Dave Fitzgerald WC2002

Dave Fitzgerald's impressions on the World Championships held in Sebnitz, Germany

Our members for the US team for the world championships in Sebnitz, Germany were Bill Werwage, Todd Lee, Dave Fitzgerald, and Rob Gruber--our junior entry. We left July 9th, arrived July 10th in Frankfurt and all of our equipment and baggage arrived safely. We were fortunate enough to have been invited by Gunter Wagner to practice for a few days before the Championships started. He and Dr. Matthias Mobius were our hosts at the German model flying facility in Bitterfeld, which is about 1 1/2 hrs. NNW of Dresden in the eastern part of Germany, or a 6 1/2 hour drive from Frankfurt. Sebnitz is about a 2 hour drive WSW of Dresden. We were in Bitterfeld for the better part of 2 days. The geography, elevation, and weather in Sebnitz was similar at our practice site, so it was good preparation to make sure all the equipment survived the airline baggage handlers, and was working at the new site. Both the practice site and Sebnitz are surrounded by tall trees in a small area with constant wind. This made for a lot of turbulence. However the best part of the practice sessions were our breaks. We were supplied with lunch, beer, chocolate, cakes, cookies, and more beer. German beer is wonderful compared to American beer. We were never hungry.

We each made some minor trim changes, but our major concern was that our fuel had not yet arrived from our shipper. Keith Trostle, our assistant team manager, had to drive back to Frankfurt to get our delayed fuel, just in time for our arrival in Sebnitz. While in Bitterfeld, Gunter graciously offered us his fuel to practice with. So in the evening of Fri. July 12th we arrive in Sebnitz and surveyed the contest site. For F2B, there was a smallish soccer field with room for only 1 grass circle, the official circle, an asphalt doughnut, and another small asphalt doughnut we shared with the F2C, team race pilots. We had most of Sat. to practice as Sunday was official opening ceremonies in the town square. Monday the 15th was the time allotted for official team practice. We mostly flew on the grass circle, which like the official circle, was very turbulent with tall trees and hillsides close by. The site was located in a canyon on a hillside, surrounded by the trees, and the wind coming down the canyon like a wind tunnel. The wait for practice flights varied, but averaged about 3 hours between flights.

I had an opportunity to fly on the shared asphalt doughnut during a break in official practice, so I took off, flew the wingover, and tried to start into the inside loops when my outboard wing tip hit the fence surrounding the circle for the team race pilots. The circle was too small for full length lines on the F2B models. Only minor damage resulted, but I had to spend 4 hours rebuilding the wing tip and repairing the outboard flap. It did not effect how the plane flew, but it is not as pretty as before. Again our German friends were fantastic. They offered the club house and shop with materials to help repair my plane. It was kind of funny, everyone was very concerned about my plane but me!

We had a variety of weather conditions. This made it difficult for the 4-cycle crowd to predict run times. On the first day of qualifying flights, the first couple of flights ran overtime. The weather varied from wind,12-28C, overcast, extremely dense fog, humidity, more wind, thunderstorms, rain, gust fronts, and clear skies. This could change in the course of 1/2 hour. Qualifying was spread over 4 days, making it very difficult for the judges to compare any flights from the first or second rounds, let alone the first part of qualifying to the end of each day. Due to the altitude, about 330m, wind, and humidity we ended up increasing the nitro content in our fuel. Rob Gruber and I ended up running about 12 1/2% nitro, and Bill Werwage and Todd Lee ran about 18%.

Qualifying went relatively well. We ended up having to adjust our style of flying to what the judges seemed to be scoring. Us Americans prefer to fly as close to the rule book as possible. This means all of the parameters correct, size (45deg), shape, intersections, and bottoms. As in past world championships, it seemed that the only consistent thing we could identify the judges were scoring well was good bottoms and a smooth, large pattern (50-55deg). The Chinese, as usual, misshaped all their rounds to show the judges a good 5 ft mark, unfortunately for us, this scored well. This also meant for us, backing way off on corners. So we had to open up the pattern, significantly soften corners, and concentrate on 5 ft. However, having said that, this time the judges did seem to pay more attention to the F2B judging guide, so progress has been made in the judging area, and more consistent. My impressions of the pilots, the French and Bill Werwage, were the ones to beat. After 4 days of competition, all of the American team, French, and Chinese made it into the finals, thus determining the players for the team trophies.

Our junior, Rob Gruber, was a real prodigy. His family made the trip to watch and for support. Rob made huge progress in his flying in the course of the week. His improvements were sensational. Rob made the cut for a junior finals held at the end of qualifying. The weather for the junior finals was very good, light breezes, good air for the most part, sometimes dead. Rob's ability to function well in pressure situations paid off. He almost was able to beat the Chinese. Out of more than 6,000 points, he took second by only 3 points. Keep in mind that Rob is only 14 years old. Congratulations also to Ritchie Friedhelm from Germany, who placed 3rd.

Sunday, finals day. The weather started off clear, which usually meant a good early morning with wind to come up early. After only 1/2 of round 1 complete, large wind gusts came up throughout the rest of day. It was pure luck of the draw what conditions you flew in. I was unlucky in that I flew all 3 rounds in extreme wind, gusts, and turbulence. Bill Werwage was able to get a good 1st round in, but had terrible wind for the second round. Todd Lee was hanging on to just complete good patterns. There was a lunch break in the middle of the second round, afterwards the wind got worse. Serge Delabarde, French, had some severe gusts of wind, and stopped flying in the middle of an official flight. The judges were not able to watch because they were trying to hang on to chairs and score sheets. Serge did a great job getting down with the plane in one piece. The officials ruled the wind out of limits for a world competition and granted Serge a re-fly, as well as some other flyers later on. However this had the effect of penalizing flyers that had successfully flown and completed flights in the same or worse conditions earlier in the day. Those are the breaks.

In the end, the Chinese won again and the best us Americans could do was Bill Werwage at 3rd. Bill was doing some of the best flying I've ever seen him do, and in the wind. To summarize, it was a great trip and great people. The contest was run in a most professional manner by the F2B event director Claus Maikis. However the weather did not make it a fun event, much more like work.

The closing ceremony was held in a large auditorium adjacent to the model field. The food was similar to the lunch program during the week. An excellent hot meal, meat potatoes, and a vegetable. I learned only later that the food was provided by the German army from a field kitchen outside in the back. What a great idea! A good party at the end with lots of good German beer and band. I got to meet new people and renew old friends. Next time will be in Muncie, Indiana for 2004, see you there.