Herewith as promised my final report for F2B at the World Championships held from the 23rd August to the 31st August 1998 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
The F2B category of the F2 World Championships for 1998 was contested by 54 pilots from 17 countries. Included in this number were 7 juniors. The countries competing in senior were China, Japan, U.S.A, France, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Finland and Poland. The 7 juniors represented China, France, U.S.A, Poland, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
Unfortunately I did not note the power plants used for the Czech team as well as the Russian junior, but for the rest I took notes of the engines used and hope I got them all correct. In order of the final results as published by the organisers.
[Igor Burger of Slovakia helped to fill in the engines denoted *. /G.O.]
1) Han Xin Ping China Super Tigre 60 2) Dave Fitzgerald USA PA 61 (pipe) 3) Hongwei Wang China OS61 4-stroke 4) Anlin Niu China Super Tigre 60 5) Paul Walker U.S.A OS 40 VF 6) Gilbert Beringer France SAITO 56 4-stroke 7) Bill Werwage U.S.A. PA 61 (pipe) 8) Hiromi Ohata Japan Retro Discovery 60 9) Kazuhiro Minato Japan Retro Discovery 60 10) Gerard Billon France Kolesnikov 46 11) Masaru Hiki Japan Retro Discovery 60 12) Sergy Klychkov Russia Klychkov 60 13) Yuri Jatcenko Ukraine Retro Discovery 60 14) Luciano Compostella Italy Enya 53 4-stroke 15) Serge Delabarde France Retro Discovery 60 16) Sergy Belko Ukraine BSV 17) Victor Salenek Russia Eagle 10 18) Jiri Vejmola Czech MVVS .49 FR (piped) * 19) Christoph Holtermann Germany Super Tigre 51 20) Alexander Schrek Slovakia Retro Discovery 55 rewkd.(piped) * 21) Bill Draper Great Britain Super Tigre 51 22) Remi Beringer (J) France SAITO 56 4-stroke 23) Radomil Dobrovolny Czech MVVS .49 RR (piped) * 24) Vladimir Strakhov Russia Own Engine 10cc 25) Peter Kapuscinsky Czech MVVS .49 RR (piped) * 26) Andry Jatcenko Ukraine Retro Discovery 60 27) Chris Cox Canada OS 40 VF (pipe) 28) Paulo Gomez Brazil PA 40 (pipe) 29) Bruce Perry Canada PA 61 (pipe) 30) Jan Stano Slovak Stalker 61 31) Barry Robinson Great Britain Stalker 61 32) Zhizhou Zhu (J) China Super Tigre 60 33) Dondi Garrison (J) U.S.A. PA 40 (pipe) 34) Kerko Kehravuo Finland PA 61 (pipe) 35) Keith Renecle South Africa Super Tigre 51 36) Zdenek Bajer Slovak Retro Discovery 55 rewkd.(piped) * 37) Francesco Ballesio Italy Super Tigre 51 38) Alberto Maggi Italy OS 70 4-stroke 39) Loren Nell South Africa OPS 40 (pipe) 40) Manrique Angel Arroyo Spain Retro Discovery 60 41) Rafal Kucharski (J) Poland Super Tigre 51 42) Daniel Cravinhos (J) Brazil Super Tigre 51 43) Thomas Boeckler Germany Super Tigre 60 44) Albert Garfutdinov (J) Russia Unknown 45) Bene Rodrigues Brazil Super Tigre 51 46) Angelika Moebius Germany Super Tigre 60 47) Graham Swallow South Africa Super Tigre 51 48) Roy Cherry Great Britain Stalker 55 49) Kim Doherty Canada PA 40 (pipe) 50) Olexandr Korenchuk (J) Ukraine START ? 51) Lauri Malila Finland Irvine 40 RE LS 52) Vinola Carlos Mas Spain Retro Discovery 60 53) Amilton Magri Brazil Super Tigre 51 54) Ramos Antonio Rojas Spain Super Tigre 51
For the statisticians out there, let's recap the above. There were 4 engines unknown to me, 1 x 55 non-piped, 1 x 46 non-piped, 7 non-piped 60's (excluding Retros), 7 piped 40 motors, 5 x 4-stroke engines, 4 piped 61's, 10 Retro Discoverys, 10 Super Tigre 51's and 5 Super Tigre 60's. As can be seen the most popular motors were the Super Tigre 51 and the Retro Discovery 60. It must be noted however that there were 5 Retro Discoverys in the top 15. It seems as though Yury Jatcenko has designed a really good motor.
