Free Flight Indoor - 2011/01

January 2011 119
F1D World Champs: an inside look
Free Flight Indoor John Kagan
[[email protected]]
Parker Tyson edged out teammate Curtis Wernette by a mere
16 seconds, to take the Bronze Medal in the Junior division.
Tyson photo.
The US won team Gold under Manager Rob Romash’s expert
supervision. He told anyone who would listen that “They couldn’t
have done it without me!” Tyson photo.
The FLOAT documentary team met its fund-raising goals and flew to Serbia to obtain
footage at the F1D World Championships with the help of a local film crew. Tyson photo.
The 2010 F1D World Championships in
Belgrade, Serbia—oh, how bittersweet!
On the positive side, the US team (Brett
Sanborn, Steve Brown, and I) came away
with the individual Silver Medal and team
Gold. Our Juniors (Parker Tyson and
Curtis Wernette) finished with the
individual Bronze. The entire US
entourage represented our country well
and had a great time.
The session started, as it did at the last
World Champs in Serbia, with the Dorćol
(DOR-chol) Cup: a precontest named to
honor an historic district of Belgrade. For
those who can swing the extra days off,
this is a great opportunity to get
competition-ready in the unique Belgrade
flying conditions. Almost everyone from
the US contingent attended, with only our
team manager taking a pass.
I had planned to wring out the numbertwo
model during the Dorćol Cup and
save the best model for the World
Champs. I was pleased with the result; my
top flight of 34:32 was the longest of the
contest.
My backup flight was only 33:00,
though, so I had to settle for third place.
France’s Didier Barberis snagged second
place by only 13 seconds, and reigning
World Champ Ivan Treger of Slovakia
won handily.
Brett Sanborn sat in fourth going into
the last round, threatening to bump me off
of the bubble. He needed a big flight, but
the time required was well within his
ability.
I accidently lead-visioned Brett’s
airplane, and he came up just short with a
33:58. (Lead [Pb] vision is an evil-eye
energy beam that remotely increases a
model’s mass by something like 13%.
Nothing good can come of it). Ok, I did it
on purpose but apologized later during
dinner.
Dennis Tyson, a US Junior team
supporter, used the occasion to participate
in his first F1D competition. An
international event is a great way to start!
Dennis was sure to have his hands full
assisting the Junior team during the World
Champs, but he got some great experience
during the precontest, especially tuning his
new variable-pitch (VP) propeller, and
finished a respectable 14th.
Steve Brown hasn’t had a local flying
site for quite awhile and isn’t as “in tune”
with his models and propellers as he
would like to be. He entered only one
01sig4x.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 11/22/10 8:36 AM Page 119
120 MODEL AVIATION
Junior Parker Tyson worked hard during the Dorćol Cup and
World Championships practice days. This was taken during one of
those flights. Tyson photo.
John Kagan earned the individual Silver Medal with two 36-plusminute
flights. Tyson photo.
The 2010 US F1D World Championships team (L-R): Juniors
Curtis Wernette and Parker Tyson, John Kagan, Junior Team
manager Ben Saks, Brett Sanborn, Team Manager Rob Romash,
and Steve Brown. Tyson photo.
Steve Brown clinched team Gold for the US with a flight that
exceeded 30 minutes at the end of Day Two. Tyson photo.
official flight in the Dorćol Cup and chose to spend the rest of the
time getting ready for the World Champs.
Over on the Junior side, Parker Tyson and Curtis Wernette
also got a lot of good practice time with their new VP propellers.
They finished fifth and sixth respectively, behind the strong
Romanian team and one of the French Juniors.
With the Dorćol Cup complete, we had a couple more practice
days before getting down to the real business. You’d think that
there would be some time to check out the sights in downtown
Belgrade, but after an early breakfast, six to eight training flights,
adjustments and repairs, and a meal or two squeezed in, it’s
suddenly 10 p.m. and all you’re thinking about is getting some
sleep.
Before we knew it, it was the big day. Opening ceremonies
included a neat performance by a traditional Serbian dance troupe
and a series of low-and-close flybys from a variety of spectacular
full-scale aircraft. We all wished each other luck and then
retreated to our figurative corners to prepare for battle.
My World Champs strategy was ambitious but simple. I
wanted to put up two strong yet under-control flights early and
then attack the world record that Ivan Treger set last time. I’m no
good at last-round comebacks—a position in which I had
previously found myself, either from starting too conservatively
or by leaving the gate with last-round reckless abandon.
