World Aerobatic Championships, USA 1971, a report by the well-known German RC author Erich Rabe at the time. I remember Erich. He was a member of my neighborhood club, Balsania Filder, and my favorite author. For many years he was the editor of the German magazine ‘RC-Modelle’. But now to the report:
The day has come sooner than expected when we say: “Let’s go to the World Cup.” After a short flight from Echterdingen to Paris, it is time to change planes to get from Orly Airport, where the Air France plane landed, to Le Bourget Airport, where the charter flight “Operation Friendlift” organized by the American model airplane association AMA is taking off. Departure Echterdingen 10 a.m. on September.
The teams from the United States taking part in the charter flight are gradually arriving at Le Bourget. With them come all the many supporters who want to be there to give their team the necessary support.
The clock hand creeps slowly towards 7 p.m., the time when the machine is scheduled to start. Finally, the time has come for all the participants to go out to the gate to board the machine.
But it is not going to be quite as fast as some people had thought, because one of the organizers suddenly remembered that the participants could also be divided into individual groups, depending on the country they come from. And so – how could it be otherwise in Paris – the French team is called upon first to walk across the airfield to the machine.
A storm of protest, but when it was the Norwegian team’s turn, which was second, it suddenly consisted of almost 50 people, all those who had realized in the meantime that they could get into the machine as one of the first people by using the name “Norway”.
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The plane then left Paris pretty much on schedule and took off on its flight to London. Night had fallen in the meantime and only the slightly reddened sky was illuminated, the cloud mountains could be seen lying as a dense layer below us.
A short one-hour flight to London, then a stopover to pick up the English team and their models, along with the teams from South Africa and Finland.
It is certainly not surprising that with all the models that had to be taken to the world championship, and which, incidentally, were all packed in uniformly sized boxes, the loading space was quite limited and it seemed to be a problem to get all the participants’ boxes into the plane.
In the end, however, this also worked, but now new difficulties arose. During landing, a tire on the main landing gear of the DC 8 had burst, and of course this had to be replaced before taking off over the ocean. If you have a flat tire on your car and have to change the tire, this is generally done within 5 minutes.
It’s not quite so easy with a huge and heavy machine like the DC 8 we flew with.
It was simply not possible to find a suitable jack during the night that could support the weight of the plane. So the passengers had to get off the plane and wait in the waiting room for a while.
The repair took a long time because the first jack that was brought didn’t hold the load and collapsed. The second jack didn’t fare much better.
It was only when the third, even stronger one was used that the machine could be lifted and the tire changed. But the tire had been changed and so the onward flight could begin.
By now it was 11 p.m. So I had unintentionally spent the hours between 9 and 11 p.m. in London at Gatwick Airport. Despite the rumors of anxious and worried faces on the plane, the heavily loaded plane took off safely for its flight across the Atlantic and landed just as safely at Kennedy Airport in New York at 7:30 a.m. Central European Time.
The service on board the World Airways plane was very good, the stewardesses were exceptionally friendly and helpful.
In New York, it was now 1:30 a.m. and dense night shrouded the city and the airport. There we had to endure the procedures of the immigration authorities, a purely mechanical work in and of itself.
However, with 250 passengers, this took a good hour. The bus connection to Doylestown in Pennsylvania worked very well. The buses were waiting in front of the airport entrance and could be boarded immediately.
At 9 a.m. CET, the flight went from Munich to New Hope in Pennsylvania, where the active pilots who took part in the World Championship were quartered in the Holiday Inn hotel, as were (after protest) their wives and the officials from the various states.
The active participants in the competitions were quite tired and tense on the first day and severely affected by the unfamiliar climate. No wonder that now all the teams from the various states were sitting around with sullen faces and sleep-deprived, not really wanting to get going.
The companions or battle-crowds, as one could also call them, came to the Fiesta Inn in Willow Grove, about 35 km from New Hope. The rooms and service were excellent, but the passengers were now quite tired, because after all, everyone had been on their feet or on the road for at least 24 hours or more.
A shower in the hotel and a quick shave of the beard, and then it was time to go to the airfield. Nervous faces all around, no wonder, after the tension and exertion of the day just gone by.
Due to the delay of the first training flight, the official opening of the training flights was postponed to Thursday, so that the competitors should actually have a free day on Wednesday.
This was certainly one of the reasons why the organization was not yet on a firm footing on Wednesday. Everything was still in the process of being set up and everyone was honestly trying to do the right thing, but somehow the overall concept and proper coordination were missing.
