2013 Free Flight World Champs US Team
There was not time this year to do any daily reporting as we
were typically leaving around 6am on competition days and not getting back to
the hotel until 10 or 11pm.  But I’ll
share a few stories anyway now that the flying is over as this was an extraordinary
event.  This of course is just my own
personal views and some coverage of the US team results as others will have to
fill in with results from other countries and the overall champs report.
My only previous experience in France was the 2004 Junior WC
which was cold and windy for the entire trip.  Things looked much the same when I arrived Monday evening July 29 just
in time to fly F1A in a world cup contest the next day.  The first round was very windy and it only
got worse with gusts up to maybe 10 or 15 m/s in the afternoon.  Jim Parker blew up his LDA model in the 2nd
round during an extreme high speed launch.  In appeared that the towline broke which triggered both wing tips
breaking off and the stab coming apart as well.  The carnage continued when Mike McKeever launched a short model and
folded the wings.  After 3 rounds proving
I could control and launch my models in the windy conditions I decided to quit
preserving those airplanes for the WC.

There was an unusual amount of airplanes destroyed on our
team.  During a nice practice session
Wednesday evening with an LDA model I made the mistake of saying to my helper
Jim “this model has been so reliable that I’ve never had to use RDT to save it
during the first year I’ve been flying it”.  Big mistake which left me so confident that I flew it with the RDT
transmitter in my pocket with the power switch off.  All was fine until Rene and Mike and I decided
to launch our models for one last flight around 9:45pm to compare
performance.  The wind had increased a
bit and I was trying extra hard for a great launch when the model turned too
soon at high speed.  I attempted to abort
the launch and let the hook re-latch but it was moving way too fast and when I
let it go it bunted straight into the ground.  Wings destroyed.  As it turned out
this wasn’t such a bad thing as it forced me to fly a newer LDA model which I
had just finished and which turned out to be a better airplane.
During practice the next day Kenny Happersett tried to RDT
his power model after the wings failed to unfold correctly but this only caused
one of the wings to break off completely resulting in a crashed airplane.  Then Mike Roberts released one with the stab
apparently in bunt position right from the launch.  It powered right into a line of cars and
smashed through Ziggy Limberger’s chair fortunately without anyone sitting in
it.  Mike McKeever’s problems continued
as well when a practice flight hit someone under DT and broke a wingtip and
then when practicing with a replacement “rock and roll” model from Rene a DT
close to the ground caused it to land wingtip first resulting in damage.  But thanks to team supporter extraordinaire
Bill Booth both models were fixed in short order and were flying again.  In addition Don Chesson lost one F1C model to
a crash during the actual WC contest.
I don’t recall the F1B team losing any models but Walt Ghio
had the worst model box travel nightmare.  He arrived in Paris but the model box did not and there was no record of
it anywhere in the airline system.  So
Walt left his wife Judy in Paris in case the model box showed up and flew all
the way back to California to get a second model box.  When he arrived back in Paris on Friday his
first box had been miraculously found so he finally had plenty of airplanes.

 As it turned out he didn’t miss much as the entire
Poitou contest on Wednesday/Thursday was cancelled due to problems with the
local farmers.  This was an unusual year
as late spring rains had put the crops which normally would have been harvested
by now a few weeks behind schedule.  In
addition the contest dates had been moved up to accommodate the WC.  The contest started out with round one flown
in beautiful conditions with light drift.  I was starting to think that the weather in France is not so bad for
free flight after all.  But after that
first round the organizers called a meeting and announced that all the flying
was cancelled.  Apparently when the local
farmers saw the large number of people running around in their fields, some
still unharvested, they threatened to destroy any airplanes landing in their
fields from that point.  It seemed
incredible that such a large world cup event with so many people involved who
had traveled very far to get there could actually be cancelled with no other
alternative field available, but so it was.  In fact there was not even a practice field available anywhere for
testing so hundreds of free flight modelers were standing around with perfect
weather but no field to fly on.  There
was the other field where the previous world cup contest was just flown and
where the WC was to be held but we were told that there was not permission to
fly there until Saturday or Sunday because of the harvesting work.  Fortunately the WC organizers went to work
and found another farmer’s field that was made available for testing by
Wednesday evening and was used Thursday as well.  And then we managed to get permission to test
on the actual WC field by Friday.

