FAI F3C Model Helicopter

World Championship 2005

Zamora, Spain

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The 11th FAI F3C Model Helicopter World Championship is held in Zamora, Spain from 4th-14th August, 2005. The contest site is set in the flying site of Club Aeromodelismo Zamora. There are teams from over 30 countries competing for the most prestigious title for R/C Helicopter.

I am attending this World Championship as a member of support team of Hirobo World Championship Team. I was traveling with my good friend James Yuen, who is one of the competitors of Hong Kong Team. I know James about a decade ago at the flying field, where we both are having good time and did not have any idea of going to any World Champ. Gradually my friendship with James and another flying buddy Mickey has become much more than flying buddies, and after going to Poland in 1999 I told them that one day if three of us could be attending a World Champ it would be like a dream come true. Now this dream of me and James becomes true, but too bad Mickey could not be with us in this trip, but both me and James are anxious to go to Spain to materialize this dream. 

On 3rd August, 2005, after staying up over 24 hours of flights and waiting for flights, here I am at the Madrid International Airport in Spain. Hirobo team members Mr. Takahiro Kobayashi (This is the guy to talk to for Hirobo's overseas business) and Mr. Takakazu Uebori (Responsible for R&D of most Hirobo products) had arrived one day earlier than me, and they came with Mr. Benardo of AER (Hirobo agent in Spain) to guide me for a long drive (about 150 miles) to Zamora. It took us about two hour's driving from the airport to the airfield. The airfield is located on top of a small mountain besides a constructing highway. From the main road the car have to go through a railway cross and a sandy road in construction to reach there. I was pleased that Mr. Benardo was our guide, or else it might take forever for us to reach the site!

As I arrived, I saw a paved air strip about 1,000 ft on top of a bare and sandy mountain. There is a small cottage at the back of the strip as the club house, and a parking area that I think could take at most only 100 cars. At the field I realized that there was NO offsite official practice fields provided for contestants to practice in this event, everybody has to practice either on the flight line, or find their own site. At the field I saw the Belgium, Denmark, Hong Kong, Sweden, Netherlands and UK team members practicing. While the field seems small to take up these teams flying together, still these gentlemen take turns to fly in an orderly fashion.

Although the field left much to be desired, the helpful people who are organizing the event are very friendly and helpful. Especially Mr. Horace Hagen of FAI-CIAM, he is seen constantly hopping around the site making himself available for questions and assistance.

After seeing the airfield, immediately we went to the hotel to check in. Needless to say after staying up for over 29 hours immediately I collapsed on the bed.

The contest site	The club house

4th August, 2005

Today many pilots begin practicing at the official field. This makes traffic at the field quite hectic. While most observe an order, some selfish pilots had oral fights with others for the use of practice grounds. In one occasion when one of the top contending pilot was flying aerobatics another pilot neglect the order, took his helicopter up to the air and both nearly crash midair. The "top" pilot immediately made a low pass on top of the other pilot at fault as protest. There has been several incidence of near midair incidence, and all of them at the fault of one country's team members who all seems to neglect everyone and acts foolishly. Hirobo had their own private field for practice, which is a big piece of grassland with abundant space for even two helicopters to fly aerobatics safely in the sky. Most top Hirobo pilots are practicing there, including Hashimoto, and Hirobo invite pilots who flies Hirobo helicopters and participate in this event to practice in this field. Present in the field is the Hirobo support team who are always available to solve Hirobo pilots' technical problems of their machines. The parts that the Hirobo Support Team have brought including several full kits of Hirobo Eagle 3, Freya RF, and lots of parts that requires three cars to carry around!

Although I could not show pictures, I could say a little bit about Hashimoto's machine here. This time Hashimoto is using Hirobo Eagle 3 WC with Black Shark 3 fuselage. His Hirobo Eagle 3 had only little modifications from "run of the mill" Eagle 3, but he is using belt driven tail instead of pipe drive.

Here in Zamora day light starts from about 5am all the way till 10pm, so there are abundant time everyday for practice. However, the heat (about 34C) and the dry air takes toll to pilot's physical conditions.

Hirobo private practice site	Hirobo private practice site pit area
Hashimoto practicing hovering	Hashimoto Hirobo Eagle 3

5th August, 2005

Originally this day is another free day for practice. However, the organizer all of a sudden decided to change the schedule, and make this day for processing of machines. According to original schedule, official practice for each team and machine processing should be on 6th August. In additional, the official field is closed today so pilots have to find their own place for practice since the organizer did not provide any practice field other than the main flight line.

