F3j Open International

6-8th March 2009

Milang, South Australia

Come and fly with the legendary Joe Wurts! 3 days of F3j & F3k action with pilots from New Zealand and Australia.

Results

F3J Open International Report- Greg Potter

During March 6-8 the Southern Soaring League club in South Australia held an Open International F3J competition at their field south of Adelaide. Unfortunately due to world economic conditions the expected competitors from NZ and Japan were not able to attend except for Joe Wurts originally from the USA but now residing in New Zealand.

However a large percentage of the cream of Australian RC soaring made the trip from around the country to attend, but unfortunately not the 2 times F3J WC David Hobby who was away working in Arizona. There were 30 flyers in all separated into 8 teams.

We were `blessed` with three perfect flying days providing conditions from early morning calm to afternoon breezes up to about 10 knots. Thermals abounded but were not always easy to find especially in the light morning conditions.

In three days we completed 16 qualifying rounds and four 15 minute flyoff rounds for the top 7 competitors. There were also many rounds of F3K flown during each day.

The event was run with modified F3J rules using winches set at 150m. Teams were spaced at 15m intervals along the flight line. Otherwise the standard F3J rules applied to launching, flight times and landing. New landing tapes were marked at 200mm intervals for the first 2m and 1m intervals thereafter based on the 2009 rule changes.

Despite the proximity of the teams and up to 8 models being launched simultaneously at the start of the 10 minute flight window there was only one mid-air, where one model launched a couple of seconds late and zoomed up through the field that had just levelled out and took out the left wing tip of another model, destroying itself in the process. There were some near misses but generally everyone launched together, stayed straight and got off the line safely.

Each round was started and finished using a recorded countdown played on a netbook PC using Windows media player piped through a PA system that everyone could hear. It had a one minute countdown to the start, an announcement at each minute with a beep at the intervening 30 seconds, after 3 minutes to go, there was an announcement every 30 seconds, after one minute there was an announcement every 10 seconds and a one second countdown from 10 with a final beep to mark the end of working time. This worked extremely well taking some load off the CD who was also competing in the event. With a minor modification it was also used for the 15 minute flyoff rounds. One or two flyers got off the line very quickly to stay away from the crowd, notably Joe Wurts, whose launches were generally in the 1-1.5 second range. He still achieved about 2/3 of the average launch height of the models that stayed on the line for 2-3 seconds. His strategy worked as he topped the qualifying rounds with a perfect score of 14000 after 2 dropped scores.

The models being flown ranged from the large span Shadow, Zenith, Explorer, Espada, Aspire and Pike Perfect to a number of F3B models such as Radical, Shooter, Evolution and Estrella (the Australian F3B team were there getting some rare team practice). These were interspersed with Supra, Pike Superior, Tragi, Escape, Furio, Icon, Experience Pro and a couple of scratch built models.

At the end of 16 high scoring qualifying rounds the top seven pilots prepared for the 4 flyoff rounds. They were Joe Wurts (Supra), Carl Strautins (Icon), Mike Rae (Furio), Mike O`Reilly (Pike Perfect), Alan Mayhew (Explorer), Jamie Nancarrow (Pike Perfect) and Tim Kullack ( Radical) (Tim is an Australian F3B team member.)

All rounds were flown in strong thermal conditions with many pilots making their time from a single thermal. However round 2 saw three of the pilots land early due to a line break in one case resulting in a very low launch height and an out-landing. The others I think just struggled to get away in the strongest part of the lift. The top 4 all produced four `15 minute` flights and were generally separated only by a second or two and by their landing scores. Only 30 points separated first and fourth at the end.

This was the first serious F3J event flown in Australia as far as I know and everyone seemed to enjoy the format and the additional challenges that it offered over and above the traditional Open Thermal (Task A) events. A number of competitors had experienced some other F3J events and World Champs, but the majority were flying this event for the first time.

The top 15 competitors were within 95%, the top 20 were within 90% and the top 29 were within 80% of the winning score. One did not fly the first 4 rounds.

SSL club members (and some others) helped with adjudicating premature launches and late landings and checked flight timers while others collected the scores, catered food and drinks, maintained the PA system and whatever else was required during the 3 days. The event ran very smoothly thanks to the helpers and the calibre and sportsmanship of the competitors.