The weather conditions were beautiful for the Saturday and
Sunday practice sessions as the official World Champs events got underway with
processing and the opening ceremony Sunday evening.  The conditions held up through the three
flying days with many very calm rounds and only light to moderate winds with
very comfortable temperatures and a few light rain showers.  Only F1B day had some continuous predictable
light winds which actually made chasing easier because the chase teams could
stay in their downwind positions.  The
others days had the chase teams constantly moving around guessing where the
models would end up.
In the first round Tuesday morning for F1A Mike and Andrew
both made the 3.5 minute max easily with good flights.  I stumbled and fell running in the wheat
field stubble just as I launched my model and had a rather poor launch but the
air was smooth enough that it still did over 4 minutes for the max.  We had plenty of other challenges during the
day but managed to pull through them.  Both Mike and I had flights in the fourth round that brought out the US
flapping team and the models glided well enough to max.  Then in the 6th round Mike and I
provided more drama again with attempts.  Mike had the towline wrap around the wing of his model and had to let it
land.  Then I had the towline slip out of
my hands as I was negotiating traffic preparing to launch in a beautiful
thermal and the air was so good that the model climbed out with the line
attached.  Andrew was standing by ready
and got a quick launch off into that same thermal.  Mike’s re-flight went smooth as he watched on
the ground and then when it looked good towed up and quickly launched the model
into nice lift.  My re-flight came with
about 20 minutes left in the round.  I
waited on the ground for about 10 minutes until there was finally a thermal
developing on the opposite end of the flight line.  It took a few minutes to run and tow my way
across the field but I was greatly relieved when I launched the model and it
climbed out in a nice piece of lift.  My
7th round flight was initially on the edge of the thermal nearly gave
me the 7th round blues but finally went up.  Andrew put in a solid flight as usual and we
were excited to have a team max out.  In
most championships this would have been a good sign of a team medal but due to
the great conditions and very high level of flying we found out that we were
one of 9 teams maxed out with a total of 62 flyers headed for the flyoffs!
In order to fit 62 flyers on the flight line the polls were
spaced only two or three meters apart.  This created a situation where it would be difficult for all the flyers
to tow up immediately without massive line tangles.  I told my helper Jim that I would take the
aggressive approach and tow up right at the horn with a short line and immediately
make a quick circle downwind to try for downwind position.  If the line tangled or the model crashed then
oh well, that is what the back-up model is for.  So with Jim stepping back a few meters and me pulling the model out of
his hands as the horn went off I attempted my plan.  The Italians next door were yelling at me as
I apparently was running into or over their towline but fortunately my
immediate neighbors stayed on the ground and I started working my way
downwind.  With short quick circles I was
finally out of danger after a couple minutes.  Jim spotted some models thermaling at one end of the line so I sprinted
over there then sprinted downwind for position and got off one of my best
launches of the day.  The model circled
upwards and DTed into a sunflower field.  That round reduced the field all the way down to 54 competitors!  Mike and Andrew made the 5 minute max as well
yet we were still not guaranteed a team medal.  In the 7 minute round Andrew got in nice position downwind and I followed
him flying my long model now as the late evening conditions were getting
smoother.  Andrew launched but when Jim
and I looked up he was not real high so I didn’t go immediately.  It turned out he was in good air but had
missed the launch.  After getting out of
a line tangle with Gerd Aringer another model come overhead looking good so I
decided to launch.  Towlines were falling
out of the sky and one wrapped around me as I setup for my launch but I didn’t
stop.  On top of that I was running
uphill in the stubble and the result was a weak launch.  Still the model was on the upwind edge of the
thermal that Andrew was in but it never quit locked into it and was down in
five and a half minutes.  Mike got stuck
launching towards the end of the round when there was no lift left and missed
as well so only Andrew made it to the final 9 minute round.  That round was flown at 9pm in what appeared
to be fairly neutral air with light drift.  Rene and I watched Robert Lesko from Croatia make a perfect vertical
launch with a perfect bunt flying his black carbon winged homemade flapper just
a couple minutes into the round.  His
flight of almost 7 and a half minutes held up to be the winner.  Near the end of the round Victor Stamov and
Andrew were towing upwind on high ground hoping for a patch of good air and to
take advantage of the landscape.  Victor
finally launched his LDA which did 6:20 for third place and Andrew got off a
very nice launch with his standard long model which did about 5 minutes.  It was apparent that the Argentinian team
would take the team trophy as they were all in the 9 minute round but the other
places were not clear.  I was hoping that
maybe our team would sneak in for the bronze medal as we had a very respectable
day of flying but it turned out that the Italians and Israelis flew a little
better so we settled for 4th place.