At the Hirobo practice field it was hot and dry. The Italians are going nude due to the heat, while working out their tan!

Processing of machines	Stefano Lucchi of Italy
Favio and Massimo Livi of Italy	Hashimoto pit area

6th August, 2005 - Official practice and opening ceremony

Each team member would be allotted 30 minutes practice time on the official field.  At the official practice, each machine had to be checked for noise emission level, and if its over 92db then the machine would be disqualified for use.

There are two flight lines being used, and each of them being set at either ends of the airstrip. The main objective of this was to try to ease the judges' workload when doing their job for preliminaries.  Due to this, all pilots were being divided into two groups, 1 & 2, and each group of pilots would alternate between the two flight lines and judges by day.  Both flight lines were being setup back to back, and that means wind direction for one line would mean the complete opposite for the other line.

The Philippines team arrived at the field just 2 hours before the opening ceremony.

Official practice	Sound emission check
Flight line 1	Flight line 2

After the official practice for all team ended, there was an opening ceremony being held.  Each team assemble at the airstrip, and a simple ceremony was held to officially introduce each team and start the competition. After the ceremony a team of paragliders flew over the field as demonstration. Unlike all other previous Worlds there was NOT any opening party, but a lot of pilots waited at the field after the paragliders were long gone because they were waiting for announcement of where the opening party would be, and were quite disappointed to know that there was none this year.

Teams waiting for opening ceremony	Teams entering
Teams with their national flag assembled	Paragliders demonstration

According to the rules, the top 20% of the participants in the competition would enter final round.  For this year, there is a total of 76 participants, so 15 competitors would enter the final.

7th August, 2005 - Day 1 Schedule A

One of the interest of this Worlds was to see whether Hashimoto could win once again. At flight line 1 Hashimoto's flight was not perfect. His raw score was just 0.5 behind that of Curtis Youngblood who had a good flight at very calm wind condition. Wayne Mann top Curtis Youngblood with a flight at no wind condition. The best flyer at this flight line today was JR's young pilot Hiroki Itou from Japan who had a near to perfect flight. Itou is only 16 years old at this Worlds and this was his first time in the Worlds, so when he flew there were lots of spectators, and after Itou finished his flight there were lots of applauses.

The pilots at flight line 2 were not so lucky. Due to the sun flight line 2 had to begin and end 4 hours earlier than flight line 1, and on the morning winds was quite strong. At this flight line the current European Champion Ruediger Feil of Germany had to fight strong wind with his Hirobo Eagle 3 Black Shark, and he was topped by JR's Shinya Kunii of Japan who fly at a later, less windy condition. The best flyer at this flight line today was JR's Minoru Kobayashi from Japan who did a very good flight at a gusty wind condition.

Normalized scores would not be out until tomorrow when the two groups switch flight lines tomorrow.  The normalized score calculation for each round would be calculated when each group go to the other flight line to complete the whole lineup.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

Curtis flying in line 1	Hashimoto's Black Shark entering autorotation

8th August, 2005 - Day 2 Schedule A

At flight line 1 the whole day was mostly wind blowing from the back, and more later the day the stronger it becomes. Minoru Kobayashi flew at an earlier time with calm winds and had a good flight with few errors. Later German Ruediger Feil topped Kobayashi with a near to perfect flight. The man of the day was JR's Shinya Kunii of Japan who flew at flight line 1. Kunii originally flew at late afternoon, when very strong wind blows the direction to his back. F3C pilots knows backside winds were nasty to handle, so Kunii started with this inherently defective condition. When he was doing his second hovering maneuver, wind was so strong that it blew out two of the big umbrellas that were used to shelter the judges, one of them hit the caller, and another one went to the square, where Kunii's helicopter was hovering. If not for Kunii's instinctively move the helicopter to the side that umbrella would have hit his helicopter dead on. Flight stopped immediately and Kunii was re-arranged to flew at the very last. When Kunii flew at the second flight, wind was even more stronger than his first flight, and still at the same direction to his back. Kunii did the hovering with a few errors. However, he flight really shines when he progress to aerobatics, where at such harsh condition Kunii seems without being bothered by this wind and did a textbook flight with perfect execution of all maneuvers. His aerobatics were so good its even hard to duplicate at calm wind condition. When he finally landed spectators responded with rounds of applauses, cheers and congratulations. To me that was the best flight that I've seen so far in my life at such harsh condition! Even though as good as Kunii could be, he could not top the score of Ruediger Feil on this flight line today.

