quote:

ORIGINAL: john agnew
I have never felt that Israel was the correct location for this event, simply because it meant the almost automatic exclusion of the Arab nations which I believe to be against the spirit of open competition. In my view the poor entry at this event vindicates my stance.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gordon Mc

quote:

ORIGINAL: john agnew
I have never felt that Israel was the correct location for this event, simply because it meant the almost automatic exclusion of the Arab nations which I believe to be against the spirit of open competition. In my view the poor entry at this event vindicates my stance.

My memory may be imperfect on this issue, in which case I appologise in advance for any inaccuracies, but ... wasn't there another country originally slated to hold this year's event, but then they baled for some reason ?

If so well, perfect location or not, at least the Israelis did actually stick with their commitment to host the event.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but since no other country had apparently even bothered to put in a formal request to host the event, it seems just a tad wrong for any of us from those "we don't want to bother with the hassle of hosting the event" countries to then complain about the only one country that did actually step up to do so.

YMMV, which is fine.

Gordon

quote:

ORIGINAL: ZivBit

Hey Guys,

We are Guns & Roses at the holy land... remember that it is not about guns, but the people holding them. they are all responsible, well trained personnel, all in duty.

As for the event - indeed we wish they were more competitors, but the organizers estimated this, and beside arab countries who chose not to be here due to political issue (and too bad, this could have been the begining of something..) I do believe that the global financial crisis is the main reason for this. A pilot will think twise before spending 4-5K for this trip to the competition and would rather keep this money for his next plane or so. I know I would...

Here you can find more photos, on a daily basis. The text is in hebrew but you can scroll down and find more pics.
http://www.planesandmodels.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=2112#post27220

An english thread:
http://www.planesandmodels.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=2120#post27240

Shalom to all,

Zivo

quote:

ORIGINAL: john agnew

What? Only 25 entries? Israel can only field 2 and they don't have to travel! Well they certainly will have plenty of practice slots. So much for the best WJM ever. It's going to be really exiting for the spectators watching all those big gyro stabilised Swiss Hawks doing exactly the same schedule. Yawn!!!
 
John

quote:

ORIGINAL: ZivBit

Hey Guys,

We are Guns & Roses at the holy land... remember that it is not about guns, but the people holding them. they are all responsible, well trained personnel, all in duty.

As for the event - indeed we wish they were more competitors, but the organizers estimated this, and beside arab countries who chose not to be here due to political issue (and too bad, this could have been the begining of something..) I do believe that the global financial crisis is the main reason for this. A pilot will think twise before spending 4-5K for this trip to the competition and would rather keep this money for his next plane or so. I know I would...

Here you can find more photos, on a daily basis. The text is in hebrew but you can scroll down and find more pics.
http://www.planesandmodels.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=2112#post27220

An english thread:
http://www.planesandmodels.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=2120#post27240

Shalom to all,

Zivo

quote:

ORIGINAL: -JC-

Hi Zivo,

 

I really don't think that there were many political reasons for the low attendance this year. It was more a combination of factors that led to the lack of attendance.

 

From the US pilots perspective, here are the main reasons for not going:
 

 

1: Pilots who build their own models feels that the JWM lost relevance when the "builder of the model" rule was removed. Why bother going when you compete against "The best models money can buy" instead of competing on equal terms with actual builders.

Solution: Hopefully the IJMC will make rule changes for 2011 and reinstate a builders class. Othervise the contest is just an aerobatic contest with scale jets.


2: Americans work more hours than most. A typical vacation time for us is two weeks, where Europeans typically have 5 weeks +. So, the event is way too drawn out. Most have families, and having to tell the family that the entire years vacation will be spent with dad flying model airplanes is just not an option for most. Having only one plane in the air at a time is way to slow moving, and pilots only get to fly a few times over all those days. Plus, it's boring for spectators and helpers to look at.

Solution: The IJMC should learn from the Top Gun, the biggest and best scale contest anywhere. Frank Tiano's event is 4 days, with even more pilots than the JWM has ever had. At a minimum, switch to two flight lines and cut the competition time in half. This would lower the cost for everyone and make it possible for most to attend if only a week is needed.  

The above were to two primary reasons for not being able to produce a full team, and has nothing to do with it being Israel or any other country.

Other reasons include:

- Weak world economy combined with the fact that the competition area only had extremely expensive hotels available. Approximately $4000 per person for air fare and hotels for 2 weeks. A similar visit to US from Europe with hotel would cost roughly half that.

- The fact that political/religious motives made Israel impossible to visit for Arab countries. The JWM should only be held in countries where all interested competitors can travel freely.

- The fact that at the time of the registration deadline, the war in Israel had flared up which made the final two US pilots pull out (Justin Sands and I) A good friend of mine was blown to bits by a suicide bomber, and as you know, there has been a lot of those attacks in Israel over the years, so we did not feel it was worth the risk to travel to Israel. 

Hopefully 2011 will bring back a full field of pilots. But to do so, I think there has to be rules that puts team or factory built models in their own class, a more compact schedule and options for less expensive hotels in the competition area.

And off course, the above is my personal opinion.

Good luck to the pilots who are competing. It sure looks like the Israeli organizers did a great job.

quote:

ORIGINAL: john agnew

I thought the Chinese were'nt supposed to be here? It's obviously Mr Wun Winglo on the sticks.

John

quote:

ORIGINAL: digitech

Germany-Swiss  1-0