr Sakkas, deputy-mayor for Sports of the City of Mons
• Mr Henri Goffin, manager of Mons Expo
• Mr Jean-Claude Vanderlinden, executive manager festive events Mons
  
• Mr Pascal Delaunois, adjunct executive manager festive events Mons
  

Many of the accompanying pictures were taken over from Derk Van der Vecht's and Donatas Pauzuolis' websites, with thanks.

Pictures and Videos

The regional television TéléMB came over to produce a nice report during saturday afternoon's session. Several videos are available from Donatas' website. See links at bottom of page.

We also have a photo album to browse

...and for 2008...

The dates for the Mons-Indoor 2008 have been recently finalised. The competition will take place on Saturday April 5 and Sunday April 6, 2008. The main hall will be accessible for training on the day before, namely Friday April 4. Access to additional training area will be allowed during the whole period of the contest, as was the case during the 2007 Mons-Indoor competition.

The program of the 2008 contest will be :

• F3P (imposed schedule)
• F6B Aero-Musicals (sub-class A, for models of less than 500 g)
  
• possibly, depending on attendance, some additional categories of R/C electroflight Indoor may be proposed

Our plans for 2008 include two complete panels of 5 judges to serve in alternation, in order to allow judged flights to proceed over most of the contest time. At least three complete rounds will be flown for the F3P categories, while a complete Aero-Musicals contest will be flown, including the qualification rounds, semi-finals  and the final. Contest rules will be strict application of the F3P and F6B rules as decided by the CIAM during the 2008 Plenary meeting, so that this contest will qualify as an official FAI selection competition for the 2009 World Air Games.