F3A World Championships
 

The landscape its very flat and it reminds me of Virginia here in Zurich. The practice flying
field about half way down to Bern and we could see
the alps clearly to our backs. Joseph got about 7 or 8 flights in today flying both the
Pegasus and Allure. It got a bit windy this afternoon and rained over lunch.
This was by the way perfectly timed with the local culture which forbids
airplanes (glow powered) from flying between 12 and 1 PM. In fact all shops are
closed. Mark went out to find a few power adapters during this time with our
host at the field and he had to knock on the store owner's home who was gracious
enough to open his convenience store for Mark to buy the adapter.
We flew until about 3:30 PM and headed back to the hotel via
Mcd for dinner.

By the way I've been very busy spending nights getting the Allure ready for the worlds. We got the plane 3 weeks ago and got it flying last Sunday. I got some flights on it and it flies very well. My hat is off to Brett and Bryan at CK Aero for their fine design. YS engine, YS engine mount and header, Spektrum servos all around.


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Some pictures from practice today. The field is very small by U.S. standards, with about 5 parking spaces but very well maintained and our host is very friendly and hospitable. Interesting, the field has a small (2 ft high) electric fence around the perimeter. This is to keep small animals (goats for example) off the runway. Makes for interesting (second thoughts) for picking up your model or navigating around. They turned the electricity off for the fence to take that worry away.


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There is a white cat at the field, actually it roams across the street in
the grass/corn field adjacent to the flying site. It looked like it was looking
around for some field mice. We are naming it Billy because at first we thought
it was a billygoat. Small goats apparently try to get on to the small but
well manicured runway to eat the grass, which is why they have a small electric
fence. Today was very calm and we flew most of the day until about 3 PM when
the sun was in our eyes. It is getting hot now, we think in the '90s and
tomorrow is going to be about 4 degrees hotter. We have been getting to the
practice field around 8. Joseph got 6 flights in today plus a couple on the
Allure. We plan to head out tomorrow early again. We normally are up at 6 a.m.
and have breakfast with the team around 6:30 and on the road at around 7:15
a.m.


I got a couple of flights in with the Allure to get the throttle curve
dialed in better for Joseph. I must say I did not mind getting in some flying
while I am here. The throttle barrel plastic arm broke during shipment in the plane box (by the way British Airways ROCKS- no fees for the oversize airplane boxes (we were able to get the planes in a 75 inch box by turning the rudder slightly).

We have been averaging nearly $100 a day on food.
Breakfast is provided at no cost by the hotel so we are just talking about some
snacks, drinks (its getting really hot here) and dinner. I'll be using the
credit card more from this point forward.

The generator stopped putting out current today. Mark was able to secure a
replacement in about 2 hours. Mark has been a great team manager and had
established local connections nearly two years ago with a network of local Swiss
modelers. Our hosts have been very gracious.

Joseph has started to memorize his speech at the opening ceremonies. It goes like this:

In the name of all the competitors I promise that we shall take part in these
Championships, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, committing
ourselves to a sport without doping and without drugs, in the true spirit of
sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our Teams

With the size of the runways shown in the several available blogs I suspect many of my club members would never pass the flight test :)
Keep the posts and pictures coming they are fun to read.
Good luck to Joseph and the rest of the team.
Stuart

After all the pilots were done flying today (around 3 PM) we all did sound checks on our aircraft. After we got Joseph's Allure sound check, I took it for a ride flying P15. I really admire the U.S. team for being able to practice with such concentration. I landed from left to right (into the light wind) and stopped just short (about 5 feet short) of the downhill side of the little electric fence (and drop off to the road!). Landing "up hill" from the right is much preferred! Its been an honor to be here with the U.S. team. These guys Rock!

Some updates today.
We got up again at 0530 this mornings, for breakfast at 6:15 and departure
at 0700 to the practice field. We had to take an alternate route to the
practice field because there was a bike race in the local town we drive through
to get to the field. This turned out to be great because we got to see some of
the countryside taking back roads. No potholes ANYWHERE. All roads are so
perfectly paved, although most are only one lane! No trash ANYWHERE. I read
that Switzerland has the highest GNP to person ratio of any country in the
world. Firewood stacked literally at any place we saw it was perfectly cut to
within an eight of an inch an stacked meticulously. Absolutely amazing country
and people. We arrived back to Zurich around noon to prepare for the afternoon
opening ceremonies and airshow. The opening ceremony was very well done,
although it was quite hot. I spoke to several local Swiss modelers and their
wives and they said its been setting records as the hottest few weeks in the
history of Switzerland. Apparently its having an effect on the cattle
industry. The grass is drying up and the cows don't have enough to eat- or at
least that is the fear. Last year was the opposite with too much rain.
I'm very proud to see Joseph give the opening "pilot's oath" to open up the
championships. There are over 100 pilots attending this championships and it
was both interesting and fun to meet so many old friends and meet new
ones.

The airshow was way beyond what anyone expected. I first met Bernhard
Schaden in Romilly when I flew in to France to compete in their F3A
championships. He is a very enterprising man and worked hard to prepare for
this event. Bepe and Terry T would have drooled at this airshow because it
opened with a tribute to Ed Kazmirski and his Orion aircraft. There was an
exact replica which was flown to the 1960 (the first) held at this location. It
was like watching through a time machine to see that airplane flying through the
maneuvers. Next was a replica of Bruno Giezendanner's 1971 world championship
model, followed by a demonstration of a "BPA" model (I did not catch the name of
it but believe it was also one of the Giezendanner's designs from the '80s.
Emil (Bruno's brother) is at the event and very actively working with the
contest management for this event.

