F3A World Championships
Event overview
The F3A World Championships was held September 10–18 at Holley, a US Navy Outlying Field (OLF) near Navarre, Florida. Tony Stillman was the contest director and co-contest director. Ninety-four contestants from 35 countries competed before a panel of 20 international judges. Three Jury members ensured that the competition was held in accordance with the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) rules and regulations.
Competitors began to trickle in two weeks prior to the official start of the event and used practice flying sites provided by the host clubs (Northwest Florida Modelers—Tony Stillman’s club—and Eglin Aero Modellers).
It was almost surreal to have the reigning F3A World Champion (Giichi Naruke) flying from my home flying field!
Practice and site
It was originally planned that the Navy would turn Holley OLF over to us at 5 p.m. Friday, September 9. Since September 11 was the start of competition and the 10th was the day for official practice, each competitor could expect only 10 minutes of practice at the competition site (30 minutes was allocated to each three-pilot team).
However, on Friday, September 2, the Navy informed us that we could take over the field at 5 p.m. that day—a week early. What a boon for the early-arriving competitors!
Unlike many past F3A World Championships sites, Holley OLF is configured so that four separate flightline pits could be used: two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Two flightline sites on the north–south runway were used in the morning, with the pilots looking to the west. In the afternoon, two flightline sites on the southwest–northeast runway were used, with the pilots looking to the southeast. There was enough timing flexibility in the two sets of flightline sites so that there was little chance the sun would be in the maneuvering area (an FAI requirement).
Morning flying was scheduled to begin each day at 8 a.m. and afternoon flying at 1 p.m. There were a couple of days when flying did not start on time (judges showing up late, low clouds, scribes showing up late, and the normal contest inertia that drives contest directors crazy). Nevertheless, the late finishes of the morning sessions did not cause a sun problem.
During any competition there's the chance of bad weather. We were very lucky and had no daytime rain during the entire two weeks of practice flying and competition. During the Preliminaries we did have some pretty stiff winds, which "sorted out the men from the boys." The winds were from Hurricane Floyd, which plowed north just off the east coast of the US, finally coming ashore in the Carolinas. Many foreign competitors who had never experienced hurricanes kept a close eye on The Weather Channel and periodically asked the Florida residents, "What do you think it will do?" We didn't know, but assured them that it wouldn't be a problem.
Officials, volunteers, and support staff
Experienced RC aerobatics pilots from around the country were used in contest management: site director, flightline announcer/timer, noise-check steward, and transmitter impound chief. They were given a minimal stipend, which only started to cover their transportation, lodging, and meal costs. They contributed their time, vacation, and money to help put on the event. They were housed in the only building on Holley OLF, which was the office/fire house for the site's crash crew.
Around all the flightline sites during a five-month period, host club members prepared all five competition sites before the contest and moved major parts of the sites twice each day (so we didn't have to buy so many tents). They put up the country flags along the entrance road each morning and took them down every evening. They hauled trash and did other "gopher" jobs all week. They tore the sites down and returned Holley OLF to its original condition. The day after the competitors left, except for some trampled grass here and there, you couldn't tell there had been an event on the field.
Check-in and opening
After processing in with the AMA officials (Steve Kaluf, Teresa McKee, Randa Coats, and Amy Wilson) at the headquarters motel, each competitor processed his airplane(s) and transmitter(s) on Saturday, September 10 at the Navarre Comfort Inn Conference Center. Airplane processing was handled by the author, assisted by fellow Eglin Aero Modellers Joe Shearer and Bill Miller. R/C Aerobatics Contest Board chairman John Fuqua, assisted by the author's wife Faith, did the transmitter processing.
Tony Stillman was out at the competition site directing the official practice session.
The Welcoming Ceremony was held Saturday evening at the Navarre High School football stadium, three miles from Holley OLF. Pilots, team managers, and supporters from every team marched into the stadium alphabetically by country under the lights. Each country's pilots were introduced and the national anthem played. Some national anthems are long; Argentina's is very long. However, the whole ceremony took only 1½ hours, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Competition format
The competition was held in two phases.
- Preliminaries
- Each competitor flew a prescribed aerobatic maneuver schedule (Schedule D) in front of four sets of five judges at a rate of one flight per day.
- At the end of the fourth day, the ranking of pilots and country teams was identified.
- Since there were four groups of pilots and four sets of judges, it took four days of flying for all pilots to fly in front of all judges so the raw scores could be "normalized." All pilots' raw scores were divided by the highest raw score a pilot earned in front of a set of judges, then multiplied by 1,000, so each round of flying was worth a maximum of 1,000 points. Each pilot's three best normalized scores were used to determine the placings after the Preliminary rounds.
- The top 15 pilots entered the second phase.
- Finals
- The top 15 pilots flew a new aerobatic maneuver schedule (Schedule E), different from what was flown in Preliminaries, in front of all 20 judges.
- Pilots flew once the first day and twice the second day.
