For those of you that missed the NATS, it turned out, that in the FAI power events, it was ruled by the young kids (young, as in 23 years old or so). However, I have to congradulate Cody Secor for his performance at the WC- If we ever get all three in the same contest, watch out old guys! 

Started with F1C- Austin Gunder and John Lorbiecki (the kid) as well as the "old guy" Norm Poti made the fly off. The five minute round was not a problem for all three  but had to wait two days to get the 10 minute round off. Weather proved to be quite good with nice visibility. John hit the starter first, but had a problem tuning the engine. Shut down, re fueled, and tried again. By this time Norm and Austin fired up and launched. Both got good altitude and went into glide. John tried to fire up again, but had a hard time with the tune. Shut down again and refueled. With 2 minutes left, he fired up, got a good tune, and launched. Norm and Austin were both flying their geared models and John was direct drive.

Needless to say, both geared models had better altitude. John circled over head and began a slow down wing flight. Norm had a glide problem (no turn) and did about 2/3 of a circle in just over six minutes. Not sure what exactly happened with Austin, but went down wind also but was circling.

I never saw the entire flight, but ultimately John did 6:50 and won, landing on the field. He did have a bit of excitment as he went between to trees, just brushing one of them. Austin was second and Norm third.

But, F1J was probably the best flyoff conditions I have ever seen. It ended up with Austin and Bob Gutai alone in the six minute round. Both went up and stayed easily within 300 feet of the launch area. Both models circled so close to the launch site that the flights could be enjoyed by all, no binoculars needed. Bob made it at 6:05 and Austin (locked down) went 7:44. Both came back, loaded up and went up again. Same conditions- no binocs, just looking up and enjoying the flights. Bob dropped but Austin once again made it- No big chases, no storming down wind- Just free flight at it finest with two of the best going at it.

Austin went for the record and achieved it with a final flight- can't remember the time tho. The wind on the ground was 180 degrees from above so when the models were launched, they drifted one way and them lower to ground, actuall came back. Fantastic flying and truly memorable!

I want to also thank all the fliers that congradulated John after his win- I did not tell him he won and just waited to see his face when he finally found out- That was memorable- Not sure how much flying he will be doing in the next few years, but I will really miss not being out with my son- This has been some of the best modeling experinces I have ever had, flying with my boy....

John (the old man)

This email is only going to those I know who may be interested in FAI FF matters and/or my views on just what happened over there!  I need to write it as much for my benefit as for your information (amusement?) before my opinions fade or are influenced by the reports of others. It really focusses on my own efforts and is not meant to be a comprehensive view so please forgive the bias.

Preparation

My FF interests were rekindled last year when John Malkin and John Harte presented me with an opportunity to bid for much of the late, great, Alister McKenzie's treasure trove of wakefield hardware.  I couldn't resit the temptation and acquired four relatively modern airframes and lots of other bits and pieces,  Most of the hardware came originally from Igor Vivchar and I spent the following few months sorting it all out - repairing damage, recovering all the flying surfaces and learning how to fly the "modern" way.    Since then I have put aside all but one of those airframes and have built four of my own airframes, albeit using some Yuri Blazhevich components on two of these models.

My best two models have turned out to be slight variations on Richard Blackam's "Spirit 25" design one of which has a conventional wing and the other a 6-panel with dihedral angles approximating an ellipse.  This 6-panel has turned out to be my best model and is the one I used in he first 5 rounds at the World Champs.   I have electronic timers on most iof my models now and all have provision for RC DT - an esssential piece of kit for test flying here at home where there are many trees to avoid!  I can also mount a data recording altimeter on all my models from which I download the plot for each flight onto my Palm and can use that to analyse climb rates, altitude gained, sink rate etc.   This has helped a lot in selecting brest rubber/props/turbulators etc.

Over the past 6 months I have made over 400 wakefield flights - mostly short hops in still air.

Rubber is one of the big variables with wakefield flying and I have been very fortunate to get some excellent rubber through the generosity of Garry Burrows, John Harte, Roger Morrell and Rob Wallace.   It took over a hundred of hours of testing and preparing this rubber to end up with a good selection to take to the World Champs.  I took about 60 motors with me to Croatia.

Execution

Rob and I arrived in Croata about a week before the actual event.  This is really the minimum time to allow for one to acclimatise - in fact an extra 4 or 5 days would have been wiser.   It got really hot there between about 10am and 6pm (up to 35deg on a couple of days) so exhaustion was a real possibility. 

Dave, Rob and I all flew in the "Kmoch" World Cup event as a warm-up and the glider day was almost FF heaven - super conditions - but really tricky air as Rob discovered.  A big fly-off though.  Next day for wakefield was really windy from the start - so bad in fact that only 30 or so of the 100 entries started.  Dave opted out of R1 but flew most of the following rounds.  I decided I need ed the practice in the wind and flew my 5th best model in the first two rounds and maxed.   Retrieving from R1 (over 3km away) I was caught in a thunderstorm and both self and model were drenched.  The contset only went 6 rounds duie to the wind and I was happy to survive the day and for the last three rounds flew my "best" model - the 6-panel "Spirit".

The day after was FF heaven - an absolute gem.  About 25deg with fluffy Cu's and lots of people all over the paddock trimming etc. Great for the soul.

