Starting today I made switch to CMS based on WordPress. Please, change link to English version of my website to www.lomcovak.cz/wp_eng. Please change it also in your bookmarks. The old pages will stay here but won't be updated anymore. Looking forward to CU at new pages.

Roman Vojtech (14/07/2009)

After ten years there is time for change. Starting today I switched czech part of Lomcovak to WordPress (CMS) and if it will proof as viable, I will do the same with english Lomcovak. Old czech Lomcovak can be found here. Hold on...

Roman Vojtech (08/04/2009)

Results from F3B Brno DOC (ZIP). You can enjoy pictures from Pavel Marek and soon you can expect pictures from Martin Pilny.

Roman Vojtech (08/09/2008)

At local F3B competition in Horice Jaroslav "Hippo" Hlavko from Bretamodel introduced me new F3X model; TANGA. Very nice piece of underwear :) Designed by interesting group of people, but details will be published later on.

Roman Vojtech (01/09/2008)

This is last story from F3B WorldChampionship in Switzerland. During whole stay in Luzern we were permanetly watching amazing mountains on horizon and dreaming about F3F flying there. Last day (on way back) I convinced my friends Jaroslav Hlavko and Michal Behensky to join me and visit Titlis (>3000m). At the end there was no wind or actually it was changing direction and I gave up to throw my Ascot or Precious deep to valley. Amazing nature, amazing views, no wind-I was dissapointed. Anyhow we made few nice pictures, hopefully you will like them.

Roman Vojtech (18/09/2007)

Rain here, rain there, rain everywhere. Leitmotif and story by itself of first half F3B World Champion in Emmen. Will be written by golden letters in F3B WC history ;-)

Roman Vojtech (09/09/2007)

...return from Waterloo. Another heartbreaking story from F3B WC 2007 in Switzerland. Fidel Frick (Liechenstein) walking back after flying last final speed 27.68sec/592 points. I guess four relaunches were watched by spectators with holded one's breath.

At last picture is Fidel looking already more relaxed at pricegiving party with Jaroslav "Hypo" Hlavko from Czech company Bretamodel. Fidel was flying Precious and Furio produced by Bretamodel and in singles was third.

Roman Vojtech (06/09/2007)

P.S. I remember similar story from WC 2003 in Kirchheim. Joakim Stahl (Sweden) was "starring" also in last speed but he lost medal position unlike Fidel.

Swiss AirForce team PC-7 is using propeller-driven Pilatus PC-7 aircrafts. It was nice to watch these guys during initial F3B WC ceremony in Emmen. Last picture is from PC-7 team training at friday; it was different weather, more cloudy.

Roman Vojtech (9/08/2007)

Hi, just slowly going through my Emmen archive and picking up some delicious moments for you. This was story of Michelle Goodrum (South Africa) speed triple(?) relaunch. Useless to comment, just enjoy...

Roman Vojtech (1/08/2007)

P.S. Just watch faces of Craig, Ted, Jo and Martin at last but one picture.

I'm sorry you don't find here no news from WC in Switzerland. There are other (and better) websites where you can find daily update from Emmen especially at official Christian Muller website. I'm not sure if I could write a lot of positive thoughts about this World's therefore I just update Czech part of my website which officials don't understand, hopefully (joke).

In anycase I can seriously state here one positive idea ; F3B people have endless patience and tolerance to any kind of weather conditions. Nothing can stop us, F3B rocks!

Anyhow, at least check for pictures at Czech part.

Roman Vojtech (11/07/2007)

Starting Friday next week (6-th July) we are at Emmen, F3B World Championship in Switzerland. Czech team is me (Roman Vojtech, Team Manager) flying 2xAscot and 1xPrecious, Martin Ralis (Breta Model) 3x Precious and Jiri Baudis (Baudis Model) 3x Ceres. Our helpers are Michal Behensky, Jaroslav Hlavko, Petr Fusek and Jan Stonavsky.

There should be WiFi on the airfield, if there is enough time and energy (both never enough) I will place some comments or pictures here. Looking forward to meet you nearby Luzern.

Roman Vojtech (28/06/2007)

Sunday morning and at 8:00 we should start first F3B Eurotour&WorldCup competition in Czech Republic after long six years (since 2001 F3B WC in Chrudim). No, we didn't started while rain and low clouds covered Jesenik sport airfiled just few minutes before eight.

Anyhow forecast was optimistic and at 11:00 Jiri Baudis (CD) started contest. There were nearly 50 participants from Austria, Germany, Holland and Czech Republic. I was very pleased to meet all good friends from mentioned countries. Nice suprise for me was also arrival of Francisco Pantano and his girlfriend. He made huge and responsible job at starting line during both days, thanks.

