Competition Ballooning – Fly On
The rule (or information) for this task is set out in Chapter 15 of the Event Rules
The Fly On (FON) is probably one of the commonest tasks set in any competition; 5 of 19 tasks in the 2015 Saga International Balloon Fiesta and 2 of 7 at the 2015 British Nationals. It is the easiest task to add on to any number of previous tasks as long as there is room on the competition map and there are goals to declare. In fact you may be faced with several tasks then a FON followed by another FON (or even more). Valid goals are defined in the rules and are usually a road junction that is neither a major road nor an unfenced farm track, so there has to be a selection for the pilot to choose from. With the new electronic ‘loggers’ the pilot can declare just a grid reference ‘in the sky’ and aim for that so one needs no ground features at all; you score in this instance by pressing the’ drop marker’ button as you fly though the point. In the FON task the pilot chooses a goal that he/she intends to fly to after the previous task but needs to select that goal and declare it before dropping the marker to that previous task. So in a simple set of tasks such as a Judge Declared Goal (JDG) followed by a FON you need to select a goal (usually only one) further on from the JDG (usually 2-5 km) while flying the first task. To reduce workload pilots will select ‘provisional’ goals in the area where they are likely to head to after the JDG and work out the grid references of those goals so they are ready to write the selected one down. The normal method of declaration is to write the goal reference of the FON onto the marker of the previous task; in this case the JDG. With electronic loggers the pilot has the ability to declare the goal in the logger. When this is done the time and place declared will be also be logged thus identifying if this has been done before reaching the previous goal. In both cases (manually and electronic) one has the ability to re-declare should the winds shift as you approach the previous goal.
The whole rule is quite wordy but this is focused on 15.5.4 describing the declaration method. This is as a result of much debate and argument over many years. The original rule stated that “The competitor shall write clearly on the previous marker his declared goal(s) for fly on. If the previous marker is not dropped or no goal is written on it or if more goals are declared than permitted the competitor will not achieve a result. As a precaution, in case the previous marker should be lost, the competitor may personally write a provisional goal on the observer’s sheet.” This meant that if you wrote a provisional goal on the observer’s sheet and then flew to that goal you still would not achieve a score if you had not written anything on the marker, even if it was an illegible scribble. So the pilot who was skilled enough to declare before takeoff scored nothing if he did not write anything on the marker. This was always felt to be wrong and many pilots were penalised for this (including myself) and so eventually words have been found that allows you to declare to the observer (in writing) without anything having to be on the marker. If you do need to write on the marker (which you will have to if you change your mind and the observer is following on the ground) then it is advisable to use a permanent marker; many pilots have not been scored as their marker has fallen on to wet grass heavy which has washed off their carefully inscribed goal reference made with non-permanent ink. The main reason to write a provisional goal on the observer sheet is in case the marker is lost or stolen. This reminds me of a miscarriage of justice that occurred at the Europeans in Lithuania in 2003. Mike Howard was flying his observer. He was approaching the goal before the fly on when he needed to re-declare his fly on goal. He wrote it on the marker and the observer then took note of the goal reference though Mike did not write it on the sheet himself. The marker was dropped close to the goal but when they returned it had been stolen. He was given a no score as he had not written anything himself on the observer’s sheet though the observer had witnessed the declared goal reference. Rule 6.1 states that “The observers duties are primarily the impartial recording of particulars of positions, times, distances etc. achieved during a flight.” This he did. Mike protested to the jury but lost. At the debriefing at the end of the event the pilots and observers unanimously agreed that this was wrong as that is what the observer is there for. On another occasion when I dropped my marker from height near a housing estate I could see a teenager approach and pick up my marker with my crew someway behind and out of sight because the wind was quite brisk. I got my binoculars out as I sped away and managed to follow the reprobate through a couple of streets to a house which he entered. I landed some miles on, quickly packed up and with the retrieve vehicle returned to the house. You had to see the look on this teenager’s face when he appeared at the door with his mum and I asked for my marker back, the tail of which could just be seen emerging from his trouser pocket.
FONs can get trickier these days. It has been set after a task such as a Hare and Hounds (see previous article). In this situation you can only work out distance limits once the hare has landed. If you are close to the hare and there is little change of direction with height you may have to select a goal from very few options within a few minutes of the hare landing as you are trying to concentrate on the approach to that target. With electronic marks you may be asked to declare at a specific height and this can be further complicated by having to declare at a height some distance above or below the declared height. For instance at the recent World Air Games the data for the FON stated “any coordinate with altitude min. 200ft above MSL at least 400ft above or below declaration point”.
Taking the simple FON it should be straight forward to select a goal further on your flight rack as you will know the available winds to use as you fly to the first target. However winds can change or drop off altogether so it is not surprising to sometimes achieve a result of 2.5km with a minimum distance between your previous mark and declared goal of 2km.
Marker going at a FON, GP at Stanford Hall 1996 by Karin Bareford
Two FONs at Tochigi, Japan 2014
Crews awaiting at a FON, Tochigi, Japan 2011 by Rupert Stanley
Written by David Bareford
