F3F is the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(FAI) class for slope racing gliders. The class is very popular, especially in Britain
where we probably have one of the most competitive leagues in the world. For many years
though Germany have been the dominant force in international competition.
At present the class has provisional FAI status which
means there is no official World Championship. However for around 20 years a biannual
event called the Viking Race has been the pinnacle of the racing calendar and regarded
throughout the sport as the F3F World Championships. After Portugal in 2000, Slovakia in
2002 and Germany in 2004 the circuit headed to Fife in Scotland for the 2006
championships.
F3F is essentially pretty simple. The pilot stands in
the middle of two bases set 100m apart on the slope edge. After 30 seconds to gain height
the pilot wraps the plane around the course as fast as possible against the clock. The
total distance flown is 1km, which includes nine 180 degree turns. The record, set in
Wales two years ago by Carlos Cantero of Spain, is 29.45 seconds.
Anyone who has ever flown slope knows that conditions
can vary as thermals and sink blow through, so with 91 competitors from around 20
countries it would be important to fly as many rounds as possible to ensure a fair result.
Many pilots arrived early for a little practice and
to familiarize themselves with the conditions. Those that did were confronted with good
weather and fast conditions, so hopes were high for a top quality event.
Friday 8 September, aside from being my birthday, was
also model check in day. Being an FAI event means that models are scrutinized to make sure
that they conform to many and varied parameters. In truth production models should not
have a problem, although the popular Skorpion was found to be a little skinny in the nose
radius department and needed a subtle modification to fractionally blunt the nose.
The 8 AM pilots briefing on Saturday was greeted with
some light southerly winds, so it was off to East Lomond to start the competition. A
twenty minute drive led us to a hard twenty minute trek with full kit, which led most of
us to a twenty minute recovery period.
It’s not uncommon at big internationals to fly a
non-scoring round zero but with so many competitors it was put to the organisers that we
should get straight into round one. On balance it was felt that as a round zero had been
advertised it must be flown. And flown it was, although it took three and a half hours for
the privilege. All it really demonstrated was that there was a fair bit of thermal
influence and it would have been useful if we could have scored it to even out the luck,
ho hum!
Probably the highlight of round zero was the flight
of Kai-Yeung Mak who bravely wrestled his grumbling Aris safely to the ground after his
receiver aerial had jammed in his tail plane, wedging in a goodly portion of up elevator.
Round 1 got underway and it was looking good for
England 1 with John Bennett flying a tight 52 against mostly late 50s and 60s. I was pilot
19 and managed to sneak myself a little good air and bank a 46, which was enough to lead
the round by a mile. The double whammy for some of our key opposition was that Alexis
Marechal of France flew before me for a 65 and Martin Herrig of Germany flew directly
after me for a mid 50s. All that left England 1 in a superb position. But the weather god
giveth and, on a whim, the weather god can taketh away, which he duly did when the wind
shifted easterly, meaning we lost the whole of round 1 and headed back down the slope with
higher hopes for day 2.
So day two started with everyone still equal and no
scoring flights yet flown. The forecast was the same, so it gave us another opportunity to
enjoy the stroll up East Lomond. Sadly the conditions were even lighter and despite 9
hours on the slope and lots of thermal supported sport flying we trudged back down the
hill that night still without a single scoring round.
Day three saw us skipping merrily back up East Lomond
in the noticeably windier conditions. At last round one got underway but once 60 or so
pilots had flown the wind direction changed and the Competition Director adjudged the
shift to be more than the 45 degrees allowable. The decision was made to split the round
into two groups and fly the second group on a slightly different part of the hill.
The outcome of all this was that I won the first
group with a 44.26 using my Skorpion. Martin Herrig, who has won the last two Viking
Races, was second with 48.87 using his Victor and John McCurdy’s Aris was third with
49.67. The second group was won by Austrian Franz Prasch with 44.48. Carlos Rivero was
second with 48.29 and San Yi Huang was third with 48.35.
Round two was started straight away and we managed to
complete it in one group with Helge Borchert taking the honours with his Caldera in 47.00.
Second was Jorgen Larsen with 47.96 and third was Arild Mollerhaug with 48.44.
At the end of the first day’s competition
England 1 were fractionally ahead of Germany 1 and Austria 1. In the individual standing
John McCurdy lead from John Bennett with Martin Herrig in third. All in all a good day for
the English.
The next day wasn’t looking promising with some
light rain keeping us off the now familiar East Lomond until lunchtime. That left us just
enough time to squeeze in one round. Slovak Jozef Kajan won the round with 45.77. Second
was Martin Herrig with 46.49 and third was Yves Tirand with 46.55.
The overall leader after three rounds was now Martin
Herrig, with John McCurdy second, Helge Borchert in third, myself in fourth, Espen Torp
fifth and John Bennett sixth.
The good news for England was that some consistent
flying meant we had put a bit of daylight between us and the rest of the field. Something
that hadn’t happened since 1987!
With only three rounds completed and two days left to
go the organisers were getting a little jumpy so we kicked off the next day at 7 AM and
‘scampered merrily’ back up East Lomond in the low cloud with the wind in the
wrong direction!
After a while things started to look more promising
and we made a start on round four which Alexander Kopecny duly won with 45.83. Filip
Kalensky was second with 47.68 and I just pipped both the Herrig brothers to third with
48.87.