The next day the F1B guys had a cooler day with a bit more
wind and they reported that thermal picking was especially difficult.  The 6th and 7th rounds
in particular had some long dead spells with no activity and there were a good
number of drops.  Our downwind chase team
was impressed with Brian Pacelli who was flying as the reigning junior world
champ.  Many rounds he was one of the
first models in the air picking his own lift and picking it well.  Often other flyers were going after Brian
showed them the good air.  Alex, George,
and Walt were all putting in consistent maxes except for Walt’s one flight
which fell 4 seconds short.  That flight
was never really in great air, unlike his 7th round flight which was
in such great air that it landed in a nearby town even though it DTed right
over the heads of the chasers.  But with
no F1B teams clean after 7 rounds this performance gave the US F1B team the
team gold medal.
Thirty F1B flyers started the 5 minute flyoff round at 7pm
in cool overcast conditions with very tricky air.  I was chasing for Alex and saw his model DT
but was worried that it was not high enough at that point to be seen by the
timers.  Unfortunately my fears were
realized when I learned he was clocked off 10 seconds short of the max.  There was a high point on the field directly
downwind of the flight line about two thirds of the distance downwind of where
the models were landing.  There was also
a line of big bushes or small trees at this spot.  So any model landing downwind of this spot would
disappear from the timer’s view well before it landed and this was to haunt
many people.  Seems like Alex has been
the victim of downwind trees many times!  George was about 15 seconds short of the max and his friend Michael
Seifert from Germany also reported that his model DTed from a reasonable height
but was still timed well short of the max.  But 9 flyers did manage to make the 5 minutes including Brian
Pacelli.  The flight line was moved a bit
further upwind for the 7 minute round as the previous round had many models
landing in the village.  Once again Brian
was one of the first to launch in this round into what looked like it could be decent
air.  Some of the other models that
launched after Brian looked higher when their props folded but the air apparently
was not quite as good.  I didn’t see when
Albert Bulatov from Russia launched but obviously he chose the right time as
his 385 second flight was way out in front of 2nd place Ismet
Yurtseven from Turkey with 291 and Brian in 3rd place with 274.  It was exciting to see two of the top three
places taken by relatively young kids in Brian and Albert and even more
interesting that Albert was flying a flapper!