The airshow then proceeded to include a mixture of model and full scale
demonstrations fit to be classified as an all-out airshow. There must have been
well over a thousand people there, along with local media, news and many
community organizations and businesses.

Tomorrow is practice then first round in the afternoon. Andrew and Jason
fly in the mid-last morning and Brett and Joseph fly in the late
afternoon.


Cheers,

Don

Pictures from the airshow

Not sure if this is a repeat, but Some updates today.
We got up again at 0530 this morning, for breakfast at 6:15 and departure
at 0700 to the practice field. We had to take an alternate route to the
practice field because there was an event in the local town we drive through
to get to the field. This turned out to be great because we got to see some of
the countryside taking back roads. No potholes ANYWHERE. All roads are so
perfectly paved, although most are only one lane! No trash ANYWHERE. I read
that Switzerland has the highest GNP to person ratio of any country in the
world. Firewood stacked literally at any place we saw it was perfectly cut to
within an eight of an inch an stacked meticulously. Absolutely amazing country
and people. We arrived back to Zurich around noon to prepare for the afternoon
opening ceremonies and airshow. The opening ceremony was very well done,
although it was quite hot. I spoke to several local Swiss modelers and their
wives and they said its been setting records as the hottest few weeks in the
history of Switzerland. Apparently its having an effect on the cattle
industry. The grass is drying up and the cows don't have enough to eat- or at
least that is the fear. Last year was the opposite with too much rain.

I'm very proud to see Joseph give the opening "pilot's oath" to open up the
championships. There are over 100 pilots attending this championships and it
was both interesting and fun to meet so many old friends and meet new
ones.

The airshow was way beyond what anyone expected. I first met Bernhard
Schaden in Romilly when I flew in to France to compete in their F3A
championships. He is a very enterprising man and worked hard to prepare for
this event. Bepe and Terry T would have drooled at this airshow because it
opened with a tribute to Ed Kazmirski and his Orion aircraft. There was an
exact replica which was flown to the 1960 (the first) held at this location. It
was like watching through a time machine to see that airplane flying through the
maneuvers. Next was a replica of Bruno Giezendanner's 1971 world championship
model, followed by a demonstration of a "BPA" model (I did not catch the name of
it but believe it was also one of the Giezendanner's designs from the '80s.
Emil (Bruno's brother) is at the event and very actively working with the
contest management for this event.

The airshow then proceeded to include a mixture of model and full scale
demonstrations fit to be classified as an all-out airshow. There must have been
well over a thousand people there, along with local media, news and many
community organizations and businesses.

Tomorrow is practice then first round in the afternoon. Andrew and Jason
fly in the mid-last morning and Brett and Joseph fly in the late
afternoon.


Cheers,

Don

Thank's for the updates Don. Best of luck to the Team, Team USA!

Look forward to hearing about the Allure when you get back.

Safe travels everyone.

Bill Holsten

Many thanks to Jason for "capturing the moment".

https://www.facebook.com/jason.shulman.12?pnref=story

We've put 100 percent of our effort in training, coaching, flying. Over the past month, Joseph had two practice sessions a day (mom takes him out in the morning I take him out in the evening) and the wonderful flying site at NVRC with every flight closely critiqued. Thanks Dave Lockhart, thanks Steve Insalaco, Dave Stoddard, Jason, JP, Mark and many others for all the coaching. We thank the AMA for its support of US FAI teams and for the NSRCA- and all of you reading this. We would not be here without your support from not just D2 but all the districts through fundraising and support to the F3A team (we have some shirts left, by the way, and Marc says lots of raffle tickets left).

Thanks again,

Don

Random pictures from the airplane setup and preparations at the FARM club.

And metro station at Zurich.

Hi Don- It goes without saying how proud you must be and I know that I loved seeing the day one results!

Continued good luck to Joseph- we'll be watching.

Dave

Thanks for all the likes on facebook. Apparently its become the talk of the competition. CPRL came up to me today and congratulated me on Joseph's performance.

Many new friends renewed and still others formed.

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Some more pictures of the practice field today after Joseph's competition flight Brett, allure designer CK Aero, Bryan, Joseph and myself got some mid afternoon practice and got back to see Andrew's flight.

Bees are EVERYWHERE. The country of Switzerland has a very strong emphasis on fostering bee, wasp and yellow jacket populations. They have stung several of the pilots. Joseph has been stung 3 times this week (one time I had to pull the stinger out of his finger in the middle of a maneuver). I have been trying to figure out why there are random wood piles stacked perfectly everywhere. I now realize that they foster bee nests. There is a clover field just across from the runway of the practice field. Bees have been in every restaurant and the competition site. They obviously work hard at pollinating all the fields for better crops. We also came across a stink bug, at least that is what it looked like.


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Some pictures of the UK, Canadian and Equator teams. AJ in ready box 1.

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Thanks for all the updates Don. Joseph, as well as the entire US team, has an entire nation supporting them. You all are doing your country proud! Your photos allow all of us here stateside to feel like we're there with you! Thanks!



Kevin

Today was very busy. We went to the practice field early, Returned and flew. Too many pictures to describe them all but posted for your viewing. Each has its own story.

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For each judges break there were fight demos from every aspect of the RC hobby.

Jets and IMAC

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