Hello,
I was there as an "independent press" and decided to share my findings and opinions with you.
I watched the best F2B pilots and their techniques and I was not disappointed.
These are my opinions:
1. There were three F2B grass circles prepared by the organizers. Two main circles were on the NE side of the hangar and one on the East side of the airfield of the Kruszyn Aero-club, about 900 m from the main circles. The quality of grass on main circles (A and B) was, unfortunately, not to the FAI standards. The quality of grass on the third circle was even poorer. Organizers simply did not have enough money to hire a professional team to slowly prepare the grass of very good quality. The cash inflow, provided by a smaller number of nations and participants, was barely sufficient to organize the events at all. Simply put: it was either the compromise or nothing. The organizers selected a compromise and I fully agree with this approach. No F2B plane broke the landing gear and all F2B competitors had some points deducted for take-off and landing.
Conclusion re: quality of grass. FAI's definition of quality is great but this sport has to face the grim reality of 2022. Inflation, high costs of any labor, gas, and energy, lack of countries willing to organize the events of this proportion, and, lastly, political and military chaos initiated by the invasion of Ukraine. I feel we all should be grateful to the polish organizers that they managed to do it.
2. F2B models: about 70% factory made. From Yatsenkos, Solomianikov, Leonidov and Astrakharchik. About 80% were powered by electric motors. In the WChamps F2B finals (15 competitors), there was a single glow-powered model (Yatsenko's YAK).
Conclusion re: models. There will be more and more factory-made models in the years to come. AMA BOM rule does not apply in the FAI F2B competitions and the top pilots have simply more time to practice the pattern instead of sanding. Some fly more than 1000 flights per year and the effects are visible.
3. The most interesting competitors: Zbynek Kravcik (CZE) and Xu Letong (CHN). Zbynek flies his own design (Zlin) and Xu Letong - Yatsenko's Max Bee R3. Zlin is made using the partial vacuum bagging technique and Zbynek should congratulate himself for building such a wonderfully flying F2B model. Patrik Dolobac (SVK) also made an impression. He belongs to Igor Burger's F2B Team that won the team gold.
4. The contra and Polish Team: Three models with the GAU/D geared contra in the WChamps and two in the finals (Borzecki and Miesiak). Marek Rakowski (11 place overall), used a single motor with the 4-blade "ventilator" prop. He will switch to either GAU/D or TMT R contra next season. In the Warsaw Cup, there was a model with the TMT R contra by Robert Tomzik. I have this power plant and will, hopefully, fly in the F2B 2023 competitions in the EU. Assuming of course the hordes from the East will be tamed...
5. Technique: Orestes Hernandez, Zbynek Kravcik, Sergii Solomianikov, Patrik Dolobac and Konstantin Baj. are my picks. Clean, crisp, efficient, and effective. The "handle position" in the inverted horizontal flight and its impact on the quality of loops was an interesting addition to the subject.
Xu Letong (CHN) moves his entire body up and down (partial squats while finishing the bottoms of maneuvers) but he flies very well.
Conclusion: there is more than one way to fly the pattern well. In my opinion, the guiding principle should be energy conservation
and the pilot's stability. I will write more about the pattern technique when I finally learn to fly the pattern on the 1000 FAI points level.
This may or may not happen: I am aging and my flying is a race with time. If I will not make it, I will say to myself: "at least I tried".
I truly enjoy meeting the American Team and having open discussions about techniques with Orestes.
Talking to other teams (except Polish of course ) was a bit challenging. Many excellent pilots could not communicate in English well enough to exchange highly technical details I usually inquire about. Some were evasive...
Lastly: the weather. On the 10 points scale, I would give it 9. Some rain and soft hail on Tuesday, Aug.09, was a short interruption and the flying resumed. Final days: definitively 10 points - not too hot, moderate wind, some thermal wind but almost no ground level turbulence. Everybody flying in the finals could concentrate 100% on flying instead of running around to maintain the line's tension.
Best Regards,
Matt Piatkowski
P.S: My wife and I are still living in two countries. Let me assure you that this stunt is equally difficult as flying the pattern better than Igor Burger.