After mentioned postponed start we enjoyed amazing weather with strong thermals and even stronger holes. This weather is typical for this Norh-East part of Moravia (historical part of former Czech Kingdom).

Some pilots used comfortable background of Jesenik sport airfield (30 beds, showers, bar, kitchen, barbecue etc.) and enjoyed social event especially at Saturday evening.

I wrote about level of Czech F3B already several times on Czech part of my website and Im sure, since year 2000 when I first met F3B guys (there were three flying pilots at that time at this country), we made huge progress. This year, after few local F3B contests and also several Eurocontests I guessed we are at the highest level of flying and technology skills since I remember (sure seven years its not so long). Looking at results from Jesenik 2007 I was not so wrong. At Jesenik ranking list from four first pilots, three are from Czechia and flying original czech gliders.

Martin Ralis-winner of Jesenik, coowner of Breta Model, designer of bellow mentioned Precious. This glider has deadly potential and maybe Im wrong but, his starting launch heights made many pilots desperate.

Jan Stonavsky- 3-rd position, member of Baudis Model&Petr Fusek team. Im sure Jiri Baudis with his Ceres made shocking step forward comparing to his Trinity. When I was watching results of our guys from few this year F3B Eurotour competitions I just marvel at theirs results with Ceres.

Me-4-th position. With me its a bit more complicated. I was two months flying mainly Precious and trying to modify it for my flying style. Sure results from local F3B competitions were influenced by my very-late beginning of F3B season and were very bad. I had permanent feeling I should a bit slow down all my top-racing activities. Somebody calls it burn-out syndrome.

Week before international WC F3B Jesenik we held Czech F3B Jesenik, local F3B competiton. I was flying Precious and slowly getting familiar with this tool (3-rd position after Jiri Baudis-Ceres and Martin Ralis-Precious). Sure success in F3B is very complex matter (I like complex matters) but very important for motivation.

After local F3B competition we had Czech national team camp to coordinate our activities for forthcomming WC in Switzerland. I started to fly my Ascot again after two months pause. During one afternoon I was able to fly within one series of launches speeds 14.25, 14.25 and 14.70. Sure good speeds in traing means nothing for official races-thats clear to everybody, also to me, but this toy knows how to go fast...

International F3B Jesenik I was flying with Ascot and I was satisfied with my performance. I made only one fatal mistake in early morning first duration. Now I have two choices Precious or Ascot. What makes me comfortable is fact that both are Czech F3X gliders which can compete whichever F3X toy today available on this planet.

It was too hot for me at the airfield and I was too tired to focus on flying and making pictures, therefore Im happy my friend Martin Pilny made excellent job with his Nikon. Thanks Martin.

Last but not least I'd like to say big thanks to organizer team from Baudis Model. I didn't record any not even minor glitch during races. Jiri Baudis and his melody boys made huge piece of work and I will be happy if next year you F3B guys will come again.

CU in Emmen, Roman Vojtech (19/06/2007)

Martin Pilny and his pictures from F3B Jesenik, results PDF 20kB

Whole last season (2006) I was flying Furio V made by Bretamodel. I was very pleased with flying characteristics. Especially on this model I enjoyed both speed F3B tasks-distance and speed.

During winter there was some rumor, Martin Ralis is working on brand new model. One cold day in April Martin(pict. you can see at Czech Lomcovak main page) presented to me new Precious! I was really pleasantly astounded.

Now I am flying Precious already two weeks and I can shortly sum up some my findings. Flying weight of my Precious is 2150g-i.e.100-200g less than in Furio V. Wings are much stiffer than in Furio V. Using cabin instead of nose cone is very handy and comfortable. I like also easy to handle and fast-to-change ballast system. Very nice circling performance in duration while Precious has bigger V tail and longer arm wing TE/tail LE. Sure this also helps in longitudal stability and ability to keep requested direction. I am surprised how heavy can be Preciuos launched and still keep good altitude-I never experienced this in any other model I owned up to now.

Airfoil is specially designed by Norbert Habe and is very similar to Furio V. It has slightly less camber and same thickness. So far Precious is for me big step forward, lets see what will this season bring...

Roman Vojtech (17/05/2007)

Hans Reisbeck (Germany) sent me these pictures of his LiPo Viking. Some interesting technical data.
Weight: 2650g (with LiPo battery, ready for flying)
Motor: Hacker B40-16L gear 4,4:1, prop 15x10 and 16x10 Aeronaut Folding CAM
ESC: Hacker-Master 40-Opto Flight
Battery: 4s1p 1800 EVO20 FlightPower/Hacker
Rx: JR/Graupner 19DS
Rx Bat: Sanyo 1500mAh NiCd, inline soldered and placed in ballast tube

Motor running time is aprox. 230sec (prop 15x10) and total altitude aprox. 1400m. Electro Viking can be instantly changed to F3F version (removing outer nosecone and motor spinner) using original nosecone. Rx batteries and LiPos are replaced by another Rx batt./lead set. Flying weight is then aprox 2500g.

