2008 F1D World Championships teams announced
John Kagan [[email protected]]
The 2008 F1D World Championships US Junior and Senior teams have been selected. Representing the US will be:
- Senior: Larry Cailliau (defending World Champion), Jim Richmond, Doug Schaefer, and John Kagan
- Junior: Justin Young (defending Junior World Champion), Tim Chang, Ethan Aaron, and Garrett Gustafson
Please join me in congratulating these flyers. I'm sure they'll do us proud.
Team Selection Finals Report
The teams were determined at the F1D Team Selection Finals, contested at the spectacular 145-foot Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, alongside the regular annual meet, held July 6–10. The 2008 F1D World Championships will be held in October in Serbia.
With plenty of floor space, there was no problem accommodating the mix of models in the air, though there were a couple of instances of errant scale models forgetting how to turn and sending the F1D fliers scrambling to protect their tables.
Competitors had a day to warm up before three days of intense battle. A time of 34–35 minutes is great for F1D at Moscow, but practice day had many people pushing nine minutes on one-quarter-motor tests, hinting at possible shake-ups among the usual suspects.
Reality set in once the first day of rounds started, and more-anticipated times of 32 minutes began appearing on the board. There may not have been a major jump in the top scores, but there was a stronger concentration; by the end of the first day almost everyone had a 32 recorded. It was going to take a special performance to outpace this especially strong field and earn a spot on the team. All the competitors started digging deeper for anything that would give them an extra edge.
After watching eight-time World Champion Jim Richmond put up an apparently effortless 33-plus-minute flight last year, Mark Bennett decided to try to make Jim's trademark variable-diameter (VDi) propeller. With a couple of respectable VP (variable-pitch) times on the board, Mark figured it was time to break it out. The new propeller made some promising flights but needed more tuning to be consistent. I'm sure we'll see more of it in the future.
Jim was struggling with his own propellers too—struggling only relative to his usual standards. He logged some decent times but found himself in fourth place at the start of the final day. Worse, his efforts to improve were sending him backward—first to a 31 and then a 29. With just one round left and little hope, Jim called his wife and told her it didn't look like he was going to Serbia after all.
What followed is still amazing. Jim slowly assembled a different model that previously had good times. He spent roughly 40 minutes carefully consulting his logbook and replicating the recorded measurements. Then, with not even a trim flight, Jim wound and launched. I jokingly asked when he planned to have his propeller fold (the primary adjustment for his design, though severely nontrivial to do accurately), and he replied confidently, "Seven minutes." The propeller flipped shut at 6:58. Having used the rubber motor's burst energy efficiently, the model settled at a safe altitude and cruised in for a 34:39, vaulting Jim from fourth to first and clinching the top spot by a mere seven seconds. He went off to retract his previous call to his wife.
It's awful to be the person on the bubble when something like that goes down (and Jim has pulled his last-round move on a whole lot of competition). So who was the unfortunate victim this time? Brett Sanborn already knew his planets weren't aligned that day. After posting a top-notch 33:41 on Day Two, a motor exploded about a half circle from launch, destroying Brett's airplane and bending the metal components of the propeller. He spent the evening piecing his best propeller back together and then used it to post a superb 34:17 on the second-to-last round, apparently putting him in second place.
There was a problem, though. The Team Selection Program uses regional points in addition to finals scores, and Brett had failed to secure a 100-point regional, qualifying with just 94 points. Those six points cost him enough to drop into third behind Doug Schaefer on the leaderboard.
Brett had one more flight left. Things were set just right, and all he needed was something close to his previous flight to get off the bubble. He admitted he had put in some bonus torque and tweaked the high pitch down a bit—both of which make the model climb higher. The model clawed its way to the ceiling tiles and began to bump them gently. After drifting a bit, it looked like Brett might pull it off. Then the model hung—mid-tile and far from anything dangerous. There it was: flight and contest over, leaving Brett to be "Richmond-ized."
Compared to all that, Doug Schaefer and I took the easier route to third and second place. We posted consistent flights that kept us out of turmoil, briefly exchanged places, chose not to fly final rounds, and rolled our eyes when Jim bumped us down a spot long after our models were packed up. But the goal in team selection is to be in the final three, so mission accomplished.
