Introducing your new Soaring columnist - 201209
In 2010, I suggested that I would like to organize a major F3B contest in Florida. Many of my local Orlando Buzzard club members responded with, "What is F3B?" This was the catalyst that sparked this tale, as I began to realize the original FAI RC Soaring category (today's Grand Prix of RC Soaring) was almost forgotten in soaring circles in the USA.
Early full-scale soaring experience
My early experience in soaring began in Australia as a teenager. At 13 years old I was exposed to full-scale soaring and for a couple of years I rode my bicycle 10 miles to and from the local Warwick aerodrome every Saturday that my parents would let me. Full-scale sailplanes were winch-launched there and I would drive a former army Jeep up and down the runway to retrieve the wire after each sailplane was launched. I eventually graduated to driving the Ford V8–powered winch that towed the gliders up. That sure was an unforgettable thrill for this 15-year-old.
My hard work every Saturday was generally rewarded with a gliding lesson (sometimes with the final evening "hangar flight" in a training Blaník or an old wooden Bocian), and that made the effort thoroughly worthwhile for a school kid with no budget to pay for flying lessons.
Interest in model aircraft
I also had a keen interest in model aircraft beginning in primary school with a variety of rubber-, glow-, and diesel-powered CL, FF, and eventually RC single-channel (push-button) balsa models. At age 16, I started my first job and within eight weeks I had purchased a five-channel Futaba digital radio.
I taught myself to fly with a mixture of aircraft available in the 1970s, such as the Jedelsky-winged Honker, an Ace All Star biplane, and an Ace Pacer. But gliders were my passion: a 60-inch Silent Squire built from plans was my workhorse, followed by a 100-inch Aeroflyte Trident. These balsa and Solarfilm–covered sailplanes were built from kits or from plans.
I flew predominately alone using a bungee or sometimes hand-towing. I enlisted the help of friends to pull my creations up, while I did the important stuff like holding the transmitter. I dabbled a little with a Cox TD .049 power pod, but didn't like the mess it made on my sailplanes.
Discovery of F3B and early contest success
In 1982 I was introduced to winch launching and the F3B concept by members of the Brisbane Model Soaring Club when the Australian National Championships were conducted in my hometown. After experiencing this exciting form of competition that requires diverse thermal and piloting skills, I was hooked.
I began to work on the League of Silent Flight (LSF) task program and started attending soaring contests in Australia with immediate success. Winning a Queensland F3B state title in 1983 with a 115-inch foam Southern Sailplanes Ricochet created memories that would last me a lifetime. The RC soaring hobby was placed on the back burner in 1987 and forgotten altogether as a wife, career, and children became my priorities.
Return to the hobby in the US
After immigrating from Australia to the US in 1999 for work, in late 2008 I "discovered" the Orlando Buzzards flying field. That reignited my passion for thermal soaring and F3B after more than two decades away from the hobby. F3B in the US had dramatically declined in popularity in the previous 10 to 15 years, apparently because of a lack of motivated helpers needed to conduct contests and practice the speed and distance tasks. This was disappointing, but in 2009, as I indulged heavily in the local thermal-duration culture in Florida, I never stopped thinking about the excitement and superior thermal skills that are developed from flying in F3B competitions.
Meeting Mike Lachowski at the 2010 Nationals was a turning point. During the Two-Meter Nats contest, Mike and Glauco Lago set up an F3B course and gave me a taste of today's F3B with some wicked Espada R launches off of 200 meters of monoline. I managed a sub-20-second speed run after a handful of launches and, with adrenaline coursing through my veins, I was again hooked on speed. Mike encouraged me not to give up on organizing F3B events and to help rebuild interest in the class.
Organizing "The Gator"
Mike encouraged me not to give up on F3B in Florida and promised to support me if I would conduct a Florida contest in the winter. And so "The Gator," as it has become affectionately known, was born. Twenty pilots, including four from Germany, assembled at the nearby Indian River Kontrol Society (IRKS) flying site in Cocoa, Florida, in late February 2011 for the first Florida F3B contest in more than 20 years.
The Gator F3B was an incredible success. The entire US F3B team, pilots from the East Coast, and the four German pilots wanting to taste some US competition attended. I obtained the cooperation of four local Florida pilots who bravely signed up for The Gator, having never flown in or even seen an F3B contest.
It is important to have sufficient helpers to staff Base A and Base B during the distance (Task B) to signal the arrival of each sailplane at that turning point on the course. We were blessed to have many IRKS club members—CL, helicopter, and Giant Scale enthusiasts—come out to help us with pressing the buttons on the F3B signal system that Mike Lachowski had provided.
We also had the enthusiastic support of the club president, Gerry Armstrong, and IRKS soaring stalwart Kris Van Nostran. They garnered support from other club members and worked tirelessly to ensure that the contest was successful.
The eventual winner of the inaugural Gator was David Klein, one of the three US team members. Thorsten Holtmeyer from Germany was second and Kyle Paulson, another US team member, placed third. The big winner was US F3B soaring, with invaluable exposure on the East Coast and more than $1,500 raised for the US F3B Team to attend the World Championship in China.
World Championship experience and observations
I was chosen to attend the World Championship in China as a helper and set to work assisting the US team with a website to raise the necessary funds to get the team and models to China and back. The World Championship was a revelation to me. Despite its lack of contest experience, the US team had all the necessary skills to compete with the German F3B powerhouse. With increased contest participation and diligent practice at the tasks of speed and distance, the US team could become highly competitive at future world championships.
Why F3B seems forgotten — and why it matters
What is it that makes F3B so attractive to many top contest pilots, but seems to have been virtually forgotten by the average US soaring pilot? There is a perception that F3B requires too much work to set up and run practice sessions or contests.
- At least eight people are required to officiate at the bases during the distance task.
- Often during small events, these eight are the pilots who are not competing in that particular round.
- This is similar to timers who help pilots during a duration task.
The real benefit of practicing and contesting the F3B tasks is that a pilot’s thermalling skills are significantly enhanced. A pilot improves tremendously in his or her ability to:
- read the air,
- predict lift,
- recognize lift, and
- gain the most benefit from that lift through more accurate model control.
Nothing can replace those skills, and it is no accident that most of the top thermal-duration pilots in the world are good F3B pilots.
The Gator continues
The second Gator F3B contest was held again in Cocoa Beach in March 2012. The Gator had now been established as a recurring event and continued to help raise awareness and rebuild interest in F3B on the US East Coast.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
