Category: F3A

F3A Europameisterschaft in Grandrieu, Belgium 19.- 28. Juli 2018

TEAM GERMANY 3rd RANK
Teammanager:
Heiko Sommer

Juniorpilot:
Gregor Wetzel, RANK 34

Seniorpilots:
Christian Niklaß, RANK 8
Robert Forster, RANK 16
Robin Trumpp, RANK 7

Constantly changeable weather conditions sometimes about 35 degrees C bothered not only the judges but also impacted the technology in a way. Also consistently hot temperatures and sometimes very changeable conditions, made the European Championship a real challenge for all participants.

After a break of four years (two EC´s), Christophe Passant Le Roux became European champion for the 9th time.
It was an honor to have had the opportunity to fly with such an exceptional pilot, but much more because he is an extraordinary and fair sportsman. Together in a team with his brother he is also a very important role model for our F3A community.

Places 2 and 3 went to Lassi Nuria (Finnland) and Gernot Bruckmann (Austria). In the team classification, France prevailed over Switzerland and Germany. The junior ranking went to Andrea Cervi (Italy) ahead of Ignace Pawlenko (Belgium) and Omer Ben Ami (Israel).

A few weeks prior to the F3A World Cup in Liechtenstein I lost my 2017 World Cup KARAT, due to an empty receiver battery. 

After a few night shifts with my father, we finished the two new KARAT biplane for the upcoming season.So one week before the Liechtenstein competition, both biplanes were complete and I was able to start my training again.

Regardless of the little practice I had before the competition, everything went surprisingly well, thanks to the even better KARAT than in the previous year.

At the end I was able to achieve the 3rd place behind Stefan Kaiser and Lassi Nurila.

From 14^th until the 23^rd of April I visited the area around Beijing to see where so much stuff of our hobby is made.
The first days I spent in the Hawk Model factory, they are the manufacturer of KARAT biplane. I visited the factory and looked all projects they are doing. But the focus of the trip was my F3A biplane. I could check the latest version of KARAT and all the weights of the parts. I also had the chance to talk and discuss details with to the responsible persons of the KARAT-project. The last day in Hawk I held a short presentation about KARAT and what is coming next.
At the free day we went to another factory where many well-known German companies produce their full-composite gliders and also some planes of Skymasterjet.
After that, we went back to Beijing to prepare the Falcon-booth for the Model Hobby Expo. I had 2 very exciting days at the fair in Bejing city where I also had the chance to made some demoflights at the indoorshow.
The same time was also the “The festival of jet in Beijing” around 50km outside of the Beijing center. On sunday I was there.
Sheng Orville, CEO of Dualsky gave me his sport jet to join this event also as a pilot- thanks for this opportunity!

On Monday I already flew back to Germany.

Thanks to all for made this trip possible, thanks for many new friends and an amazing time with you!

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Dass  ich beim WM-Finale nicht starten konnte, haben die meisten wohl mitbekommen. Schon die ganze Woche davor hatte ich mit einer Erkältung gekämpft, die genau zum Finale am schlimmsten war. Das Halbfinale konnte ich zwar schon sehr angeschlagen, aber dennoch in einigermaßen ordentlicher Verfassung fliegen. Ich wusste auch, dass zumindest ein sehr guter Flug für die Finalqualifikation reichen würde. Das wollte ich unbedingt schaffen.

Mit dem Einzug ins Finale der besten 10 Kunstflugpiloten hatte ich mein Minimalziel für die WM erreicht. Gerne hätte ich auch noch um eine bessere Platzierung gekämpft, doch das war leider nicht möglich. Ich weiß aus den vergangen Jahren, was es für Körper und Kopf bedeutet, ein EM- oder WM-Finale zu bestreiten; vor allem bei solchen Bedingungen wie in Argentinien ( extremer Wind und Böen quer zur Bahn bis 65km/h). Hier sind selbst 99% von Körper und Geist nicht ausreichend um zu bestehen. Somit habe ich am Morgen vor dem Finale gemeinsam mit meinen Eltern beschlossen, im Bett zu bleiben und meine Grippe auszukurieren; auch im Hinblick auf den 14-stündigen Rückflug am Montag 13. November.

Gewonnen hat, erstmals nach vielen Jahren an zweiter Stelle, Tetsuo Onda aus Japan vor Christophe Paysant Le Roux aus Frankreich und Jason Shulman aus den USA. Schlussendlich ein gerechtes Ergebnis; was die Zwischenstände nach der Vorrunde und des Halbfinals nicht immer waren.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch Tetsuo Onda!

Ganz wichtig ist mir, für die super Unterstützung zu Hause und in Argentinien ein herzliches Dankeschön an alle zu richten.

Besonders hat es mich gefreut, dass der KARAT so unglaublich gut angekommen ist. Vielen Dank für die vielen netten Kommentare, geteilten Bilder und Komplimente zum Modell! Das hat mich am meisten gefreut und war gewissermaßen auch die beste Medizin J

Ein weiterer besonderer Dank gilt auch meinem Coach, meinem Team und ganz besonders meinen Eltern, die allesamt in Argentinien dabei waren!