I do best when I start strong, and this time I managed to get a
35:09 and a 35:57 in the first two rounds—the highest times of the
first day and the only total exceeding 70 minutes. A few people
told me that they thought I had it in the bag, but I knew there was
strong talent in the field who wouldn’t let it be that easy.
I almost achieved my second goal. My fourth-round flight
landed with 36:33, besting the 36:23 world record set in 2008.
The only problem was Ivan’s third-round flight …
The air from roughly 1 p.m. until 4 p.m. was traumatic. A
plethora of portal windows in the dome’s roof beamed noon sun
into brilliant hotspots on the floor, causing turbulence as at no
other site that I’ve experienced. Models launched through the heat
columns would rear up straight or flip over completely and stall
back to the ground.
In 2008 the rounds were shifted into the evening to avoid the
problematic air. This time promoters couldn’t keep the site as late,
so a compromise was reached; early rounds ran from 11 a.m. until
2 p.m., and the late rounds were from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.,
providing a reasonable amount of time to fly on either side of the
most volatile period.
I avoided this air, because I had several training flights ruined
by either turbulence-induced launch stalls or excessive partial-
01sig4x.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 11/22/10 8:37 AM Page 120
January 2011 121
motor altitude on settings that were spot on
in the calm conditions. What didn’t fully
occur to me at the time was that both the
stalls and the altitude were caused by a
little thing the outdoor fliers like to call
thermals!
We Indoorists sometimes call gently
buoyant air “thermals,” but this was
unprecedented. It was also only part of the
story.
Ivan was in a hole after the first day. He
had only a 34:08 on the board after losing
his second flight to a steering mishap, and
he hadn’t exceeded 35 in the Dorćol Cup
days earlier. He needed a big change.
With that extra motivation, a lot of
experience, and a little luck, he put
together a “perfect storm” of a round. He
called it a “once in 10 years” flight.
First, Ivan used a motor that had
previously taken 1,600 turns and, leaning
heavily, packed it full of 1,800 volatile
winds. He managed to get it on the model
without either the motor or the airplane
exploding into bits.
Launching directly into what Glider
fliers call the “noon balloon,” Ivan’s
ultrastable model held steady through the
low-level trauma. It got extremely high
and fortunately lost a bit of altitude before
beginning its next slow climb back up to
the ceiling.
Ivan identified the best air and pulled
his airplane back in whenever the thermal
spit it out. And, finally, in the last few feet
of the descent—when other models were
stalling out and backing up into the
ground—his got a few good boosts and
maintained its flight attitude all the way
until the end.
The Slovakian team’s applause and the
handshakes and hugs that Ivan got from
everyone he showed the watch to indicated
that it was a special flight. Sitting nearby, I
figured that it was something exceeding
the record—a high 36 or maybe even a 37.
But when word trickled back of 39:27, I
thought “no way.” That must be before
prop stop was subtracted. But no; Ivan had
boosted the Category III world record by
more than 3 minutes.
Speaking with Didier Barberis’s
girlfriend later, I found that he and I had
similar reactions to the news: “Forget this;
it isn’t fun anymore. I’m taking up flyfishing.”
Fortunately the self-pity party
lasted each of us only approximately an
hour, and then we got back to business.
Doing the math, Ivan had a 39:27, sure,
but his backup was only 34:08.
Theoretically, if he didn’t improve his
second flight I could beat him with two
36:48s.
It was similar to being down by 4
points with 10 seconds left in a basketball
game. I’d need to sink a 2 and a 3, and
Ivan would have to miss all of his free
throws.
His Round Four was 34:03. Free throw
miss number one. Mine was 36:33. Then I
needed a 37 (only!). His Round Five was
29:41. Miss number two.
Day Three was hotter than 100° and
very humid, and my miraculous comeback
began to falter. (Hey, I said I wasn’t good
at this kind of thing.) I got 1,700 turns into
a motor I’d been winding to 1,600, so that
was good.
But it was so hot that my fingertips
were sweating. They wouldn’t stay dry
between the time I wiped them off and
when I reached to pick up the airplane.
I connected the propeller end and
squeezed the front O-ring hard to keep a
grip on it while I hooked up the back. But
when I looked to the front again, I was
crushing the motorstick. Darn! It was a
simple mistake, but with a structure that
minimal the model was toast.
Then, using my backup aircraft, I
folded a wing at the roof at 22 minutes.
(I’m not using boron composite wing spars
anymore.)
Ivan finally put me out of my misery
with a 35:42 in Round Six. I finished with
the second, third, and fourth best times of
the meet, and I was the only one with two
flights of more than 36, but it was good
enough only for second place. I was more
disappointed with slipping to the Silver
Medal at this World Championships than I
was by climbing to the Bronze last time.