Of special interest is the fact that there were only 11 piped motors out of 54 entrants and only 4 of these were 61's. The conditions at Kyiv were shocking to say the least, what with wind, more wind and severe turbulence. Although there were only 2 complete write-offs, one of them being a Retro Discovery and one a Super Tigre 51, it was noted that even some of the PA61's were blown out of manoeuvres. The 4-strokes as well as the non-piped motors seemed to handle the conditions as well as their piped counterparts. I do wonder if smaller wings for windy conditions are a must.
The general quality of F2B plane on display at Kyiv was, I believe, of a high standard. Yuri Jatcenko's Retro Discovery powered take-apart F2B planes were of an exceptionally high standard of both finish and fit. The U.S.A. team's planes were, I believe, beautifully finished with a lot of attention to detail and the Chinese planes, although finished in perhaps unusual colour schemes for Westerners were also beautiful. Thomas Boeckler's Cardinal was probably was probably the nicest Cardinal I've ever seen and the French team's large bodied 4-stroke powered planes were of particular interest, with small wings, small flaps and very well finished. My own plane, Wind Dancer, designed by my Father John Swallow, a free-flighter, featured a fully geodetic (egg-box) wing and tail and was perhaps the most unusual F2B plane there. It did stir a lot of interest and I'm trying to persuade my Father to publish the plans in Stunt News.
The competition itself was held over 3 days for the first 2 rounds, with the top 15 seniors and 3 juniors flying 3 rounds each on the 4th day. Conditions on Days 2 and 3 were nearly unflyable and saw 2 crashes and many pilots blowing out of manoeuvres. 15 Metre high trees and buildings surrounding the circle complete with 3 Metre high heavy steel fence only added to the severe turbulence at this site. It was all but impossible to fly level without seeing part of your wing at a distinct angle.
There were 5 judges, as per FAI rules. They came from USA, Poland, Russia, France and Ukraine.
I must make an observation about the judging, however. My understanding of the rules of the F2B pattern is that loops and squares etc are flown no higher,or lower than 45 degrees. I know the USA judge and the Polish judge scored like this but the rest did not. Pilots flying as high as 60 degrees were scoring very high points. The USA team soon realised this and it is interesting to note that when they too flew at 60 degrees their scores improved accordingly but the USA judge marked them down. Am I wrong in my understanding of the pattern. Are eggs -up loops the way to go? What do we so called "experts" teach our up and coming F2B pilots back home? I sincerly hope this situation will be rectified for France 2000 or that someone out there will tell me I am wrong and that loops are not meant to be round.
I also found it remarkable that at a World Championship event the judges were only given one sighter flight on day 1 and on none of the subsequent days. They were also not given time for a judges briefing after the initial sighter flight that I was aware of.
Lastly, International Judges must surely know that it is forbidden to look at the scoreboard and they may certainly not check out individual score sheets, something which the Ukranian and Russian judges did on more than one occasion during the actual finals. This led to 2 protests by the USA team, both of which were upheld and which in turn led to confusion in the final results. It seems as though the published results may be correct.
The comraderie and friends one makes at an event such as this is why I believe Control Line Stunt will never die. The top contenders in the world made time for us mere mortals (who can't fly 3100 points----YET) (I have a plan for France 2000, I am going to swop my contest number for Dave Fitzgerald's, when he's not looking) and do so with genuine friendliness and seem eager to impart their knowledge.
Despite all the problems with attending this event in Ukraine, I will always treasure the memories made, the wonderful friends I met and the vast knowledge and experience I gained which will stand me in good stead for the future.
What did I learn at Kyiv? I believe that you must run with the powerplant that you are comfortable with and perhaps one that other people around you can assist in setting up. Practice in all kinds of conditions and learn the different trims needed to fly in these varying conditions (make notes). Above all, enjoy the friends, the memories and the flying, and remember, this is only a hobby, or is it ????????????
Till France 2000,
Keep them light and straight,
Graham Swallow