The pilots at flight line 2 were a bit luckier than flight line 1 as wind was strong on the morning, but gradually going calm towards the afternoon. Hashimoto had to fight the wind with his Black Shark 3 body, which was not easy.  Later on Itou flew a perfect hovering with minor errors on the aerobatics to top Hashimoto. Then, Scott Gray of Canada flew a perfect flight which earns him the top score of the flight line today, with Curtis Youngblood flew at a later time of Scott and got raw score of only 1 point behind Scott.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

Ruediger Feil	Ruediger Feil's nicely painted Black Sharks
Shinya Kunii waiting for his turn	Kunii on hovering at gusty wind

9th August, 2005 - Day 3 Schedule A

All through the whole day winds were gusty at the field, and specially at this Worlds due to the layout of the flight lines its either heavy face wind on flight line 1, or heavy backside wind on flight line 2. The later the day the worst the wind were, and at one time the officials have to take out the wind checker to check wind speed to determine whether flight should be stopped. Clearly this heavy wind takes toll to many pilots, and those who happen to fly at calmer wind got much better score than the others who have to fly at gusty times.

At flight line 1 the best flyer at this flight line today was JR's young pilot Hiroki Itou from Japan who had a near to perfect flight at a calm wind condition, and that brought him 304.50 raw score, which was very high by F3C standards. Scott Gray was not as lucky and had to fly at gusty wind that lay him behind that of Itou. Wayne Mann, although flew at earlier time, did a few mistakes and make him trail behind Scott. Curtis Youngblood was behind Wayne by a raw score of only 0.5.

The pilots at flight line 2 were fighting the backside wind. As any F3C pilot can tell, the worst wind they want to see is back side wind, and we are talking about gusty backside wind at 6 meters/second speed. The best flyer at this flight line today was once again JR's Minoru Kobayashi from Japan who did a very good flight had to fight once again at a gusty wind condition. Kobayashi seems not having much luck this Worlds as the gust seems always follows him. Ruediger Feil fall behind Kobayashi only by 0.5.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

10th August, 2005 - Day 4 Rain out

Due to rain today's flights were cancelled. I crashed on bed the whole day to make up sleep....

11th August, 2005 - Day 5 Schedule A

All through the whole day winds were gusty at the flight lines, and its the worst wind condition of this Worlds up till today. The later the day the worst the wind were, and once again umbrellas of judges were blown away during flights and disturbed flight order.

At flight line 1 the man of the day was Ruediger Feil. When Ruediger flew, I was standing about 50 meters behind him, and the wind was so bad that I nearly could not stand still. At this condition, Ruediger did hovering with a few errors, but his overall hovering maneuvers were quite hard to duplicate even at no wind condition. Ruediger did the double roll and double loop as perfect as he would did at calm wind condition, and that attracted a lot of applause.

At flight line 2 the word to describe was "dramatic". Curtis Youngblood flew at an earlier time. Although he flew in a calm condition, he made one mistake in hovering (Nose in tail in horizontal eight, which Curtis did Tail in nose in instead) and got zero for that maneuver. Curtis was furious by his mistake and was seen kicking the tires of his rental car. Then again, Curtis is human, and human makes error, but in the hands of Curtis at a major event like the Worlds this is rare. Hashimoto flew at a later time and took the top score of this flight line. Itou, the whiz kid of JR, show his weakness at this flight today. When he flew his aerobatics he chose to do maneuvers opposite of wind direction, and the only way this would happen is that he had a preference side of maneuver. His decision penalized his flight very much as his helicopter were stalled by the wind several times, so with his scores.

After four rounds of Schedule A, Itou was top which earns him a normalized score of 1,000, with Scott Gray and Hashimoto not far behind. Tomorrow will be two rounds of Schedule B, which should be interesting to see.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

Hashimoto flying at flight line 2	Hashimoto after flying at flight line 2
Worst wind condition at flight 2	Gusty wind
Ruediger Feil start at gusty wind	Hirobo group photo

12th August, 2005 - Day 6 Two rounds Schedule B

Today was what most were waiting for, the first two rounds of final. There were 16 pilots that could go into the finals. In the preliminaries, Itou scored the top 1,000, with Scott Gray, Hashimoto, Ruediger Feil and Curtis Youngblood following closely, the competition amongst the top five position would be tight.   Today's flying would be judged by a panel of 10 judges instead of the usual 5.  Raw scores would be calculated by dropping the highest and lowest 2 scores of the 10 judges, and add them up.

