F3J Team UK 2014

The Martin Cup finished Sunday . Some more practice time in the afternoon and then. Model processing for the worlds. Opening ceremony in the evening.

Today is day 2 of the Martin Cup. It's the pre-world championship event. yesterday gave us some challenging conditions with some breaks for heavy rain.

Team uk

a long time since we posted , but in the run up to the WC, here's a note from Colin.

Martin, Slovakia F3J World Championship Thoughts – 26 June 2014

Well with little over 2 weeks to go before we all leave for Martin, Team UK preparations are well underway on all fronts. Peter and Chas are driving out which has helped the team a lot as they have kindly offered to take some of the flying gear and Ian’s models with them. The rest of the team are flying out from Gatwick to Krakow, Poland, hiring estate cars and driving down into Slovakia. For those pilots that have never attended either EC or WC’s its difficult to imagine the vast array of equipment and planes that need to be taken.

We are scheduled to arrive at Martin the day before the Martin Cup starts and all the team and most of the helpers are booked in to fly in this pre WC comp. Flying in the pre championship comp is something which experience at previous EC & WC Championships has shown to be very important. It gives the pilots a chance to settle the nerves, get a good feel of the location, fully test all the towing equipment, iron out any operating field/management issues and experience the weather cycles that are likely to be experienced in the championships themselves. Rather than risking damaging their best models, normally most pilots will enter models in the pre comp that they think are unlikely to be any of the three allowed official models for the WC’s. Model damage during pre WC comps and the championships themselves can very often be the norm unfortunately. Witness the EC’s at Turkey last year where over 30 plus very expensive models were completely destroyed!

Choosing which 3 models to enter for the WC’s is something that I personally wont do until the last minute as I want to see the detailed weather forecasts for the week of the championships before making that decision. You will however normally need at least one of the models to be a superlight for those early morning/early evening slots, one for general/windy weather that can be flown in any conditions (Dual Purpose) and a 3rd model that is a good all-rounder.

The UK team has yet again been unlucky with its UK pre WC’s practice sessions with rubbish weather being the norm on the day. But we are hoping that we will be getting together the day before Interglide (Fri 27th June) for a solid days practicing with towers as opposed to winching. Model set-up for winch versus hand towing is different so again its something that is important to do. The weather has been kinder to us over the past few weeks and the pilots have been out at their local fields practicing hard to get themselves ready for what is going to be the enormous challenge in front of them. Week long Championships like this can and usually are stressful, as any pilot who has attended will no doubt confirm!

I would just like to take this opportunity on behalf of all the team to thank the BMFA and BARCS for the financial support they have again kindly provided to help towards the not insubstantial costs of attending the WC’s. I know that all the UK pilots along with the rest of the team will be trying their hardest to achieve good team and individual placings. To say its going to be “Challenging” is a massive understatement but rest assured the whole team will be giving it our all.

It’s planned that there will be regular championship updates posted on the UK Team page during the championships for anyone who is interested.

Colin Paddon – UK Team Pilot

some more pictures from the practice day at Ashurst a couple of weeks ago. thanks to Jack Pritty for letting us use these ones.

F3J Team UK!!
Left to Right, Peter, Kevin (at the front), Colin, Ian. Thanks to Bernie for the use of the field at Ashurst for a good practice day.
We are planning more practice days, probably on the days before Radioglide and Interglide.

Some photos from Colin of his new model- please see writeup aswell.

Putting together a Hybrid F3J Competition Model – Colin Paddon

Over the past few years I have campaigned a Cluster for a lot of my F3J competition flying. During this time it has notched up many high level competition wins for myself and others in the UK. Its always been my “Go To” plane when the wind gets up, ie most of the time here in the UK. However it is an excellent all rounder that really deserves more recognition on the world F3J stage than it gets. I have always thought, along with others, that the moment arm on the standard Cluster fuselage was a tad short and that the rudder was a little small in area. The short moment arm has since been addressed by Heino, producer of the Cluster who has introduced a longer moment arm fuselage but only so far in V Tail form, which for me, wasn’t the way I wanted to go. We are all hoping that Heino will be producing a 3.8m Cluster wing sometime in the near future too.

