Here is the report of the 14th F3A RC Aerobatic World Championship in Flevohof / Netherlands. Howard Crispin documented the report for the AMA magazine Model Flight. A very professional report.
Hanno Prettner went home with all the marbles once more in the first of these events to use the Turnaround pattern; the F.R. Germany team bested all others.
Much work still needs to be done to create the ideal design for quality flying within the “box” in all types of weather.
At first sight one would hardly think of Flevohof in the Netherlands as an appropriate site for the 14th F 3A RC Aerobatics World Championships.
When we drove into the polder after arrival in Amsterdam and saw nothing but fields of wet grassland saturated by recent rains, it was difficult to envision a proper flying site.
The field was in extremely bad shape—but the organizers managed to overcome this in a unique manner. They laid out two runways (10 by 75 meters) with outdoor carpeting. The carpeting of the runways was typical of the care and planning that the Organizing Committee of the Royal Netherlands Aeronautical Association, with affiliated aeromodelling groups, had put into this event.
The competition ran smoothly and without any major problems for the entire contest period, except for those things man cannot control. The rains that plagued the area prior to the competition typified the weather for the week of the event. Rain, fog, wind, and very cool days were with us for most of the time.
Normal attire was heavy clothing and rubber boots, as the pictures show. Consideration for one other group was also needed. This was for the 10 individuals who were scheduled to sit and judge the flights in that wet, muddy area for four days.
They weren’t forgotten, a raised platform built of plywood and bracing being provided. Two flight lines were used, and they were separated by 800 meters. This proved to be sufficient any crossover interference of the flights.
This had an effect on the ability of some to keep the flight “within the box.” At any World Championships there is always the core of fliers who have been competing at this level for years. This year was no exception, but there were many individual newcomers and a new nation: Thailand.
More countries had full three-member teams this year than when the event was in the U.S. two years before. Conspicuously missing were the South Africans. It is an unfortunate fact that international polities extend even to aero-modeling activities. When the contest got underway, one could quickly sort out the fliers into two groups. In the first were those who obviously have practiced where competition is very fierce. These in the other group were front areas where competition, and probably critiquing, do not hone the skills to the level necessary to win at a World Championships.
Hopefully there was much learning from the experience. By Sunday morning, September 8, 78 fliers from 28 countries had arrived and begun processing models and transmitters. There was grumbling about having to disassemble some aircraft that almost required major surgery; this was done to check for gyros (illegal for F3A).
Only minor problems put in an appearance as the organizers got things smoothly underway. Processing time gave all of us a first look at what the competitors would be flying this year. There were few surprises. Monday was devoted to training (practice flying) for all the teams. After impounding the transmitters bright and early, each team had a half-hour period on the line-time for each member to have one flight.
There was a half-hour scheduled in the morning and again in the afternoon for checking out thc judgcs (conducted by the FAI Jury). Australia led off practice flying on Line A at 8:00 a.m., Denmark doing the same on Line B. Turkey and Thailand were the last to fly, their periods ending at 5:00 p.m.
Following this was the official opening ceremony and air show (a Pitts performing so close that the FAA would have taken away the pilot’s license in this country). A reception for the team managers, officials, and VIPs and dinner left everyone ready for official flying to begin.
Tuesday. Competition was scheduled to begin at 8:00 a.m., and with the excellent planning (and cooperation of the weather), flying started precisely on Urne. The plan was to get in 14 rounds on each of three days in order to get in the required four rounds. The goal was met this day. As flying progressed, several trends became apparent.
Four-stroke engines have not taken F3A by storm. In talking to a number of contestants, I found that they are concerned about the four-stroke’s maintainability and reliability; also, it has no advantage in power or measured noise levels.
The planes are larger, have somewhat lower wing loadings, and are powered by longstroke engines running at lower speed with higher-pitched or variable-pitch propellers. The aircraft are flying slower, although many are still too fast to get the best score in the F3A schedule. Most of the fliers had some problem with flying in the box.
Some appeared to be willing to take very low turnaround scores in hopes of getting higher scores in the center maneuvers (which have high K-factors). This practice required top performance in the middle. Many fliers tended to place maneuvers such that turnarounds intruded into the center maneuver area, and some of the center maneuvers extended well into the turnaround area.
This caused considerable downgrading. The faster aircraft flew larger maneuvers, and these tended to exceed the 60” vertical reference. To avoid the vertical problem, some flew quite far out, causing other errors to be apparent.
The perfect aircraft for F3A is not yet here. The planes that performed best at staying in the box were the same ones that seemed to have the most difficulty in coping with the wind—especially the strong crosswinds that were present on two days. Much was learned which should result in improvements soon in the design of these specialized aircraft.
