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.
Let me tell you a little history about
myself. 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 winchlaunched
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 Blanik or
an old wooden Bocian), and that made
the effort thoroughly worthwhile for
a school kid with no budget to pay for
flying lessons.
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 and 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.
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, but the
RC Soaring hobby was placed on the
back burner in 1987 and forgotten
altogether as a wife, career, and children
became my priorities.
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 last 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
Nats 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
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 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.
I was chosen to attend the World
Championship in China as a helper and
I 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 dominate at
future world championships.
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, but 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 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 or coincidence that most of
the top Thermal Duration pilots in the
world are good F3B pilots.
The second Gator F3B contest was
held again in Cocoa Beach, in March
2012. The Gator had now been
accepted by the World Cup organizers in
Germany as a World Cup event and the
renowned CD from the Czech Republic,
Roman Voijech, ran the event.
Some world-class Speed times were
flown with four laps of the 150-meter
course being done in the 13-second
range. For three days, Florida saw some
of the fastest runs in history and was
treated to an awesome display of RC
Soaring by the highly talented US F3B
Team members. Tom Kiesling won
the second Gator, flying his Fosa. His
blistering speed runs in extremely windy
conditions were testimony to his stick
skills.
F3B needs some concerted effort from
the Soaring community for it to grow
in the US. More contests will result in
improved representation at the worldchampionship
level. More pilots who
are genuinely interested in improving
their Thermal Soaring skills need to
participate. There are many talented
fliers in the US who could reach the
next level with the skills they could pick
up in F3B.
Next year we’ll hold the third Gator
F3B contest on the East Coast, and this
year in California there will be other
opportunities for pilots to practice and
improve leading up to the F3B Team
Selection contest for the 2013 US F3B
Team.
If you have experienced Thermal
Duration Soaring, but would like to
move it up a notch and develop some
enhanced Soaring skills, F3B might just
be the ticket for you. You don’t have to
buy an F3B-specific model to begin with
because you can fly all of the B tasks
with any molded Thermal Duration
Sailplane. F3J Junior, Dillon Graves, and
I flew Xplorers as backup models at the
last Gator and we were able to fly low,
20-second speed runs with these F3J
models.
Come out and give it a try next time
you see an F3B contest advertised.
If you’re on the East Coast in late
February, why not come and join us at
The Gator? We will show you a great
time.
Although Aussie born and bred, my
wife, Sheralyn, and I are naturalized US
citizens and I am proud to be your new
“RC Soaring” columnist. I look forward
to bringing you some great coverage of
the big Soaring events in the US and
around the world. As the Junior team
manager for the US F3J Team, I will be
covering the World Championship in
South Africa, and you will see the report
here.
Until then, fly downwind and soar.