WC glider was very like the Kmoch glider day - tricky and still for trhe first two rounds.  One had to be very careful with air picking and/or launch hard and high next to models in marked air.  The flight line was nearly 400 metres long so unless one had the skills of Findhal or Stamov it was necessary to manoeuvre near to ones own launching pole.  Rob spotted good air an all of his flights but didn't quite put the model into the right piece of it on a coupkle of crucial occasions.  On the first round in particular, his model flew straight for nearly 40 secs goinmg away from the nice piece he launched into.  It's a real downer to miss that first round max but Rob bounced back well.

WC wakefield round 1 (9am) was very like many of the other mornings we had experienced there - very calm and quite deadly!   Long periods of "nothing" air.   It was necessary to be able to tell from models alrerady in the air if that particular air was good or not but despite some excellent climbs, many flyers missed.   I had flown a test flight with my "long" model (1,8m span Blazhevich wing) just before the round opened and did about 220 secs so I knew I had to be really careful.  That was further emphasised after Dave launched into was looked like a nice bit of air only to fade quickly in the second half of the flight and miss the 4 min max.   By 9am, any dew that was on the area had evaporated and the air temperature was increasing rapidly so "true" thermal patterns hadn't established.  Consequently, some may have been fooled by reading increasing temps on their thermistors and I also suspect that many who treid to "flap" their models in these early two rounds did nothing more than upset the air and cause their models to descend faster.  Flapping so early certainly doesn't break-off any latent thermal bubbles.   I flew on a good indfication of another model nearby with about 15 minutes of the round to go and madwe the 4 mins comfortably with the 6-panel model.

So the day proceeded with increasing wind and themal activity and my model went well until R5 when it went off in a boomer.  I RDT'd it at 2min30 but it still climbed in the lift for a while eventually coming down in the forest over 3.5km away.  Rob took off on this retrieve with his Yagi to track it and I flew another model for the last two rounds.   R6 again went off into good lift and I had increased the glide turn on this model to be sure of not stalling in the now turbuklent air.  For the crucial R7 I did three things wrong.  First I took off that increased glide turn (it was a little tight on the previoyus flight); secondly I used a slighly inferior motor after breaking two on winding ( I may have been a little smug thinking that in such air one was eitht way up or way down anyweay) and thirdly, even though we had a really good position for this round near the downwing end of the flight line, I didn't wait long enough for a bunch of models coming from upwind that were looking like they were going away in a boomer and launched in the kleading edge of the thermal.  The model went up OK but not quite the climb I had been getting (with better rubber) - it then headed downwind a bit after prop fiold (further way from the lift) and developed a slight stall that became worse near the ground and, as history showws, just missed the max. Mutter, mutter. Rob returned with my best model just after this flight. Little did Rob know that the forest he was crashing through is reportedly a haven for deadly snakes and is also used by many of the locals as a favorite place to hunt big bears!

Aftermath

As it turned out I was the  only one of the "still clean" flyers to miss maxing that last round.  It was probably the easiest of the whole event. Even more frustrating was that the fly-off was eminently "winnable" - it was quite likely that I could have done the first (5min) fly-off max OK then, who knows?   Only two of those in the final fly-off round struck really good air.

Admin etc

The WC organisation was excellent and we had good accomodation. Bill McGarvey did a wonderful job as NZ team manager.

Anaysis

In both glider and wakefield succes at this level is a combination of many factors. The Model (get, or make, the best), Preparation, Practice, Training, Fitness, Head Space (the psychololgy of it all), Knowledge, Perception, Luck.  It is hard to proportion these factors but, be assured, that all are required.   We, in NZ, certainly have a huge disadvantage in not being able to get to, participate in, and observe "big" events. Without this it is difficult to know just what sort of performance is requitred.  We tend to compensate by acquiring clones of models flown by "the best" and then hope that these are good enough. That's only part of the equation.  I hope to write more about these various factors for FFONZ Newz soon once I can get ny own head around it all!

In Croatia, I didn't see anything much in wakefield that was significantly superior so, in that event, the technology is obtainable.  In glider, over half the flyers there could do stunning (30metre gain) launches in still air with some able to get 40 metres.  And these are launches in exactly the piece of sky intended.  Most could also keep their models very high on the line at all times and launch well without the need for the long low sweep to build up speed.   This enabled them to get around the paddock without interfering and also to put their models just where they wanted them.  Flappers that were used were not significantly superior. Makarov's winning flight with his flapper was from a stunning launch but he was in a very nice piece of "exclusive" air down one end of the flight line.  That he won was justly deserved but it would be wong to conclude that he did so because he flew a flapped model.   Many other "name" flyers had flappers at the WC and  but, significantly, often did not fly them in what seemed like still air rounds.

Home Again

I left the WC venue straight after wakefield and went touring (mainly in Istra) by myself for four days so I didn't see any power flying.  The trip home was OK (via a stopover in Hong Kong)  but I am finding that it takes me longer and longer thesde days to recover from the dreaded jet lag so although I arrived in ChCh on Thurs it hasn't been until now (Sunday) that I have been able to settle to the keyboard.

The Future?

I think I have a good handle on how to fly wakefield and A2 now so plan to press on full speed with wakefield and casually with glider.  Next major aiming point is the foir contest World Cup series in OZ and at Omarama next Easter then a possible team place for the 2011 WC in Argentina.    To get anywhere near the required standard in glider I will have to get back to some serious running training as well as setting up a couple of models with RDT so I can practice here at home.  For wakefield I will build another 6-panel wing "Spirit" at 1.54m span and another slightly stretched.  My original is getting a bit daggy now - it got treed here just before I left for the WC and I had to fell the tree to recover it - ufortunately the wing got rather crushed and the tail demolished so a major, last minue,  repair ensued.