Nobody knew the exact details, and this continued over the following days. For example, a bus service was provided from the two hotels to the airfield. The bus ran all day from the hotel to the airfield and then to the next hotel and back to the airfield.
At times, a time interval of one hour was mentioned, but this was later corrected to two hours. The only problem was that nobody knew when the bus would leave from the hotels or the airfield. It was therefore entirely possible to be standing at the “bus stop” at 8 a.m. when the bus had just left five minutes before.
Too bad for those who really wanted to go to the airfield, because a taxi there cost about 35 DM. With a little patience and now accustomed to waiting, things worked out after all.
On Wednesday, the sun beat down from the sky. The official training had not yet started, everyone still had their transmitter in their hand and that cost 4 or 5 participants their models. Their models crashed, disturbed from somewhere.
The active participants in the competitions were quite tired and tense on the first day and severely affected by the unfamiliar climate, which was not without wonder. No wonder that now all the teams from the various states were sitting around with sullen faces and tired eyes, not really wanting to get started.
Somehow, the right momentum was still missing. Only those who had already acclimatized, i.e. those who had arrived earlier, were already cheerfully flying off.
It was a murderously hot climate. The sun was burning down from the sky, and it was humid like in a greenhouse. But that was better than on the days before, when severe thunderstorms had raged over the area and caused great destruction. The American team seemed to be in good shape during the first training flights.
This is not surprising, because they had a good night’s sleep and were accustomed to the hot and humid climate. Ron Chidgey, who comes from Pensacola in Florida, has painted his model Tiger Tall with a new acrylic paint that has only been on the market for a few months. The finish of the model was excellent, the model was shiny, as if polished.
The entire American team was beaming with confidence. They were convinced that they would win the competition. But it was not yet time.
The flight area was divided up so that there was a take-off point at each end of the long concrete runway. So flights always took place at two points at the same time. The two models were in the air at the same time and there was a real risk that they would meet in the middle and shoot each other down.
Fortunately, this did not happen. Unfortunately for all model pilots, the wind blew crosswind most of the time, so the planes always hit the sun on the face and the spectators on the back. But during the actual competition, the sky was overcast and the sun was hidden.
The judges were Antonlus Aarts from the Netherlands, Walter Burger from Switzerland, John Hartley from England, David Henshaw from Canada, Acke Johansson from Sweden, Loris Kanneworff from Italy, Jaromir Schindler from Czechoslovakia, William Northrop from the USA, Pierre Pignot from France and Norbert Trumpfheller from Germany.
Due to this international line-up, there was absolutely no question of any real bipartisanship, no one was disadvantaged or favored.
The fact that there was no strict spatial separation between participants and visitors in the backyard of the airfield was very much appreciated by both the competitors and the spectators.
So there was plenty of opportunity to get to know each other, to talk and to discuss. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly, as befits such a major competition.
On Thursday, the weather was still very hot and humid. Ideal summer weather, just not so ideal for the model pilots, who had to complete their training in the morning and were very much affected by the unusual climate.
Around noon, the sky cleared up a bit, so that the actual competition could begin in quite favorable weather conditions.
Thursday, 2 p.m., start of the official competition. 62 participants from 22 countries presented themselves to the jury. When the flags of all the countries participating in the competition are raised, the German team is noticeably absent because they are somehow busy with their models in the hangar.
Fred Militky steps in to save the day. The competition is opened with a short address by the “Leader of the Majority of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania”. This is roughly equivalent to the leader of the governing party in the House of Representatives. He is an active model flyer himself.
The first round gets off to a very promising start for Bruno Giezendanner. He flies his Marabu confidently through the program with a record flight, for which he receives 7075 points. Our German participants are less satisfied.
Wolfgang Kosche takes off, has his first wobble after a little more than ten meters, initiates the subsequent U-turn, and the model, his Charly 14, maintains this turn all the way to the ground.
Dream over! With a total of 310 points and a completely destroyed model, he returns to the hangar. Josef Wester has a very good flight at the opening. His model AW 40 performs the figures evenly, and he steers it skillfully and smoothly. He can achieve 6595 points. Günter Hoppe achieves 4515 points in the first round.
His model, the Sultan III, is beautiful, elegant and has an excellent paint job. Marrot from France flies the first round rather nervously. His fingers move the control sticks quite forcefully, which leads to hard rudder deflections and a corresponding reaction from the very idiosyncratically built model.
