F3F:Legends and Fatcts about VR2002:www.lomcovak.cz

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Well, looks like F3F flame wars on the Net are gone. Everybody interested in could read a lot about this controversial race and „downhill scandal“ -Viking Race 2002. Funny is that one could mostly read opinions of the Edgie Camp members. I don’t take care too much which camp do I belong to, but sure bellow written words will sound like downhill concept defence.

In Slovakia I was really wondering that speaking about Flying Down was nearly like transgression. We could hear „unmistakable“ opinions why staying on the ridge is the only true F3F.

Well, go on and read just fractions of my thoughts why I am convinced that things are not just „Black&White“...

· F3F and its spirit stay on the ridge, while there are fair conditions for everybody. No that’s not true, F3F is good air roulette, at least here. We don’t have here any slope with constant and same speed (or power) lift conditions. In Central Europe it’s always poker, when top pilot will get hot air, there is no chance to compete him, no chance (or diving down?). Regardless of this still we want and will fly F3F.

· In Donovaly there were tricky conditions and no wind. No that's not true. There was enough wind as I remember in average 5-8m/s for whole week. In Portugal VR before, there was no wind as I’v already heard hundered times. Conditions were not tricky, these conditions are standard in whole Central Europe i.e. no tricks, just local conditions. Some pilots were not able to face it. It was evident that somebody had many times in VR2002 excellent air but useless for him. Skilled pilots is able to face bad conditions someway (or diving down?).

· People were diving down without cognizance how to get back. No that's not true. I dont know any pilot which was entering racing flight with crashing his machine after 10-th lap in mind. No, I don’t believe it. Sure always there is somebody willing to risk more than is my level of acceptance of such risk. But it’s common for every top sport. For me is first to come back safe with my lovely model, the rest has less priority for me. I would never trade place on podium for my model crash (calculated). This would be against my spirit and I believe against spirit of all pilots presented.

· Diving down is very dangerous. In Donovaly many uncontrolled landings (or fallings) down proved it. There were hundereds. No that's not true. We were diving almost only on South slope in Donovaly and you had here 99% chance to get hot air and to get back without any serious problems. There was sun shinning to this slope for the whole day and you had to be 1% group member not to get enough lift to get back, bad luck. This can happen even on the ridge. I had feeling that some „pure?“ F3F pilots lack of the other very important and very basic flying skills. For my Caligulla (BigSting) I have several flying modes and one is thermal burst mode. If this doesn’t work there is really very bad air, switching to cruise mode should help me to leave immediatelly such bloody air area.

Already one year I’m trying to explain my small champ Vitek (son), that hardly pulling up elevator stick will not help him to gain altitude forever, we are flying silent flight sonny! When watching some pilots in Donovaly falling in spins to forest somewhere down I wouldn’t blame diving concept. There was also objection, that flying down can be dangerous not only to pilots resp.airplain, but also to somebody else, beacause pilot can’t have his model under full control. To this argument I can just ask. Have you ever seen flying F3J or F3B? Pilots are in this disciplines flying maybe in fivetimes bigger distances, than we were falling down in Donovaly and there is no discussion about security issues. There must be something wrong ?! And as regards hundereds downhill landings? I didnt coun’t them but if they were 5-7 pilots (out of more than 700 starts!) landing really downthere (I mean in valley), I exagerate. It was unexperience and overestimate tax. They shouldn't fly so deep, nobody ordered them.

· Competition was slowing down due to pilots „hunting“ their models from deepness. No that’s not true. As I remember CD had to stop comp due this reason maybe twice (channel collision). Also stating that everybody from downhillers needed 15 minutes for landing is not correct. 90% of all VR participants landed even during South slope race within 3-4 minutes maximum (see my altitude records)! How much time do you need to land on Wrecker?!

· Organizators were trying to promote Locals allowing them diving down (local advantage), therefore we from XY country were affected by this game and this is reason why we are not the winners. No that’s not true. I was member of organization team and we were facing some boycott proclamation from Austria before VR2002, if we will limit time for landing. We were quite angry. Our intention was just to limit it to some reasonable for both camps (Downies vs. Edgies) acceptable level. During VR2002 we were facing start of boycott from “Edgies” camp. We were very angry. What shall we do? Are the F3F rules so imperfect? Or are people so hardly trying to get some advantage over the others?

I was flying race on the South slope down two weeks before VR. Just look at my website, I was writing about it and asking what’s F3F. There were even discussion before VR on the web (f3f yahoo) and everybody could expect flying down will occur in any form. Except of Vaclav Vojtisek (2-nd place on VR2002), Jaroslav Triska and Vaclav Blaha never practiced this technique before, necessary to say they are good F3B pilots. These three guys are the best VR2002 team. Vaclav Vojtisek was trying this style with me 2 weeks before on mentioned races. I’m sure we are not any experienced Downhillers. I doubt if we can say about Martin Herrig, Vaclav Vojtisek, Joe Wurts, Espen Torp they are experienced F3F Downhillers. These mentioned guys were able to face this local conditions better than we. Therefore they won. Austrians are very experienced downhillers no doubt, but still they weren't on podium at least in singles. They were beated by pure Edgies. After every race, every round, I know about the most of mistakes I made, there were many. Same was here in Donovaly. First try to blame yourself from failures and maybe after long thinking somebody else for example organizers or concept.

Well, above mentioned issues were maybe just a few of all presented. But I want to treat them as fundamentals ones therefore I write about them. If I say „A“ maybe it’s expected from me to say „B“ i.e. conclusion. Seems to me this was for the first time when the most of pilots were facing downhill phenomena. The most of them damned it immediatelly. Give a try, think about it and then judge. It will help to spread true F3F spirit around the world which is called “tolerance and honesty”. Or am I wrong again?

OK, here my text ends. That’s it…