Tuesday’s flying brought results that probably did not really surprise followers of the F3A World Championships. One thing that was perhaps surprising was the consistency of the top 12 fliers after the first round. These 12 remained in the top 12 in the field of 78 throughout the entire contest?
At the end of Round 1, the field stood in this order:
1 Hanno Prettner. Austria 402.67 Points 1000%
2 Wolfgang Matt, Liechtenstein 386.33 Points 959%
3 Hajimo Hatta, Japan 375.67 Points 933%
4 Bertram Lossen, F.R. Germany 374.33 930%
5 Giichi Naruke, Japan 373.00 926%
6 Bill Cunningham, U.S.A. 369.67 Points 918%
Guenter Hoppe, F.R. Germany 369.67 Points918%
7 Siyunichi Suzuki, Japan 367.33 Points912
8 Tony Frackowiak, U.S.A. 366.33 Points 910%
Werner Schweiker, F.R. Germany366.33 Points 910%
9 Ivan Kristensen, Canada 361% Points 897%
10 Dave Brown.. U.S.A. 359 33 Points 897%
Wednesday. One-third of Round 2 had been flown on Tuesday, and the last two-thirds were flown on this second day of competition. To complete the schedule as planned, two-thirds of Round 3 was flown on this day, the remainder of the round to be flown on Thursday. The weather moderated somewhat on Wednesday. Same sunshine was seen during the day, and by afternoon the temperature approached 70° F. The second round moved all of the top 12 contenders to Linie A except for Matt; he was an Line B. The positions at the end of Round 2 begin to see two standings.
It is of interest to note the round winner and the cumulative positions.
1 Hanno Prettner 411.67 points 1000%
2 Wolfgang Matt 405.00 points, 984%
3 Bertram Lossen 389,00 points 945%
4 Werner Schweiker 385.00 points, 935%
5 Giichi Naruke 322.67 points 930%
6 Ivan Kristensen 380.33 points 924%
7 Dave Brown 372.33 points, 904%
8 Guenter Hoppe 370.67 points, 900%
9 Bill Cunningham 366.00 points, 889%
10 Tony Frackowiak 352.67 points, 857%
11 Syunichi Suzuki 350.67 points, 852%
Hajime Hatta 350.67 points, 852%
As can be seen, there was some shifting of positions, but the same 12 names still appear on top! Lossen, Schweiker, and Kristensen improved their positions, while Hatta and Suzuki did not fare so well. Hatta, especially, may have had some reason to be off some. On Tuesday when scheduled to fly, his mechanic tripped over the pipes laid out for the sound check; he struck the fin and broke part of it off as he started to carry the plane out to the runway. Hatta reflew an Wednesday with his second airplane, which may be why there was such a big differente in his performance.
Thursday. All of the qualification flying prior to the finals should have been completed on this day, but it wasn’t. Solid fog until alter 10 o’clock prevented any flying, everyone standing around damp and cold. Once the fog lifted the day turned out pretty good as far as wind was concerned, but the clouds remained low, and it was rather gloomy all day. The late start meant that about one-third of Round 4 would have to be flown on Friday, the day for the flyoff finals.
Since only one-third of Round 3 had to be flown an Thursday, standings at the end of Round 3 could be posted, showing the following positions:
1 Hanno Prettner 463,67 points 1000%
2 Wolfgang Matt 393,00 points, 974%
3 Bertram Lossen 391,00 points 969%
4 Ivan Kristensen 384,33 points, 952%
5 Dave Brown 382,33 points 947%
6 Guenter Hoppe 381,00 points 944%
7 Syunichi Suzuki 377,33 points, 935%
8 Tony Frackowiak 373,67 points, 929%
9 Giichi Naruke 366,00 points, 926%
10 Werner Schweiker 372,00 points, 922%
11 Hajime Hatta 367,33 points, 910%
12 Bill Cunningham 364,00 points, 902%
Friday. For those who needed to complete Round 4 on this day, conditions were much different. Watching those flights gave the spectators some inkling of what the flyoff finals in the afternoon would be like if conditions did not change. It was cold and windy! The judges were dressed as warmly as possible, knowing they would be out there all day long in those conditions. For the fliers, the wind created another handicap, as it was straight across the runway—the worst of all directions, and to top that off, it was blowing toward the fliers! These conditions were not likely to be of
much help in improving scores. At the end of the fourth round, the selection for the flyoff finals could be made. Since the FAI procedure is to take the top 10% to the finals and there were 78 contestants, the top eight fliers would compete for the gold. This is how the qualifying ended at the conclusion of Round 4:
1 Wolfgang Matt 413,67 points, 1000%
2 Hanno Prettner 409,67 points, 990%
3 Giichi Naruke 397,67 points, 961%
4 Bertram Lossen 391,33, points 946%
5 Werner Schweiker 390,00 points, 943%
6 Guenter Hoppe 384,67 points 930%
7 Tony Frackowiak 383,67 points, 927%
8 Ivan Kristensen 382,33 points, 924%
9 Dave Brown 379,00 points 916%
10 Bill Cunningham 372,67 points, 901%
11 Syunichi Suzuki 365,87 points, 884%
12 Hajime Hatta 358,00 points, 865%
Only one point prevented Tony Frackowiak from being in the finals, and Bill Cunningham was only 45 points back. ‘The field had been selected, and after lunch and a chance for all concerned to get a little warmed up, the flights for all the marbles began. Two rounds would be flown, with the high-scoring round to be counted.