Whilst attending the European Championships in Turkey last year, a potential solution to both my own and Graham Wicks thoughts appeared in the form of a new beautifully made Spread Tow (ST) cross tail fuselage that was being produced by renowned TRNC flyer, Eser Kismer. The fuselage Eser produces is in fact an alternative for Nan’s own Xplorer fuselages which, of course, have a different wing section and mounting screw placement to the Cluster wing so some work to retrofit it would be necessary. Having seen the fuselage all the UK team immediately placed an order for one and then awaited delivery. After a short delay due to sorting out some logistical issues, the fuselages duly turned up in the UK courtesy of TNT. Courier costs spread between the three of us ended up being pretty reasonable all things considered.

Eser’s ST fuselages are light, small in cross section, extremely strong and look great! The fuselage came supplied with a nice carbon ballast tube which can accommodate up to approximately 700g of lead ballast if required. They come with a very novel servo tray/carrier which is completely pre-assembled in high quality laser cut ply and is designed to be held in place by a large single rear positioned bolt. I modified the servo carrier slightly to provide an additional fixing at the front for extra security. See pics.

We also bought matching spread tow tailplanes with the fuselages but it was obvious that it was designed/sized for 3.8/4m wings and therefore looked “wrong” with the smaller Cluster wing. Fortunately the existing Cluster tailplane was a good fit without modification to the new fuselage so it was decided to use this which looked absolutely “Right”. The pictures tell the whole story of how it was modified and ended up looking so nuff said.

The new Cluster wing being mated to the fuselage was Heino’s extra strong lay-up meaning that it can take anything you throw at it. Total AUW ended up at 1840g which meant that it had the potential to not only be a great windy weather model with ballasting but that it was light enough to be a good all rounder too. With some further modifications I have in mind I hope to get this AUW down to below 1800g .

A week or so later it was ready to fly. Of course, on the day, it was blowing a gale but as they were the very conditions the wing had shown itself to excel in, we went ahead. A full-on F3J Ober winch was duly set-up on the field and we were ready to go and go we did!

What can I say other than that the performance has exceeded all expectations. The on board testing vario confirmed that the average launch height ranged from 205 -215 mtrs without any “dialing in” or ballast being used. Pe*******on has improved with there being less fuselage cross sectional drag too. Ease of circling/thermal turning has without doubt also improved making it extremely easy to fly at distance. Stability/behaviour on tow is exemplary with its landing tracking/behaviour is first class.

The strength of the fuselage was fully tested out early on when for the first time in over 15 years I managed to get the towline hooked around the tailplane after a somewhat over exuberant launch dip/zoom. The plane ended up inverted despite my best efforts to untangle it whilst providing a great impression of a spinning falling leaf until it hit the ground flat pancake style from some height. Only damage was a small crack at the base of the fin where it meets the top of the fuselage which was easily fixed along with a minor cut line into one half of the tailplane’s leading edge, again easily fixed. Very annoying as it always seems to happen to brand new planes rather than old one’s. Why is that!

Although I may be a little biased being a designer myself, I think this has to be one of the prettiest looking models I have ever owned. Others can make up their own minds on this of course from the pictures.

In the coming weeks I will be fine tuning the models set-up to optimise performance.

Colin Paddon

26 March 2014

thanks for the support in terms of organisation and sponsorship to the BMFA and BARCs. - The BMFA is the National Governing Body for the sport of model flying. Its aims are to promote, protect, organise and encourage model flying within the UK. Typically there are around 780 affiliated clubs and a combined membership of over 36,000 members, all of whom have entered a partnership to ensure that model fliers have a voice and their rights are recognised by the authorities.
BARCS (British Association of radio Control Soarers) is the specialist body that BMFA have allocated to manage the day to day running of local silent flight issues/contests etc.
Please take a look at their websites for more info.
http://www.bmfa.org/
http://www.barcs.co.uk/

Neil Jones is going to the Worlds in Slovakia as an official helper (tow person)

Comments from Neil - This is the first time I will have been to a World or European Championship and not competed as a pilot. Therefore I intend to enjoy every minute of it and socialise with the many friends I have made around the world through this wonderful sport of RC Soaring without the added pressure of being a pilot.

I gladly accepted the request to support team GBR in Slovakia as I could not wish to assist a finer bunch of people and I look forward to doing the very best I can for them in Martin 2014.

Chris Glover is going to the Worlds in Slovakia as an official helper (tow person)
Comments from Chris - I am looking forward immensely to seeing everyone in Slovakia in the summer, meeting some new people and enjoying the company of everyone out there.