Weather conditions got very calm again for F1C day with
clouds and a few light rain showers.  For
most of the rounds the up and down air was benign enough that any power model
would max with any reasonable power pattern and glide.  Kenny Happersett scared us one round when his
model stalled for the first couple minutes of the flight before finally settling
down to a nice glide but I think he still DTed at reasonable height.  Then he kept things interesting again when
his model failed to turn making about three quarters of a circle in three
minutes.  I was worried it may go
straight far enough to disappear from the timer’s sight but fortunately it made
at least a partial turn.  The flight line
had to be moved a first time as many models were landing in a sunflower field
in the first round despite the light drift.  But after a couple rounds the new location to the north was letting some
models land in the parking lot or an adjacent corn field (Mike Roberts found
this one round) due to the light and variable drift so a second flight line
move was finally made to get away from everything.  Don Chesson provided a little drama with an
over-run on one round and a crash in another but his second attempts in both
cases were solid maxes.  After 7 rounds
our power team had maxed out but, like F1A, were still not sure of a team medal
since there were still 7 teams clean.  But it was apparent to calculating minds at this point that the whole US
team had just clinched the Challenge France for the overall combined score of
the three events.  This was the case
since this is scored using the total 7 round time for the three events without
the flyoffs.  Since our F1B team had won their
team award with only the 7 round score and since our max outs in F1A and F1C
would match the best of the other teams the US would clearly be left with the
highest total score.
48 of the 71 F1C competitors prepared for the first 5 minute
flyoff round.  This works out to 68% of
the field maxing out which might be an all time high for the world champs.  That flyoff round would also be one of the
most spectacular things I’ve ever seen in free flight.  The round started in dead calm conditions
with what turned out to be a massive patch of very good air parked right over
the flight line.  As soon as the first
couple models were launched it was apparent that the air was very good and so
in the next couple minutes it seemed like virtually the entire field of 48
models were in the air at the same time.  I’ve never heard so many engines running at the same time and for a
minute or so the scream of the models was non-stop without a break.  I was glad there were no models crashing
because in these conditions there would be no way of using the sound as a
warning that a model could be approaching.  Looking up the sky was a cloud of airplanes gliding around and without
any drift they stayed overhead.  I couldn’t
look at all of them as I was chasing Kenny’s model and I dared not take my eye
off it or I would confuse it with another airplane.  Finally the other models DTed but Kenny’s
didn’t so we realized that something was wrong and we had a possible
flyaway.  After about 10 minutes the
model was still high in the lift and had drifted maybe a couple hundred meters
from the flight line.  Mike McKeever was
chasing the model as well and we were fighting for the right to chase the whole
flight as it appeared it could be a fun adventure.  I was right under the model and argued that
it was “mine” until it changed directions and drifted back towards the flight
line again and got closer to Mike at which point I had to relent and let him
chase it since I was needed on the flight line to help Kenny get another model
ready for the 7 minute round.  Alex also
had the model in the binoculars and he and Mike followed it for another
hour.  Once or twice it got down to maybe
200 feet but then found better air and went up again.  Finally it was up around 1500 feet we
estimate and Andrew got the radio tracking gear and got in his car to track
it.  After about 2 and a half hours in
the air Andrew recovered the model just before dark.  Both Don and Mike had made the 5 minute max
as well as Kenny.
Since only 5 of the 48 flyers missed that 5 minute round the
7 minute flyoff was another great show.  Don
and Mike maxed again but Kenny’s model got a little low behind the same bushes
that Alex had found the previous day and he was clocked off short of the max
even though I saw him do about 7 minutes chasing the model.  26 flyers were left going for 9 minutes
somewhere around 9pm.  Mike and Don both
put up beautiful flights and we watched as their models slowly glided down with
the rest of the pack.  I saw Verbitsky go
later in the round getting very high and his model seemed to be coming down much
slower than the rest almost holding altitude for much of the flight but Roy
Summersby maxed as well and the two were headed for a showdown the next
morning.  I heard from the team following
Don’s model that they were able to see it much longer than the 467 seconds he
got from his timers and that apparently those same bushes were to blame.  But F1C team had flown well enough to earn
the bronze team medal so it had been a good day.  I wasn’t around for the Friday morning flyoff
but those that were reported that Roy won it with a perfect looking flight
while Eugene’s engine was slightly off tune and he didn’t get his normal
height.

This was a world champs to be remembered for the great
flying conditions and record flyoffs.  The organizers also did an excellent job managing everything and
provided great opening and closing ceremonies.  For the US team this will be remembered for the great team effort and
team results and thanks go to all who helped support the team both with
donations and those that were present to support the flying.

Ken Bauer