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- Last Bauer report from Croatia
- World Champs from home
Last Bauer Report (for this World Champs
)US Team news from Croatia
Saturday, July 25, 2009
The flying is all over. Peter Watson from the UK is the new F1C world champion. He flew against Leonid Fuzeev in a two man flyoff at 6:10am this morning as they were the only two to make the 7 minute flight last night. The Russian was flying his folder and Peter was flying a fixed wing model with a very good hummer. Both did around 7 minutes official time with Peter a little better but there was wind blowing and they were difficult to see. Peter’s chasers reported that he flew over 9 minutes. Both had good flights and in my opinion it was nice to see that a very good fixed wing model could win.
Friday morning started out nearly dead calm in round 1 for our 3 man F1C team plus junior WC Cody. They all made the 4 minute max and I caught Cody’s plane about 100 yards from the launching pole. After that round the wind came up and blew fairly strong the rest of the regular rounds, maybe 12 to 15mph, and the direction was bad in the shortest direction to the hills. This made lots of work for the chase crew especially when Cody added a couple of over-runs, but his first over-run glided into “Bauer’s hole” so that turned out to be a good thing. Only Don Chesson’s model flew over the road and into a hill and was recovered by the Jones family rock climbing team so all the models were retrieved. Don dropped one of the early rounds when his model went off pattern and recovered low. Gil dropped a couple rounds as I remember. His model glided beautifully but he had some bad transitions from climb to glide. Fast Richard and Cody stayed clean through 7 rounds and made it to the flyoff.
There were several delays during the regular rounds to give more time for retrieval and this pushed back the first flyoff round to about 7:10pm. There were 19 flyers in this round and the organizers moved everyone to a new flight line further upwind, but at the same time the wind was calming down creating perfect flyoff conditions. Fast Richard got off a nice flight and maxed. Cody was called for an over-run with his first model but he was prepared and within seconds picked up his second model which was already fueled and ready, started it, and got off a nice launch in the good air which was still there. It stalled several times off the top however which cost him valuable altitude before it settled into the glide. He ended up landing at about 4:33. Overall Cody flew very well and never let the pressure of the WC or over-runs bother him.
Nine flyers advanced to the 7 minute round which started around 7:50pm, with the sun still above the mountains providing plenty of light for the timers. Fast Richard was one of the first to go and went up high, but his launch was slightly to the right so he didn’t get everything he could from the model and did around 5 and a half. Watson and Fuzeev were obviously looking great and I thought a Ukranian flapper also looked very good. There was also a terrible scare this round when an Italian launched his model and it flew like the stab was in bunt position and did a half outside loop going right into the crowd about 40 meters away. I was about 10 meters away and was terrified at what I might see, but fortunately the crowd scattered just in time and the only injury was a cut to the elbow of one guy where the wing apparently got him.
Just got back from the closing ceremonies. We had a one hour bus ride to a restaurant where there was a big tent setup outside with tables and chairs crammed extremely close together. The ceremony was again simple and short which was great, but they had so many people pushed into such a small space that it was uncomfortable and difficult to move around and talk with people. It is also a mystery to me why they had to bus us an hour drive to a tent. Seems like the same tent could have been setup near the hotel, but I’m sure they had their reasons.
Most people I talk with agree that this was a great world champs because of the good field and mostly good weather and large participation. The flying is what it is all about and there will be many great memories of this one.
-Ken
The World Champs from home
This world champs got excellent coverage for those "watching" from home. There was round by round posting of the results. What was missing was a status on any delay of the the start of the round a weather condition. The on-line forum did give some extra comments, official or not that contributed to the following of the event.
A report from the organizers has to be very fact based so it would be hard to add the kind of coverage that Ken Bauer provided.. For example all of us not there were wondering why the 'big names' in F1B had trouble with the first round and Ken gave a interesting information that not only applied to the US team but all field. So we appreciate every much what Ken added to the event.
There were a few inappropriate comments on the forum, which seemed to be about local Croatian model politics, just proving that the team selection process is complicated everywhere and someone is always unhappy. The forum moderator should have used his perogative earlier than he did and removed the entries earlier..
It was also great to hear from those who were not there this year and may have motivated people to particpate more.
..........................Roger Morrell
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