Qualifying Events – F5J USA Tour
Recent updates:
3-17-2022 – 2022 season changes. Added #5A, 5B. Revised #11 to $4/pilot.
12-20-2019 – 2020 season changes. Revised #1.
The USA season period is Dec 1 – Nov 30 (the Phoenix event is the first of the season). Contests that want to be part of the F5J USA Tour must adhere to the following guidelines:
1. Each club or contest group may host up to 2 F5J USA Tour events in a given season. A specific flying field may be used to host 3 events in a given season as long as one of the events is organized and run by a separate club/contest group. Events hosted by a specific club/contest group or held at a specific field must be spaced apart by at least 30 days (Note 1).
2. Events can be either 1-day, 2-day, or multi-day (3 or more) for special events such as Team Selects.
3. The deadline for registering events is August 15.
4. Each event must be approved by the Tour after the online application has been submitted.
5. Events and locations must be publicly announced at least 30 days in advance of the event date.
5A. Any changes to dates or locations must be pre-approved by the Tour.
5B. Any pilot requirements other than being an AMA member MUST be clearly stated in your contest announcements, including emails and RC Groups threads. e.g. if you require pilots to have FAA registration or take the TRUST test you must explicitly state it. Not clearly stating these requirements at least 30 days in advance of your event may result in removal of Tour status for that event.
6. All pilots must be valid AMA members.
7. All planes must be outfitted with an FAI F5J-approved altimeter (newer F5J-compatible devices may not appear on the FAI list but will be accepted)
8. Flight matrix – Round-by-round flight groups must be generated with all pilots treated as members of a single “class.” If contests are actually run with multiple classes the flight groups must be generated in a single contest without any attempt to fly pilots in a given class together. Further, groups must not be “seeded” based on scores from prior rounds (Note 2).
9. Minimum rounds – Each pilot must fly a minimum of 4 rounds in the event, otherwise their scores cannot be submitted to the Tour (Note 3).
10. Minimum pilots – For events with 2 or more days a minimum of 10 pilots must participate in each event. i.e. must fly the minimum number of rounds in the event. For 1-day events a minimum of 6 pilots is required.
11. Submitting scores and fees – At the conclusion of a Tour event the final scores for all pilots who fly the minimum number of rounds must be entered into the Tour Results spreadsheet (will be provided). The spreadsheet is sent along with a $4.00/pilot Tour fee (an online Paypal link will be provided). This fee will be used to cover end-of-season awards and an annual donation to the USA F5J World Championship team.
12. Including woody, foamy, and other low cost planes – Tour events can be run under current FAI and Tour rules that allow lower cost planes to participate and be separately recognized. All planes in a Tour event must be included in a single flight matrix that includes all pilots with all scores reported to the Tour without any class designation. However, it is acceptable (and easy with GliderScore) to generate separate class-specific score listings that allow recognition of pilots in separate classes e.g. woody, foamy.
Note 1: The intent of this contest date spacing is to prevent back-to-back events from being submitted with substantially the same pilot roster.
Note 2: The overall goal is to maximize the number of times each pilot flies against each other pilot (technically this is not random). Gliderscore, for example, operates this way and ensures the fairest possible flight matrix.
Note 3: This is to ensure that all listed pilots are actually “valid” participants in the contest.