Germany’s Lutz Schramm campaigned his
National Free Flight Society Model of the
Year to third place. The host country’s
Slobodan Midic edged out Brett Sanborn,
who finished fifth.
Three-time World Champion Steve
Viewfinder
Northern Model Pilot
My son, Cole Henry, 20, is shown prepping
his tried-and-true World Models J-3 Cub for a
cold, wintry flight. Seasonal changes are a part
of normal life, and we’ve adapted our models
to handle just about any situation.
The Cub has an old Saito .52 engine we
bought used for $25, cleaned up, and have
enjoyed for eight years now. I made the skis
from 1/16 plywood probably 25 years ago, when
I was his age, and have only used them a few
times. The Cub looked so graceful in the newfallen
snow and tracked and handled very well
on the ground.
The oak tree in the background is our club
trademark (the Mt. Silverwood RC Club, Mt.
Angel, Oregon). The tree keeps us all honest
and looks great in the snow. MA
—Randy Henry
[email protected]
E-mail your high-resolution “Viewfinder”
photo and a short note telling the airplane or
helicopter story to [email protected].
01sig4x.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 11/22/10 8:38 AM Page 121
122 MODEL AVIATION
Brown found himself in the same spot that
eight-time World Champ Jim Richmond did
last time: needing a highly achievable flight
to secure the team win, but running into
trouble getting it completed.
This time it was Round Four and Steve
needed just a low 20. However, every flight
had either been way too high—hitting the roof
in less than four minutes—or way too low—
landing before the propeller even began to
change.
I joined Steve in the middle of the floor to
help in any way I could, and the last flight
must have been too low because this one was
on the roof again in record time. Argh!
Luck was with Steve, though. After a little
rafter banging, his model drifted toward the
side, pulled off a good steer, and completed a
30:36 for the team title. Hungary and Romania
were second and third, respectively.
Czech Republic’s Gabriela Kaplanova was
the runaway winner in the Junior category.
She racked up the only two flights exceeding
30 minutes in rounds one and two, and then
tacked on another 31:05 in round six for good
measure. Lucas Marilier, French Senior
competitor Thierry Marilier’s son, finished a
solid second.
Parker Tyson and Curtis Wernette were
neck-in-neck for the last Junior podium spot,
with Parker edging Curtis out by only 16
seconds. Parker is young enough to attend two
more Junior World Champs, so expect to see
his name again. Curtis is joining the ranks of
Junior grads who have to kick it in the big
league now.
Team Manager Rob Romash wants me to
convey that he’s fairly sure that the Senior
team would have been wandering around like
lost puppies without his expert guidance and
that he takes full credit for the team win. All
kidding aside, he provided support and
coordination where needed and stayed handsoff
where it wasn’t—just the way I like it.
Junior Team Manager Ben Saks supplied
continuous color commentary for a week and a
half, furnishing entertainment both intentional
and otherwise. We joked that it would take
years for the Juniors to unlearn everything he
stuffed into their heads, but his team’s result
speaks for itself. In addition to the individual
podium finish and fourth-place spot, his group
would have had a strong shot at the team title
if only it had had a third member.
I’m sure that at least a couple of us would
have perished from the heat if team supporters
Debbie and Craig Wernette hadn’t kept us
hydrated. They went on frequent store runs
and made sure that the refrigerator was well
stocked with water.
Check out the “Sources” list at the end of
the column for the official contest Web site,
complete results from the FAI, and a blog by
the Tysons.
FLOAT Documentary Update:
Cinematographer Phil Kibbe and producer
Ben Saks reached their fund-raising goal and
took the FLOAT production to Serbia. As I
wrote in the previous column, they are
working on what promises to be one of the
best model airplane films ever made, focusing
on the magical beauty of Indoor FF.
Phil hired a local Serbian film crew and
worked them to the bone during the course
of the World Championships, collecting
loads of interviews and flying drama. They
did a great job of following the action,
quickly moving camp, and setting back up to
interview the perpetrator of the last big
flight or deftly capture rare events such as a
practice-day midair between two top
competitors.
Check out photos and a new video clip,
and consider donating to the project via the
following Web site addresses. MA
Sources:
FAI FF World Championship results:
http://bit.ly/cFWTJB
MODELAR aeromodeling club in
Belgrade:
www.modelar.org.rs
The Tysons’ World Championships blog:
http://tysonf1d.blogspot.com
FLOAT documentary:
www.floatdocumentary.com
http://kck.st/d5sS10
01sig4x.QXD_00MSTRPG.QXD 11/22/10 8:38 AM Page 122