Roman Vojtech (24/1/2007)

Finally Energy Eliminator for PowerCube is here! This external electronic resistor is ideal accessory for Cube charger and allows you to use full potential of PowerCube (discharging, cycle char./discharging).

Not only this! Starting now you can pay any item (LOLO-altitude logger, HiBox- logger, PowerCube and Energy Eliminator) using PayPal (i.e. using your credit card).

Back to Energy Eliminator. It allows 150W discharging power, has temperature driven fans and overtemperature protection. Price is 110EUR+20EUR shipment (19%VAT incl.). Available now in limited quantity. Any requests to info@lomcovak.cz

Roman Vojtech (11/10/2006)

BTW did you note new A123 Systems Li-Ion FePO4 cells and some amazing features of this new technology(for example A123 deutsch and A123 english)? PowerCube is one of very few chargers (if not the only one) able to charge and condition these cells by 300W. And if there will come again new technology, with PowerCube "no-cell-count" approach, you will be again on safe side! No funny, non-working and long awaited firmware updates!

Vaclav Vojtisek aka VVModel is winner of whole F3F Eurotour serial! Vaclav, my big congratulation! Well done boy!

Roman Vojtech (6/10/2006)

P.S. Vaclav with his co-partner Jiri Sodomka is designer and producer of famous Sting, NewSting, BigSting, Viking and new Ascot.

Ninety pilots from whole world (incl. Tom Copp, USA). Lucky weather, no delays, three full rounds, friendly atmosphere, that was Lunen 2006.

I could note at least four new kids in F3B town. Jiri Baudis ( Baudismodel Czech Rep.) was flying new Ceres. Seems to me Jiri learned a lot and made huge improvement over already very fast Trinity. Take care about this glider. Denis Quindot (Belgium) was flying for the first time his Tomahawk. X-Tail F3B glider designed by Francois Lorrain. Model will be produced in Czech Republic as is Crossfire. Philip Kolb (Germany) was flying his Skymax4, next evolution of Skymax series. Nice performance of both; Skymax4 and Philip closed at third position. Well done Philip! Estrella (Germany) guys were testing new wings (Dirk Pflug design) on old Estrella fuse. Bastian Hummel was flying "half" of this new project named Diavolo. We will see it completed next year.

I was flying my Furio V. Bellow you can watch altitude and elevator logs from distance in Lunen.

Roman Vojtech (18/09/2006)

P.S. Thanks to Jens Buchert for half winch position give up. Winners M.Wohlfahrt (1.), Michael Seyfang (2.) and P.Kolb (3.). Complete results at www.f3b.de and few other pictures from Lunen

...eeeh nearly forgotten, I met Greg Voak from Australia at Lunen airfield, how this world is small!

Weather forecast for F3B weekend nearby Berlin was not optimistic. Anyhow, all boys from Condor orchestra made maximum to run nearly complete three rounds (last A was omitted) of F3B competition.

68 pilots from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Argentina (or Spain? or Italy? Francisco, let me know) were facing moreorless successfully strong cloudy weather and showers.

There were two boring moments in competition for me. Thanks to starting number 2, I was launching my Furio V Sunday morning to fog and no wind sky (C task was first). Trying twice in aprox. 20 minutes interval, for first time nearly loosing model. Its always painful to be in more than 120 minutes speed group and see my competitors launching in sunny and windy sky, flying ordinary 16-17sec while me flying in fog from 180m, 22-23sec two hours before. Its very unfair and in my opinion in such changing weather speed task should be splitted at least to two groups.

Second complain is much more serious, at least in my eyes. What happened?

I was helper of my teammate Martin Ralis in last C task. We were flying 16,59sec. Was flown very precisely with evidently no reserve in turns, all six signals were sounding; so far so good. Suddenly came CD saying, buzzermans (there were THREE! please read it again THREE buzzermans on base B!) made mistake. Allegedly we were not at base B (although 100 people heard both signals on B!) at first turn and we should fly again! Wooow!!!

Yes, happened hundred times, that pilot is faster (or turns sharper) than by buzzer man pressed button. It's problem of buzzerman. Its quite normal and we all always appreciate pilot which is flying already back and signal is just coming.

Well, buzzer mans were making mistake and you will pay for that while after 10 minutes of discussions we resigned and Martin Ralis was flying speed again (18,7sec). For me this CD decision can be very dangerous precedent. We made only one mistake, we shouldn't accept this senseless request-order, we should be much more rigid.