- The finalists flew only one flight on the first day of Finals and two on the second day. Each round took nearly three hours, including breaks for the judges, so it would have been impossible to fly all three rounds in one day. Two rounds were scheduled on the second day (a Saturday) so locals and weekend visitors could watch more of the competition.
Daily routine and judging
Before each morning and afternoon session, the judges gathered at one site on the field to practice-judge a warmup flight flown by Sean McMurtry (the pilot who had qualified fourth in the F3A Team Selection Finals and was the US team alternate). It was great watching the foreign judges' faces as they watched him fly for the first time — they realized he was very capable. During the preliminaries, which consisted of two rounds of flying, the field was cut to 20 pilots for the finals.
The day after the beach party was a scheduled rain day, but we'd had no rain, freeing everyone (except the Finalists, who were out practicing Schedule E) to recuperate and/or go sightseeing. The host club members were building a new competition site on the north–south runway for the Finals.
Results: Individuals and teams
In the end, Sebastian Heger of Germany won the world title, followed by Giichi Naruke of Japan in second place and Roberto Mariani of Italy in third.
The team scores were determined by adding the scores of all team members. On this basis, the United States team won the Team World Championship, edging Japan's team. France was third. It was the first time the United States had won the team F3A World Championship since 1991 in Australia.
Christophe Paysant Le Roux was clearly the winner in the Finals rounds: after finishing first in the Preliminaries, he won every Finals round. Giichi Naruke put up a battle for a former champion, overtaking Chip Hyde for second place. Chip Hyde took third and led the US team to victory. Kirk Gray moved up three places in the Finals as he regained familiarity with his backup airplane and finished seventh.
Finalists (qualifying order)
- Christophe Paysant Le Roux (France)
- Chip Hyde (USA)
- Giichi Naruke (Japan)
- Roland Matt (Liechtenstein)
- Yoichiro Akiba (Japan)
- Hajime Akiba (Japan)
- Hajime Hata (Japan)
- Wolfgang Matt (Liechtenstein)
- Quique Somenzini (Argentina)
- Kirk Gray (USA)
- Jason Shulman (USA)
- Koji Suzuki (Japan)
- Ivan Kristensen (Canada)
- Stefan Fink (Germany)
- Bernd Beschorner (Germany)
- Laurent Lombard (France)
Notable incidents
- Kirk Gray had several challenges on his way to the Finals. During the ground check before his first-round flight, an aileron servo failed on his primary airplane (Hydeout), forcing him to use his backup (Prophecy), an airplane he hadn't practiced with for more than a month. The flight with his backup did not score well.
- In the fourth round, his Hydeout suddenly dove into the runway immediately after takeoff. Since frequency monitoring personnel could not confirm outside interference, a reflight with his backup airplane was not permitted (FAI rule) and he had to count the low first-round score.
- After placing ninth in the Prelims, Jason Shulman could not sustain the quality of his flying relative to his competitors and finished 13th.
Social events and hospitality
After the Preliminaries, everyone was invited to a beach party at the Navarre Beach Holiday Inn, right on the Gulf of Mexico. The Navarre Beach Tourist Development Council contributed $1,000 toward expenses. Marty Pizzitola, assisted by Bryan Herbert and Sam Hopkins, cooked up 200 pounds of shrimp, plus corn on the cob, potatoes, and onions. The party lasted well into the night.
Entertainment was provided by Trinidad and Tobago competitor Dave Stodart on steel drums, with taped musical background. There was also a limbo contest for those sufficiently flexible and stable enough to try.
Some individual and team awards were presented at the field; the remainder were presented at the banquet that evening. The banquet site was the atrium of the National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola Naval Air Station — a magnificent aviation museum and a wonderful site for a banquet. The food was great and plentiful. As the evening wore down, some participants started sailing paper airplanes across the tables.
Fuel, sponsors, and equipment support
One persistent problem for world championship competitors is shipping fuel to the competition site. Morgan Fuels (Enterprise, AL), manufacturer of Cool Power and Omega fuels, offered any competitor the Morgan fuel of his choice at no charge. Many competitors took advantage of this generous offer and were heard to say they wished they could get it in their home country because of how well their engines ran on it.
Futaba Corporation was another strong supporter. They provided the competitors' numbered bibs for the F3A Team Selection Finals in June as well as for the World Championships.
Acknowledgements
As one of the event's organizers, I cannot express how deeply we appreciated the Navy's efforts in assisting us with putting on the 1999 F3A World Championships. They provided the Holley OLF competition site, numerous practice sites, portable bleachers for spectators, and helped in many other ways. The Pensacola community and the people of Florida were gracious hosts.
Several volunteers, officials, and local supporters worked long and hard to make the event a success. I'm not sure how we got so many people to work so hard for so long, but I am very proud of them.
F3A World Championships contest director Tony Sullivan has done far more than his fair share in support of RC aerobatics in the United States. He has been National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA) president twice, NSRCA district vice president several times, Nats RC Aerobatics event director twice, F3A Team Selection contest director twice, US F3A team manager three times, F3A World Championships assistant contest director once, and now he has served as F3A World Championships contest director. Well done, Tony.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
