Rolf B and me decided to enter the DM at Rügen early this year and long before we knew they were announcing at Rügen as the place for the next Viking Race. Rolf decide early to go on a short vacation together with Joergen Larsen (DK) so I talked Alex McMeekin into joining me. So suddenly it was more than interesting to attend this competition so we could study and try the slopes before the Race.

I picked up Alex at Fühlsbüttel Airport in Hamburg Friday before competition day. The idea was to reach Rügen for some practice runs but due to heavy traffic we did not arrive early enough. Most pilots had practice runs Thursday and Friday and from my point of view this was necessary indeed. I spent at least 2-3 rounds before I started to work the slope as I liked.

The slope we used the first six rounds were pretty interesting and I think diving would very easily end up with some bathing because the slope was not more than 4-5 meters straight into the Baltic sea. So it was very important to find the right line and stay up. The wind was pretty high, at least 15-17 m/s so staying on the right place was a handful. And to make it even more difficult we had cross wind!

Not so bad line	Close to base

Day2, 10m height	Too far out

It was quite clear that the best pilots benefited because conditions was so difficult and practice on this type of slope will become very important indeed! It must be said that this is a reserve slope and is not very often used, nevertheless it can easily blow western wind and then there is no other option as far as I know.

It was also very interesting to go to one of the sides to watch other pilots flying. Pretty often planes was almost into the sea in the turns and also way to far out from the slope itself which you can see clearly on some of the pictures I took. The organizer which was the MFSC TU Dresden did a super job and managed 6 rounds with about 50 pilots on Saturday! I am pretty sure Franz Demmler and his crew will have no problem hosting next years Viking Race. In two words: German efficiency!

After a long day at the slope we all gathered in Barn at the HQ (HeadQuarter). A very nice evening but be sure to bring warm clothes! I had brought my drawings of "how to set up a F3F course" and I discussed this with several of the best German pilots. I felt they supported the idea and I think next year we might see this method other places than little Norway.

Next day the wind had turned more to North-West and this meant another slope which was about 10-12 meters high. On a personal view this slope suited me just fine but also here you had to fly accurate and avoid getting out of the best lift zone. The wind was about 7-10 m/s and made it all easier to control. It was very nice with a huge three line that we could have our depot behind and I could finally bring out my new gadget and boil some water for a cup of tea or two. Well mostly Alex was taken care of that I must admit. The Organizer had decided to fly only 3 rounds so this brought up to 9 rounds in total and that was a lot more than I expected I must admit. But the weather was also good so that made it all possible. With 50 competitors there was never any stress at all, maybe expect for the organizer.

In the last round we had an accident that luckily nobody got hurt. A competitor crashed into base A and only the plane was destroyed. If we had used the new system with moving back the bases this would not have been a problem. I ended up at 5th. place, Joergen 8, Rolf 17 and Alex 20.

5th. place was OK for me I think, with some practice flying prior to the comp. I might have done even better. But having said that I was quite impressed with the high standard of the pilots in front of me! They will be extremely difficult to beat next year. I think Stefan Goebel had at least 2 missturns where he had to turn completely back and still he was in front of me! Klaus Kowalski (2nd.) also flew very good and was very close to beat Martin Herrig which I think was lucky on at least 3 occasions where he nearly missed the turns. But that is the name of the game when we are talking about F3F. It is not enough just to fly perfect all the time, you also need some luck! Andreas Herrig took 3rd place and did so with very little flying this year! SCARY!

Well the Germans will probably only have 3 teams next year so then we only have to deal with 9 of them :-) Klaus and Peter Kowalski, Stefan Goebel and Dieter Perlick used the Eclipse (Caldera) which is designed to be a F3F slope racer. This plane seemed to work very well on this kind of slope and so did the Freestyler and the new Shocker from the Herrig Bros.

I flew my Race Machine and it also worked fine. For all race fans I can reveal that it will finally be produced and will be for sale pretty soon. Check www.et-air.com.

Shocker	Shocker

Winners, Klaus Kowalski (2.), Martin Herrig (1.) and Andreas Herrig (3.)

Other info you can find at www.f3f.de

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