The landing is quite hard, but in a circle. The Austrian Ferdinand Schaden flies very calmly, performs his figures perfectly in succession, and achieves 4825 points. The two Luxembourg pilots Paul Behm and Norbert Bertemes were unlucky in the first round: they both failed to get their engines running and therefore had a false start.
Fred Buick from Ireland did not fare any better. When the results of the first round were announced, Wester was actually able to calculate a fairly good place for himself, because after Giezendanner in 1st and Kraft in 2nd place, Wester followed in 3rd place, closely followed by Pagni (Italy) and the young Hanno Prettner from Austria.
The Japanese player Sugawara did surprisingly well to finish in 6th place with 6085 points, while Hitchcox from Canada and Jim Whitley from the USA took 7th and 8th place.
Wolfgang Matt from Liechtenstein was only able to achieve 5745 points in the first round, despite a flawless flight, which only earned him 9th place. This was somewhat disappointing, as Matt had shown in recent months and years that he is definitely one of the top class.
However, it must be taken into account that in the first round, with relatively comparable performances, an average of 1000 points more were given to the pilots in first place than to the pilots in second place, where Matt, Chidgey and Whitley were flying.
It is interesting to note that of the top 20 after the first round, no fewer than 15 earned their points in first place.
This is a precaution in case there is no fourth round and the competition has to be ended after three rounds.
This is not a problem, since the places were changed for the second round and therefore those who did better before came to the judges, who gave fewer points on average. This was corrected after the second round by mixing the judges according to their scores.
But luckily the first round was only the prelude and therefore everything was still open until the end of the competition. How quickly luck can change was seen in the second round, which mixed up all the positions.
Our other two German participants, Günter Hoppe and Wolfgang Kosche, were far behind in 31st and 55th place respectively after the first round.
On Friday morning, the weather was foggy. Visibility was completely insufficient and the competition could therefore only start very late. Until 11 o’clock, test flights were used to determine whether visibility met the requirements. After 11 o’clock, the competition could then be continued. Bruno Giezendanner was unlucky and missed a figure.
This reduced his chances, and with 5295 points in the second round, he fell back to third place. Giezendanner’s slow and spacious flying inspired not only the Americans.
Regarding the flying style, it should be noted that the Europeans have actually become a little smaller on average with their figures, while the Americans, who have always flown very small and in a confined space, have enlarged their figures quite a bit this year.
With a smooth second flight, Wolfgang Matt from Liechtenstein took first place, closely followed by Phil Kraft from the United States, just 250 points behind. Kraft was able to maintain his second place, which speaks volumes for his consistent performance.
Giezendanner had slipped to third place, closely followed by Jim Whitley from the USA, who achieved 6404 points with a confidently flown second round. Hanno Prettner from Austria, who is still to achieve great things with his ambitious flight program and very consistent performance, followed in fifth place.
The Americans had their big moment in the second round. Ron Chidgey from Florida scored 6400 points, moving up to 6th place. It seemed as if the race was over for the Americans.
Phil Kraft in 2nd place, Whitley in 4th and Chidgey in 6th place – that was exactly what they had hoped for.
The Americans won across the board. Looking at the American model pilots, you could tell that.
Wester was in 8th place after the second round. He had dropped back quite a bit after he had some severe disturbances in this round and of course became extremely uncertain. The fact that he still managed to achieve 4990 points speaks for his precise flight demonstration and for the exact placement of his figures.
Hoppe was in 24th place after the second round. He had improved his performance by 1000 points compared to the first round, had flown more confidently and precisely, and had thus achieved a good place in the middle of the field.
Kosche was doing well with his reserve model and had an excellently flown second round, that is, until almost the end of the second round, when everything went well. But then his streak of bad luck caught up with him again and the engine stalled during a spin.
He managed to bring his model back into the air to some extent, but he brushed against one of the boundary posts during landing and damaged the wing. This seemed to seal his fate. Fortunately, however, the damage to the wing turned out to be very minor, so he was able to continue flying the model in the next few passes.
Despite this blessing in disguise, it was enough for him to be only in 49th place when the scores were added up after the second round. It is very difficult to catch up for a missing round.
During the contest, the band monitoring for external interference was carried out with 4 monitors, highly developed sweep oscillographs from Hewlett-Packard, which automatically scan the entire remote control band and record both the frequency curve of the RF transmitter and any strong interference signal on the screen.
Since two models were in the air at any given time during the competition, i.e. two transmitters were in operation, two cones were also displayed on the screen. This immediately and unmistakably showed whose transmitter was transmitting cleanly and without side waves and whose transmitter had a wide frequency spectrum with sidebands.
