Not control line, but I flew in a support event at the 1988 World F3E Champs, here in the St. Louis area at Parks College in Cahokia, IL. The championships were for electric models and it was the second ever held. There was F3E that encompassed duration, speed and distance tasks, just like in the sail plane event. There was also scale and pylon racing. They had a support event called SunUp-Sun Down or Sunrise to Sunset or something like that. It was for teams with 7 cell electric models. I think we were limited to 5 airplanes, and the purpose was to keep at least one model airborne from official local sunrise to official local sunset. It was an interesting event, with lots of different design airplanes. Electric R/C was still pretty much in it's infancy, but rapid progress had been made in those days. It was quite fun, and our club,( that was the Mississippi Valley Soaring Association and the host club,) was sponsored by Airtronics and we were given 5 kits of their Edlipse 2 meter electric powered sailplane to use. We really didn't have much time to practice or evaluate the airplanes and mechanics, we just had time to build and finish them and a few test flights. The CD, Cal Ettel, had contacts wit Astro Flite and they supplied our batteries, if I remember correctly. First launch was at sunrise as noted and about 4 hours into the day, we lost the gear box in one airplane, and then a bit later, another. We had to change our tactics a lot in order to make the other gear boxes last. The best thermal pilots flew, tried to get as skied out as we could, and we were VERY careful on the throttle when powering up for a climb out. At Sundown, we finished with two airplanes still functioning. we placed, but I forget where. The neatest thing about a World Champs is meeting the people. I got to meet many legends of model aviation that week, like the Polk brothers, Mr. Graupner from Germany, Joe Beshar, Dave Brown (who was US Team Manager) and Walt Good was there and I got his autograph on the cover of the Model builder magazine that had the article in it about him and his brother. Another memorable thing was that I think this was the only FAI contest where there was a major rule change right in the middle of the contest! Technology was advancing rapidly and the US was way behind the Europeans in air frame design and equipment . At the start of the event, you were allowed only one climb out for the distance task, and they were flying newer, smaller models in Europe with bigger batteries that were designed from the start for multiple climbs and they came here equipped for that. They convinced the jury that it was a safety issue and the rule should be changed, and it was allowed. The US team was furious, and needless to say was not equipped or prepared in any way for this, and I think they flew the rest of the event under protest. It was an immense amount of fun and a whole hell of a lot of work. We beat out bids from California and Florida to hold the event, and worked for two years straight as a club practicing the timing and lap counting procedures until we could do it in our sleep. In the whole weeks worth of competition, there were no protests (other than the US over the rule change) and there was only one reflight given due to a local news station helicopter flying through our air space when it was closed, and almost had a head on collision with an Italian team model. We had no foul ups or mistakes in timing or officiating of any kind. I have some VHS video of the event I need to get converted to digital someday, and lots of photos also. The crowning event was the awards presentation, and the after party in the dorm that didn't break up until the next morning and some teams needed to get to the airport for their trip home! An experience that i'll never forget.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: A world champs question. (Read 1148 times)