The eight would give it all they could. The two factors that seemed to have had so much a bearing an the outcome so far would be even more apparent with the still crosswinds that were present for the finals. The box and the wind made a difference. When you see flying of this caliber, you know it is all excellent- but even the best can have some difficulties. For the Japanese it was the Problem of getting out of the box (fast aircraft); otherwise, the wind-handling qualities of their flying was outstanding. For the others, it appeared to be a combination of both problems. The scores, overall, were lower in the flyoff finals.
Both of the flyoff flights are shown in the listing below (which includes the final standings of the top 12), although only the best flyoff score counts.
1 Hanno Prettner
2 Wolfgang Matt 413,67 points, 1000%
2 409,67 points, 990%
3 Giichi Naruke 397,67 points, 961%
4 Bertram Lossen 391,33, points 946%
5 Werner Schweiker 390,00 points, 943%
6 Guenter Hoppe 384,67 points 930%
7 Tony Frackowiak 383,67 points, 927%
8 Ivan Kristensen 382,33 points, 924%
9 Dave Brown 379,00 points 916%
10 Bill Cunningham 372,67 points, 901%
11 Syunichi Suzuki 365,87 points, 884%
12 Hajime Hatta 358,00 points, 865%
Only one point prevented Tony Frackowizte from being in the finals, and Bill Cunningham was only 45 points back. ‘The field had been selected, and after lunch and a chance for all concerned to get a little warmed up, the flights for all the marbles began. Two rounds would be flown, with the high-scoring round to be counted.
The eight would give it all they could. The two factors that seemed to have had so much a bearing an the outcome so far would be even more apparent with the still crosswinds that were present for the finals. The box and the wind made a difference. When you see flying of this caliber, you know it is all excellent-but even the best can have some difficulties. For the Japanese it was the problem of getting out of the box (fast aircraft); otherwise, the windhandling qualities of their flying was outstanding.
For the others, it appeared to be a combination of both problems. The scores, overall, were lower in the flyoff finals. Both of the flyoff flights are shown in the listing below (which includes the final standings of the top 12), although only the best flyoff score counts.
Fly-Off
After four days of hard competition, it was Prettner, Matt and Lossen who took the medals. Matt had the highest single flight score (in Round 4) and received the Warren Hitchcock Award at the banquet (through an error it was presented to Hanno Prettner, but correction was made during the evening).
Scoring is shown here through 12th place because there was a significance to the number at the end of the competition. The first-place team was F.R. Germany, with Japan second and the United States in third. You should note that all three team members from these there nations were in the top 12. This testifies to the caliber of flying being done by group of competitors. They deserve a great big round of applause.
Sidelights. During the first round (during testing for sound levels) the Belgian team members were suspected of a little hanky panky with their full-throttle tests. Why? It seems they were being tested at sound levels much lower than anyone else! There was good reason for it: Renaat Lemmens of Belgium has a new patented tuned pipe that does it. This was the most outstanding new piece of equipment at Flevohof. Lemmens’ pipe is constructed basically of carbon fiber with a liner of fiberglass. It is extremely light.
The Belgians tested at 95 – 96dBA with it on the ground, and this is exceptional. Dave Brown brought one back and possibly may market the pipe in the U.S. Going price for it over there was $538.00, Dean Pappas, columnist for Flying Models, got one for testing and reporting in FM. Be on the lookout for that report. The 14th World Championships for F3A was a memorable event.
The Organizing Committee and volunteers from the Royal Netherlands Aeronautical Association, plus the various clubs, deserve a lot of credit for a job well done. As with our own Academy, the Netherlands aeromodelling division is celebrating its 50th anniversary. What better way to publicize and celebrate the event than with a very successful World Championships?
Text: Ernst Howard Crispin, Model Aviation (thanks to Jay Smith)
Result list