In addition, digital meters were used to check the frequencies and the frequency of the remote control.
The price per unit of one of these sweep oscillographs is about $ 20,000. With these monitors, any significant interference on the remote control band could be detected immediately. It was recognizable as a line on the screen.
However, it is questionable whether every disturbance that affects the model high up in the air can actually be seen on the oscillograph, whose antenna was located a little to the side of the airfield and also a little lower than the airfield due to the slight slope.
Of course, there are two completely opposing views here. The model pilots, who were disturbed by models without noticing a disturbance on the oscillograph at the same time, say no, it is not possible to use it to check exactly in practice.
The people responsible for using the oscillograph said that, of course, all these faults could be detected. To clarify this definitively, a lengthy series of tests would be required.
The organization of the competition itself went very well, much better than the organization of the peripheral events. Especially the catering at noon was not quite right on the first days.
There was only a small hot dog stand, and the active participants, as well as all the spectators who wanted something to eat, gathered in a long line in front of the hut to get their lunch. “Hot dogs” with buns and some kind of lemonade to go with them was all that was available.
From Wednesday to Sunday, the same thing over and over again every day. Waiting times of 30-40 minutes were quite common, and all this in the blazing sun and with tired, stiff legs.
Two rounds were completed by Friday afternoon. There was still time to start the third round and get about 10 applicants through each of the two starting gates.
In the evening, at the hotel, there was a lot of guessing and calculating about who would be the winner after round 3, because some had already received their 3rd round and the corresponding score, while the others were still waiting for the 3rd round and would only do it on Saturday.
The evening was brightened up with a small party and film show, and then it was back to business on Saturday morning. Hanno Prettner achieved the highest score of the day so far with a masterfully flown third round, scoring 6515 points.
This was enough to move him up to 4th place in the closely packed leading group. With an excellently flown round, Wolfgang Matt defended his 1st place, although Bruno Giezendanner achieved 100 points more in his 3rd round, which was only enough for him to move up from 3rd to 2nd place.
Despite an equally skillful flight, Phil Kraft only managed 6230 points, which was enough for only 3rd place. What is most striking about Phil’s flying style is the fluidity of his maneuvers. While the Europeans fly loops and similar figures in a very throttled manner, resulting in noticeable differences in the sound alone, Kraft flies all these figures with only a slight reduction in throttle, so that one cannot detect any significant difference in speed or sound between the model ascending and descending.
His performances therefore appeared extremely fluid and precise. Slowly, after the third round, the leading group is emerging. Jim Whitley is in 5th place, and Josef Wester has worked his way up to 6th place with a clean round.
He flies the third round very skillfully. The figures are precisely placed. The flight is flawless and without trouble. Wester has improved his performance considerably. He has overcome his fear of trouble and no longer flies tensely.
Now he has regained his confidence and wants to fly to victory from the start of the 4th round, without any inhibitions. It simply has to work!
Ron Chidgey dropped back to 7th place after the 3rd round, closely followed by Sugawara from Japan, who dropped back to 10th place after a weak 2nd round, but was able to improve to 8th place in the 3rd round.
Hardaker from England moved up to 9th place after the 3rd round, followed by Ferdinand Schaden from Austria in 10th place. Thanks to a remarkable improvement in performance, he has moved up from 24th place after the first round to this position.
Michael Birch from England follows him in 11th place, and behind him comes Bertolani from Italy in 12th place. Bertolani flies his Kosmo 2 model. The Italian team appeared at Paris airport with 3 model crates painted in their national colors.
She was flown to Paris in military aircraft, as she had been several times before at international meetings. The green, white and red ribbons in Ms Bertolani’s hair made her look pretty, and even the container of the starting battery was painted in the national colors.
Thanks to his consistent performance, Günter Hoppe was able to work his way up to 19th place and Wolfgang Kosche, who seems to have overcome his losing streak, worked his way up to 45th place. 13th place went to Shimo from Japan and 14th place to Pierre Marrot from France.
He is followed by Emil Giezendanner from Switzerland and Graziano Pagni from Italy in 14th and 15th place. So much for the standings after the 3rd round.
After the 3rd round, all the participants’ faces show signs of exhaustion. You can see from this how much each individual competitor gives their all and how much of a strain the competition is for everyone.
As time permits, a 4th round will be flown and the three best results will be added together for the final result. The worst round of each competitor will be disregarded.
