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2001 F3B World Championships - F3B (24/02/02) |
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Israel, Romania, Turkey, South Africa, and now the Czech Republic are the last five countries to host the F3B World Championships (WC). Chrudim in the Czech Republic is a small city 130 km north-east of Prague and in 2001 it became the focus of attention for the F3B world. From 18 to 26 August a local sport airfield became home to 24 F3B teams from around the world. The terrain surrounding the airfield is varied and created some strong thermals and some equally strong sink. The experienced pilots were able to cleverly read the often changing conditions but to us less experienced pilots it wasn't so simple! Another interesting aspect to the airfield is that it is on an incline, which gave several pilots an unwelcome surprise when they landed short, especially in duration. It was my first F3B World Championships and I was therefore looking forward to seeing the latest technology, tactics and the skills of the competitors. |
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Grand Prix Chrudim 2001 More or less by coincidence, during the week before the World Championships there was an F3B World Cup Grand Prix event at Chrudim. It was a good chance for the WC competitors to become familiar with the local conditions before the main event. In fact the competition proved to be oversubscribed, although in amongst the 73 competitors all the F3B celebrities were present. I had already seen most of the European models like the Estrella, Supermaster, Cobra, Caracho, Shark, Warp, RaceMachine and the others (sorry not to mention all of them), but this was for the first time I had seen F3B gliders from the USA. I have to admit that the American Icon model is really different from anything you will see at a European contest. Comparing some basic parameters of the Icon and the Estrella is interesting. The Icon spans 3.30 m against the 3.15 m Estrella. Wing area follows suit with 74 dm2 compared with 60.95 dm2. Taking an average of all the planes used at Chrudim gives a wingspan of 3.07 m and a wing area is 62.04 dm2. Daryl Perkins, the defending world champion, started the first round with an Icon but unfortunately it didn't handle the stresses of launching in the Distance task and broke before the zoom. I was great to again meet the pilots from Japan that I had first met at last year's F3B Octoberfest in Munchen. It was interesting for me to see young Naoto Sakurai (just 15 years old) flying Speed with and old but good Ellipse 2V in just 15.52 seconds to get the best speed time in the Grand Prix. The Grand Prix ended after only two rounds on Friday afternoon. Two rounds isn't much for a two day contest but the organisers were fine-tuning their procedures and sometimes it took a very long time before we could continue flying. Still, it was important to get things right before the World Championships. |
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2001 F3B World Championship Saturday 18 August was a free day. Some pilots used it for sightseeing and some for training on the airfield. The first flying day of 2001 F3B World Championships was on Sunday with round zero, task A Duration (0A). The weather was unusually hot (33 to 35°C) and the wind was very light, mostly coming from the south i.e. 90° to all line directions! Launch heights were not that great and for some competitors their problems started here as it is widely acknowledged that launching (i.e. the height you start from) is the equivalent of a fourth F3B task. It was afternoon when the Distance task began (0B) and the wind was becoming stronger at times, and temperatures were suddenly falling. Within one hour we had to change our lines three times, from 1 mm to 1,2 or even 1,3 and back and forth. After lunch the round zero was suspended so that the official opening ceremony could proceed. After the official opening and the FAI anthem we could continue flying but not everybody could finish round zero as there was simply not enough time. Monday morning saw the beginning of the 2001 F3B Word Championships proper. No more time for trials or mistakes. The task order was 1A (Duration), 1B (Distance), which was split over Monday and Tuesday and 1C (Speed) on Tuesday. It was clear to everyone that the expected six rounds would require a great effort. |
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On Tuesday the temperature finally dropped from the tropical heat of the earlier days but the wind was very weak and regularly changed direction. So awkward was the wind that the round two Speed task had to be divided into three groups. The ranking list at the end of round three (the halfway point) shows the top 10, and it is worth noting that at this stage Joe Wurts (USA) was down in 17th place. |
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