Die Vorrunde ist geschafft!
Nachdem heute der halbe Reservetag für die letzten P19-Flüge benöigt wurde, ist die Vorrunde nun beendet.
Aus deutscher Sicht eine durchaus gelungene Vorstellung. Christian und Nils auf den Plätzen 16 und 18, ich auf Rang 8.
Morgen fliegen die besten 30Piloten je 2 Durchgänge F-17 im Halbfinale.

Bis bald!

Gestern stand die Modellabnahme und das offizielle Training auf dem Programm.
11 Uhr Abnahme, 12 Uhr offizielles Training. So sah es der Plan vom Veranstalter vor.
Die Modellabnahme ging schnell von der Hand und alle Modelle von uns sind problemlos durch gekommen.
Etwas nervig war, dass nach der Abnahme beide Modelle komplett zerlegt und an Flightline 2 wieder aufgebaut werden mussten.
Dort fand dann das offizielle Training mit der Spannungskontrolle der Flugakkus statt.
Auch hier lief alles glatt, bis auf die beiden Modelle von Christian.
Fliegt komplett gleiches Equipment wie ich, fiel er jedoch zunächst durch das „Model Processing“
Am Abend bei etwas weniger Wind dann wieder eine Messung, diesmal gut 6db weniger und somit problemlos durch den „Soundcheck“.

Heute stand die Eröffnungsfeier auf dem Programm und morgen geht es mit dem Wettbewerb, dem ersten Durchgang der Vorrunde los.

Bis bald!

Von Frankfurt aus ging es mit der Lufthansa nach Buenos Aires. Im Flieger trafen wir auf Reto Schumacher aus der Schweiz und seinen Helfer Wolfgang Matt aus Liechtenstein.

In a turbulent competition (in all respects) in Schiefbahn I finished 3^rd after Lassi Nurila and Robert Forster. But overall I could win the German Championship for the 6^th time in a row.

Thanks to the MC-Schiefbahn for a well-organized competition!
Thanks to my team and our partners for the great support during this season!

On the 5th and 6th of August, the first leg of the German F3A Championship 2017 was held in Weilheim, Bavaria. It was also the 2nd event run together by the DAeC and DMFV, the 2 big aeromodelling associations in Germany. The 1st was in 2016.
According to some rumors, F3A is almost dead, but the event in Weilheim demonstrated the opposite. A huge number of participants, and many young and talented pilots, flew in 3 different classes for trophies and points.
But for me, there is a clear trend over the past 1-2 years of increasing interest in F3A again.
On Saturday we managed to fly 2 complete rounds of every class (FAI, sport, hobby). Unfortunately the weather turned bad on sunday, and allowed only 1 more P-13 schedule. The last round of sport class and the FAI final round was canceled due to heavy rain.

All in all it was a really good event, traditionally great Bavarian organization without any troubles.
I finished 1st in the competition, closely followed by Christian Niklaß and Robert Forster who finished 2nd and 3rd. In the other classes Max Chrubasik and Walter Lang won.
This was also the last competition for Russell Edwards, our friend from Australia. After 3 months of European F3A, he returned down-under.

Following the invitation from Roberto Rabina Simon, we departed on the 20th of July from Frankfurt-Hahn to Santiago de Compostela to attend the 10th Spanish F3A World Cup in Cerceda.
Cerceda is 30km inland from La Coruna “up the mountains” and is famous for its small but nice WorldCup competition.
Besides my coach Heiko and Albert Wamsler as a judge, my parents spontaneously accompanied us as well.
Our initial concerns with Ryanair were unfounded. Their service, and especially the handling of my large model box, was phenomenal. Fast, trouble-free, careful and cheap. Compliments to Ryanair!
After our arrival Thursday night, we went to the Cerceda field Friday morning for the first time. There were already a few other pilots practicing.
After organising my batteries (they were sent before the event directly from Hacker Motor to Spain), we also started our practice flights and preparation for the competition on Saturday.
It was planned that the competition would start very early Saturday morning. Sadly we had a delay of 3 hours due to low cloud and fog. But despite this, we were able to finish all 4 rounds of P17. After the first round, I was close behind Sebastiano Silvestri, but won the remaining 3 rounds.
A very interesting point was that they changed the flying box after 2 rounds by 180° due to the sun.
On Sunday morning we had the same problem as Saturday: low cloud and fog. But it also rained this time, and finally lead to a premature ending of the competition after 4 rounds of P17, with no final.
The result was that I won the competition against the tough opposition of Sebastiano Silvestri from San Marino and Christian Paradela from Spain.
On Monday we flew back home, after a brief visit to the old city and a part of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

We had a fantastic 4 days in Spain, and enjoyed spending time with many friendly people.
I especially liked seeing again my old friend Andres Leoni and his wife!
Many thanks Roberto for the invitation; it was our pleasure!
Special thanks also to Hacker Motor GmbH for the battery support!