2019 World Championships F3A
08-19-2019, 06:12 PM
#1
2019 World Championships F3A
Here are a few items for the next newsletter for the local clubs we belong to in Virginia.
Some updates from Italy. Club member Joseph Szczur participated in the 2019 F3A RC Aerobatics World Championships in Italy.
Picture 1. Joseph and Don Szczur in Italy - picture taken during the finals. Joseph flew the warmup flights for the judges.
Picture 2. The practice field. This field was about an hour away from the contest site in Calcinatello (between Milan and Venice, Italy) and we practiced at this site during the week prior to the competition. Notice the netting around the pits area. This kind of netting is common at many fields in Italy, for safety purposes.
Picture 3 Preparing to fly at site B during the preliminary rounds of the F3A World Championships. There were two sites (A and B) which competitors alternated flying each day. Site A was a paved runway and site B was a fairly narrow (carpeted) runway carved out of a cornfield. Weather was perfect most of the week and competitors got ideal flying conditions- little to no wind. There were several competitors that flew the same type of plane Joseph flew- CK Aero/ Extreme Composites model called Alchemy (as shown).
Picture 4 (attached). The finalists with their aircraft. Winner was Christophe Paysant Le Roux from France, 2nd was Tetsuo Onda from Japan, and third was Gernot Bruckmann from Austria. The U.S. pilots were Andrew Jesky (5th), Jason Shulman (8th) and Joseph and Brett Wickizer. Joseph was not part of the US team but received an automatic invite back for the 2019 world championships since he was the 2017 reigning Junior World Champion. The new Junior World Champion is Kal Reifsnynder from the USA. Kal finished as the highest placing Junior (under 18 years old).
Picture 5 (attached). Joseph with the new World Champion Christophe Paysant Le Roux. We renewed old friendships and made many new ones. RC world championships event, going back to 1960.
Some updates from Italy. Club member Joseph Szczur participated in the 2019 F3A RC Aerobatics World Championships in Italy.
Picture 1. Joseph and Don Szczur in Italy - picture taken during the finals. Joseph flew the warmup flights for the judges.
Picture 2. The practice field. This field was about an hour away from the contest site in Calcinatello (between Milan and Venice, Italy) and we practiced at this site during the week prior to the competition. Notice the netting around the pits area. This kind of netting is common at many fields in Italy, for safety purposes.
Picture 3 Preparing to fly at site B during the preliminary rounds of the F3A World Championships. There were two sites (A and B) which competitors alternated flying each day. Site A was a paved runway and site B was a fairly narrow (carpeted) runway carved out of a cornfield. Weather was perfect most of the week and competitors got ideal flying conditions- little to no wind. There were several competitors that flew the same type of plane Joseph flew- CK Aero/ Extreme Composites model called Alchemy (as shown).
Picture 4 (attached). The finalists with their aircraft. Winner was Christophe Paysant Le Roux from France, 2nd was Tetsuo Onda from Japan, and third was Gernot Bruckmann from Austria. The U.S. pilots were Andrew Jesky (5th), Jason Shulman (8th) and Joseph and Brett Wickizer. Joseph was not part of the US team but received an automatic invite back for the 2019 world championships since he was the 2017 reigning Junior World Champion. The new Junior World Champion is Kal Reifsnynder from the USA. Kal finished as the highest placing Junior (under 18 years old).
Picture 5 (attached). Joseph with the new World Champion Christophe Paysant Le Roux. We renewed old friendships and made many new ones. RC world championships event, going back to 1960.
Last edited by Don Szczur; 08-19-2019 at 06:15 PM.
08-25-2019, 06:22 PM
#6
Some additional pictures. Each picture has its own story. First week the U.S. team practiced at a field slightly east of the contest site we also flew at a field hosted by CRRC. Thank you so much for allowing us to fly there. We have made lifelong friends as part of the experience.
Site A was on a runway. Site B was basically cut out of a cornfield. There was a small zoo at site A and one could hear goats and horses as well as an occasional peacock milling about. The venue was an RC club with a co-joined site for weddings and banquets. What a great venue. Joseph found the pool on the last day (swimming between warmup flights for the finalists).
U.S. team flew well. The weather was fabulous- probably the most ideal one could imagine. Everyone was flying extremely competitively. The light winds and summer conditions brought many new design innovations, from Saba's tri-plane to Gernot's enormous monoplane. Onda flew electric at the worlds, versus glow. His contra setup was very quiet and smooth. Christophe flew conventional glow but an unconventional airframe. The wing tips were colored red which in my opinion helped both pilot and judges see the wings level or at exact angles during maneuvers- particularly rolling circles in the finals. Joseph flew a stock Alchemy but added a slight fin under for the demanding unknown sequences with multiple knife edge maneuvers. The Brenner Contra ran flawlessly and provided extremely constant flight speed, as did most aircraft flown at the worlds.
08-25-2019, 06:24 PM
#8
The roads were very narrow. I'm not sure why the single lane roads were meant for 2- way but we learned that there are pull-offs every several hundred feed to allow both cars (vans or trucks) to pass. The Italy country works very hard to preserve its countryside and maximize use of farmland within this region.
08-25-2019, 06:35 PM
#10
The Banquet was time to renew friendships and catch up on all the social aspects of the worlds championships. Thanks for the staff who worked to make the F3A world championships reality. Now time to rest up for the next competition. Would that be Clover Creek?