Later on I was even consulting this case with CIAM FAI Technical director Tomas Bartovsky and he heard about this decision only once; ten years (?) before in F3B WC in Romania. He was not even sure if pilot was flying again.

Sure, buzzermans are also only people and everybody makes mistakes; no doubt. But once there is signal on base, I turn and that's all. This is principle. What of situations we will face if buzzerman will say: "Well, I pressed button BUT seems to me he was short by 30, 40, 50cm, perhaps? Could you fly it again? " Sure, weird...

I can only trust in CD, that he would make same decision if e.g. Martin Weberschock (he won) would miss B base by 50cm ( or how much it was?) and in spite of that getting signal. And Martin was flying really very close as he knows.

Roman Vojtech (29/08/2006)

P.S. Hopefully my report doesn't sound as in F3B Sputendorf was everything wrong. No, not at all. Every F3B competition is hard task for organizers. I know it and I always try to appreciate that. Alex Freiberg and Veljko Stojkov made otherwise huge job in complicated weather conditions. Thanks.

P.S.2. Just by chance, today I had discussion with Jaroslav Vojta comming back from F3F Welsh Open. They started there to use also "similar" scenario. When buzzerman will make mistake, he must IMMEDIATELY ask CD about cancelling flight. Please note word IMMEDIATELY! Not after finishing whole flight! Hmmm, about this measure I can think as maybe acceptable.

A small problem I see in F3B while laps are much faster than in F3F and decision of buzzerman would have to be very fast. But what happened in Sputendorf, this is just weird.

Roman Vojtech (30/08/2006)

Results at www.f3b.de and some other pictures from Sputendorf

Wish you nice holiday flying!

Roman Vojtech (21/07/2006)

Tapio and Petri (both Finland) made new version of analysis software for LOLO1/LOLO2. Software is for PalmOS. Well done boys!

Roman Vojtech (11/07/2006)

F3B Kassel; nice but for flying very tricky weather, boring wind direction and dramatical changes in every round.

For me hard to remember so exiting races. Andreas Herrig getting zero in speed (out of working time), Andreas Boehlen loosing whole race after Supersonic Reloaded flutter crash, many famous pilots getting 5-7 laps in distance (round 6-10 laps was 1000, round 8-32 laps was 1000!), duration around 4 minutes etc. Good experience, great job made by Reinhard Liese and Bernd Klose as CDs.

CU in Sputendorf, Roman Vojtech (03/07/2006)

Results at www.f3b.de and some other pictures from Kassel

Furio V-Tail made by www.bretamodel.cz I'm flying this model since autumn last year and I can say only one: I'm very satisfied with performance of this glider. Especially F3B speed and distance performance is amazing for me. Ability not to loose altitude and speed in distance turn is really astonishing. I'm convinced this feature will be also appreciated at F3F field. I also made first trials with micro camera (live video down to monitor) system placed on this airplane. My Furio is little bit tuned up but all this confirmed non-compromise wing stiffness.

Short movie you can see here HQ 60MB (MPG) and LQ 20MB (MPG)

Roman Vojtech (15/06/2006)

F3B Salzburg in Austria was first european "speedy gonzales" meeting this year. Although wheather forecast was snow and rain, reality was contrary; fortunately.

I was there just few hours therefore hard to comment, but all the top pilots were presented. Results...

Roman Vojtech (05/04/2006)

BTW next F3B WC will be held at Switzerland.

We bought these servos sometimes 1.Q.2003. Multiplex Micro Speed Digi are (were?) fast, digital (precise?), metal and relative cheap. So far so good, but troubles started this autumn. Vaclav crashed two Vikings when using these servos. I saw two friends emergency landing with F3B machines due failure of these servos and at the end my old but gold F3B Double Carbon Big Sting ended on winch without control. In all machines servos were on V-tail, failure here is usually fatal.

What happened? Always cause of servo failure was burned servoamplifier, suddenly and without no mercy. Melting everything inside servo, shorted on board DC and airplain out of control. We used on board DC 4 cells, but even with 5 cells it shouldnt cause such failure. Serial Nr. of mine are 300952 and 301220. No idea if this was just bad luck (10 servos?) or "general feature" of this type. Take care!

Roman Vojtech (29/10/2004)

Just got email from Pierre Rondel. His friend also flies these servos, but he found they have different servo amplifier! Funny, marking on his PCB (Printed Circuit Board) is V.1 while on mine there is marking V.2. Sure even layout and components looks different. SN of these V.1 servos are 208756 and 208333. Could be only newer release (V.2-Version 2) has these problems? Maybe only at Multiplex they know...