Now it’s time for the big final spurt on Saturday afternoon. Now it remains to be seen who will emerge victorious from this competition.
With a flawlessly flown program, Bruno Giezendanner scores 6785 points and thus leads the field. Starting number 13 seems to bring him luck.
Hanno Prettner with start number 10 was able to defend his well deserved 4th place with his spacious flying style and precisely placed figures and 6225 points. Matt gets 7040 points for his flight, the highest score of the 4th round.
That was enough to secure him second place. What is particularly admirable about Matt is that he has not been the least bit nervous throughout the entire competition. From the very beginning, he has remained calm, balanced and cheerful, just like Hanno Prettner.
Wester’s fourth round was also very smooth. The figures are precisely placed, the program runs like clockwork. Wester takes a well-deserved 5th place, only 5 points behind Prettner. Phil Kraft flies very smoothly and skillfully, with true experience.
But in the fourth round, his pieces are all sitting a little to the left of the judges.
The two Americans Whitley and Chidgey follow in 6th and 7th place. This ensures the Americans victory in the team ranking. The Austrian Schaden can improve to 8th place in the overall ranking, while Sugawara from Japan has to “make do” with 9th place and Hardaker (England) slips back one place to 10th.
It is quite remarkable that with Shimo in 11th place, two of the Japanese are able to place themselves in the leading group. Günter Hoppe also defends his 19th place in the 4th round and Wolfgang Kosche is able to improve considerably, moving up to 23rd place.
This means that Germany is at least guaranteed third place in the team standings, behind Switzerland, which is in second place. The RC1 competition will come to a close on Saturday evening.
The model exhibition in a tent on the grounds of the airfield gives a small and not very comprehensive overview of the range of products offered by the American model-making industry. Although by no means all manufacturers are represented, there are some very interesting new products on display. Particularly eye-catching are the 2-, 4- and 6-cylinder boxer engines from Ross.
Precision-made mechanical marvels, superbly manufactured. The cost of the 6-cylinder engine is about $500. A few days later, I have the opportunity to see one of these 4-cylinder boxer engines in operation, during the take-off and flight of the Big John biplane, when we go flying with our newly acquired American friends.
Kavan showed the prototype of his new engine in a completely unconventional form, with a flat rotary valve at the front, neatly worked, but still quite heavy as a hand sample. At the SIG stand, the low-wing Ryan STA Special, a fantastically well-made, true-to-the-original replica by Maxey Hester, could be admired.
The pylon race on Sunday attracted a great deal of attention, but it also brought a lot of worried glances at the models. The flight demonstration was quite dangerous in parts, with a whole series of crashes. Pylon racing is a battle of materials, exciting and thrilling, but dangerous here at the World Championships.
Another attraction, albeit not part of the competition, was an electric powered model aircraft, demonstrated by Fred Militky and Wolfgang Schwarze. Just imagine the contrast: while the engines howled for days, the model rose silently into the sky during the demonstration, was steered flawlessly and showed remarkable climbing performance. The model, which is roughly similar to the Graupner “Dandy” model, is equipped with 2 MICRO electric motors that work on folding propellers.
The model is equipped with a Varioprop remote control system, in which the housing and plug have been removed to save weight. The rudder, elevator and on/off function were controlled. We will report more about this model and the details.
At the flying display on Sunday afternoon, a pilot chased Snoopy in the Fokker triplane. Both models demonstrated skillful flying and made the spectators cheer.
The flight demonstrations by Dieter Schlüter’s helicopter were met with a storm of enthusiasm. The Americans were over the moon, and over the next few days, you couldn’t help but hear: “I’ve got to get one of those things.” Franz Kavan, who has taken over the distribution of the helicopter, will be delighted.
In the post-program, many of the charter flight participants were invited to stay with American families. Don Mc Govern of “Flying Models” went to great lengths to organize these meetings. Everyone agreed that this part was the greatest experience of the trip.
The hospitality of the Americans was overwhelming. The guests from the old world were welcomed with open arms, passed from family to family, and generously entertained.
The informal evening parties were meeting places for model pilots from the entire area, who exchanged experiences and often also refreshed old memories. It was generally regretted that no teams from the Eastern Bloc countries could participate in the competition. Presumably financial reasons were responsible for their absence.
In retrospect, it can be said that the organization of the world championships in America, including the charter flight “Operation Friendlift” and the associated program, was a considerable success for the American model flying association AMA (40,000 members).
Author: Erich Rabe
Images: Erich Rabe, Ron van Putte
Result list