The Junior competition featured Kibbie Dome regular Tim Chang, who wreaked havoc on his peers. In a previous cycle he narrowly missed making the Junior team despite practice times that would have easily done the job. Rather than be crushed by the loss, Tim quietly persevered, returning the following year to break 30 minutes for the first time. In this cycle his efforts showed; his time of 34:42 not only topped the Junior ranks but bested all the Senior competitors as well. Great work, Tim! During the awards ceremony Tim received a commemorative winder from his fellow Oakland Cloud Dusters, recognizing his achievements and future potential.
After finishing second at last year's World Championships, Ethan again earned a spot on the Junior team, finishing second at the finals. Ethan realizes this is a lot of "seconds" and is hoping for a "first" next year in Serbia.
Molly Neering finished a close third—only roughly a minute and a half behind Ethan—with excellent times that would have won the previous team-selection cycle. She became the first woman on any US F1D team—almost. In a crushing development, the organizers realized they had misinterpreted the rules and Molly was roughly five months too old to be on the Junior team. It was heartbreaking, not just for her but for everyone enjoying the potential gender breakthrough. Not to worry: Molly is still flying indoor and has been spotted at Lakehurst since. At least we didn’t cause an international scandal by having this error discovered at the World Championships.
Garrett Gustafson, the only other Junior team-selection participant, was tapped for the final spot. He has been working hard on his F1D skills and makes a fine addition to the Junior team, revitalizing its chances for the all-important team win.
The Team Selection Finals ran smoothly, thanks largely to Andrew Tagliafico—the Kibbie Dome Annual Contest Director—and Chris Borland, the Team Selection Finals CD. Thanks, guys!
Kibbie Dome Annual "Call to Arms"
I am absolutely stunned that more people don’t attend the Kibbie Dome Annual. Outside of the team-selection participants and the Battle Near Seattle Indoor Hand-Launched Glider event a couple of years ago, a surprisingly small group of fliers enjoy this world-class site.
Andrew Tagliafico intends to keep the event going, but it might go away if not enough people attend. Don’t let that happen!
Mark your calendars now for July 6–10, 2008; get cheap tickets to Spokane, Washington (or drive if you live close enough); and have a great little vacation. You won’t regret it. Aside from the huge flying area, the camaraderie, and five days of competition and fun flying, there’s great dining (we especially enjoyed sangrias), beautiful scenery, and did I mention five days of flying model airplanes?
It’s hard enough to find and arrange access to stunning sites such as this. This one is a bird in the hand.
The Comet Model News
Nancy Kapitanoff recently emailed me the following:
“I have produced a short film documentary, The Comet Model News, which features a brief history of the Comet Model Airplane & Supply Co. of Chicago, established in 1929 by two high school boys with an initial capital of $5. Model airplane meets, Comet model events, and profiles of the men and women who made Comet prosper are depicted in 8mm color and 16mm black-and-white film footage dating from 1937 to 1941.
“Some of that footage was shot by my dad, who became the West Coast sales representative for Comet Model in 1933 and opened a storefront office in Hollywood in 1934. My mother was the head bookkeeper for the company in Chicago from 1936 until 1941, when she married my dad and moved to Los Angeles.
“The DVD also includes a 12-minute silent film produced by the Comet Model company in 1939, Building and Flying a Model Airplane.”
I obtained a copy of the DVD and thoroughly enjoyed it. Nancy adds depth to many famous names I’ve come to take for granted, and the vintage film footage is enthralling. Those who lived through the era will find this a record of fond memories. For people such as me, who are young enough to have only heard stories, the video provides a captivating glimpse at the beginnings of our hobby. There are even some moments of early indoor models.
My only gripe is the tagline: “A Short Documentary ode to a time when flying was fun!” Hey, flying still is fun! But I get Nancy’s point: back then “everyone” was enamored with aviation.
As did many movies of the period, Nancy’s leaves us with a cliffhanger and the promise of more to come. I hope she has a big stash of film and will keep the story rolling.
Til next time. MA
Sources
- The Comet Model News (www.cometmodelnews.com)
- Hannan’s Runway: (530) 873-6421 — www.hrunway.com/shop
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