The first round was once again dramatic. Itou flew the first, and did a magnificent flight to let him score top for the round. Hashimoto had a few mistakes on his flight. Ruediger Feil, after starting his helicopter at the start box, all of a sudden one of the judges had to "take a leak" so Ruediger had to start again, which maybe distract his concentration a little bit and affects his performance. Wayne Mann was the unlucky one as when he started to take off from the start box the tail blades of his Caliber caught the chaffing carpet of the start box and grounded his primary machine, and with his backup machine while doing the roll reversal the tail of the Caliber went loose and he had to abort his flight. Curtis Youngblood also did a few mistakes. After this flight, its Itou who got the 1,000 point and most already had the impression that Itou was going to win this Worlds.

Wind becomes more gusty on the second round. Kobayashi did a magnificent hovering, but just too much mistakes in his aerobatics set him back. Curtis did a good flight with a few error. Hashimoto's flight was near to perfect, but during autorotation wind changed and his Black Shark autorotate on tail wind, with the skids landed touching the circle, and at that moment most think there goes his claim of the title. Itou was next. His hovering maneuvers are the usual, exceptionally smooth and stable which make him in a league above most other pilots. With a superb flight once again Itou scored another 1,000, and that made him the World Champion for this event.

Tomorrow will be the third round of the Worlds. With Itou already won the title its chase for the second and third place.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

Schedule B flight line	Emergency repair of Wayne Mann's Caliber
Curtis Youngblood at pre-flight meditation	Curtis at work
Ruediger Feil grimace at gusty wind	Ruediger Feil
Minoru Kobayashi with the "killer look"	Minoru Kobayashi
Hashimoto relaxing at start box	Kogo remind Hashimoto of wind change
Hashimoto's Black Shark fighting the wind	Hashimoto with caller Kogo
Itou at start box with Hashimoto watching behind	Itou watching Hashimoto's flight
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Hiroki Itou the new F3C World Champion	¡@

13th August, 2005 - Day 7 Final round Schedule B and closing ceremony

Today was what most were waiting for, the final round of final.  After yesterday's rounds, already Hiroki Itou got perfect rounds that enabled him to claim the World Championship title. Its now race between Scott Gray, Kobayashi, Hashimoto and Curtis for the second and third place. Today's flying would also be judged by a panel of 10 judges like yesterday.  The run down of today's schedule would be to have the final round, then awards presentation, then banquet at the night.  

Flying started around 1:00pm, with mild winds blowing towards the face of the pilot. With this weather, competition would be very tight. Kobayashi was the first amongst the four contenders after Itou to go to the flight line.  Kobayashi did a marvelous round and put him on the top after his flight.  Hashimoto's flight was to follow Kobayashi, and although he did better than Kobayashi the flight was not excellent enough for him to propel up his position. Curtis was the next to go after Hashimoto, and his flight was worst than Hashimoto. Scott Gray was next and he did a marvelous flight that sure placed him second to Itou. Later Itou did another near to perfect flight scored him 1,000.

The final results were as follows:

I hoped you like my report for World Championship this time.  Congratulations to Hiroki Itou, and hope to see you again in the next World Championship in Poland at 2007.

For latest updates of the scores please visit the event's official website at http://wc2005-f3c.helcom.es/

Ruediger Feil at pre-flight meditation	Ruediger Feil
The Livi brothers	Hashimoto out of the start box
Manabu Hashimoto & Kogo	Minoru Kobayashi
Hashimoto interviewed by television	Scott Gray
Itou after another perfect flight	Itou's machine
Itou's machine with prototype OS engine	Itou's machine
Curtis discussing his 3D demo flight maneuvers	Curtis' 3D demo flight
Curtis' 3D demo flight	Japanese team the new F3C World Team Champion
Hiroki Itou the new F3C World Champion	Closing banquet

Finally, everything start from a dream.....

I set aside this paragraph to congratulate my buddy James Yuen who achieved an overall position of 34 amongst a total of 76 pilots. James made history as the best result Hong Kong pilot have achieved attending the F3C World Champ. It has never been an easy feat, from the days that we fly in a small field in the country side of Hong Kong, to now standing at the World Championship flight line. All though these few years the road to Worlds have not been easy for James and myself, and we've went through a lot of hardships and discouragements, to achieve such results. We both know that if Mickey could make this trip with us together we would be more joyful.

Jason & James w. Hashimoto, Kogo and Kurokawa	Jason & James
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James Yuen the undisputed Hong Kong No.1!	¡@