That was enough to elevate me to a very slender
overall lead but it was far from comfortable with Martin Herrig, Arild Mollerhaug, John
McCurdy, Helge Borchert and Andreas Herrig all breathing right down my neck. England 1
still held top spot, holding off Germany and Austria by a decreasing margin.
The forecast was for heavy rain the whole of the next
day, which meant that if we were to squeeze in round five today it would probably be the
last of the event. Things were set up nicely as Martin started the round and I was last
pilot to fly.
Unfortunately no
one had told Martin it wasn’t sporting to win the event three times on the trot and
he opened round five with a superbly flown 45.80. However, John Bennett of England 1
responded magnificently with a 44.96, which left team England all warm and glowing until
Andreas Herrig stepped up to the plate and used a little thermal assistance to post an
immaculate 39.62 with his Radical.
England’s
Mark Southall flew another faultless round to post a 46.01 and undo some of Andreas’
damage leaving me needing a sub 50 to keep England 1 in top spot but closer to 40 seconds
if I was to keep an overall lead.
As I stepped up
to fly I noticed the wind had swung a little to the right and as Tim Cone hurled my
Skorpion skywards I told myself base B would come up slowly, so don’t cut. Never one
to listen to good advice I preceded to immediately cut! I managed to recover with a few
nailed turns to post a 49.44 that just kept England 1 on top.
So, with heavy
rain all the following day, that was that. We’d hoped for a minimum of 10 rounds and
ended up with 5, meaning that there is no doubt variances in lift played a noticeable part
in the results with strong nations such as USA, the Czech Republic and Slovakia out of the
top ten.
The weather was
as disappointing for the organisers as it was for anyone else, probably even more so given
all the hard work they put in. Indeed, without their fine efforts we wouldn’t even
have managed to get the five rounds in.
No one could
argue that the Herrig brothers again proved themselves to be an amazing mix of ability,
composure and tactical savvy. From an English point of view that made our victory an even
greater achievement; without doubt I don’t recall anything remotely resembling the
teamwork, support and spirit coming from an England team before. Certainly by the end of
the closing banquet we were a well oiled machine!
Models
flown
There’s
enough material for a whole article on the models flown but space is limited so I’ll
keep it to the models that are, or soon will be, commercially available.
The Austrian
Skorpion was probably the biggest head turner, having performed well in a whole bunch of
different hands. The quality is fine, the design and the pull for up elevator linkage on
the two piece V tail work really well. Somewhat importantly, the plane is downright fast.
It probably takes a bit more setting up and a little more deftness on the sticks than most
but the payback is the speed, which is unsurpassed. The waiting list was only 10 weeks and
the price is competitive. Demand has risen since the race but another set of moulds has
just been finished so hopefully it will still have one of the shorter waiting lists.
Contact www.t9hobbysport.com (UK) or www.soaringusa.com (US) for details.
The prototype
Ceres from Baudis Model looked very interesting. The quality and design are a step
improvement on the already popular Trinity. The Ceres wing in particular feels right;
indeed I can’t resist trying one out for myself. Keep an eye out for the Ceres
appearing at www.south-coast-sailplanes.com
(UK) and www.soaringusa.com (US) over the next
few months.
The Ascot from VV
Model www.f3x.cz had a high speed, high impact, prang during practice that put the only
version in existence out of the race. Luckily I got a good look at the Ascot a few weeks
earlier when Vaclav and his chums stayed at my house during the Welsh Open. The Ascot
quality is the best on the market, the speed is impressive but it’s the cornering and
subsequent speed retention that takes your breath away – quite staggering. Alas word
gets around fast and even though production won’t start until gone Christmas the
waiting list is already many months. If you’re prepared to wait, and I’d suggest
it could well be worth it, drop Roman an e-mail at info@lomcovak.cz
and cross your fingers.
The Herrig’s
Freestyler has been around for a while but they have only been hand built for close
friends and family. The design has been reworked and updated and is about to be sold
commercially with the first models being popped from the moulds at the time of going to
press. Expect quality to be high, performance to be stunning and a moderate waiting list.
If you’re interested, which you probably should be, contact andreas@tudm.biz
The Radical, as
used by Andreas to win, is another heavily Herrig influenced plane. It is in production,
it is great quality and it is a sensational performer. But it is not cheap and you will
need to wait. Visit www.weberschock-development.de
for more information.
The new NYX Furio
V from www.bretamodel.cz and the equally new Crossfire V from www.aer-o-tec.de both look
the part in terms of quality and performance. Unfortunately neither enjoyed the best of
the Scottish conditions but they are both definitely worth further investigation.
Finally the Victor as used
by Martin Herrig. Martin’s plan A went belly up when he inadvertently exploded his
Shocker during some extreme DS a week before the competition. Nevertheless it’s clear
that the Victor V provided a worthy replacement. Quality and pricing are impressive and it
may well be worth a visit to www.f3j.cz before the
waiting list goes the way of many others.
I must take this
opportunity to thank www.barkweb.co.uk who gave massive bandwidth to provide internet
coverage of the race when the official website got swamped. They have supported us so
please support them by giving them a chance to quote for your web hosting needs.
Please,
please visit 
they are the reason knewt.com exists
