Team South Africa
Craig Goodrum
Michelle Goodrum
Dion Liebenberg

The F3B World Championships 2005

The 2005 journey to the worlds was an interesting one, first Anton couldn’t come because of a passport issuing problem, apparently they want him to stay in the country (SA) or on the other hand maybe Finland wanted to keep the male to female ratio at 1:10. Later we discovered that our team manager, Derek couldn’t make it due to a deep veined thrombosis, luckily we had been set to go with two managers Wolfgang for admin and Derek for on the field so we shuffled the team around with Dion and I becoming acting field managers, Wolfgang remaining our admin manager and of course “team mommy” (sorting us all out in a good Austrian manner). James Shaw replaced Anton in the helper numbers while Craig Baker took over the role of winch master. Our Cape Town import, Ian Lessem, joined on the helper team but had not been able to make any practices due to geographic location so he was what Anton would call a “dog” (we trained him to fetch). As the trip unfolded these roles changed and things became a little more streamlined with Ian being stationed at base A and looking after the winches.

The days in Finland were very long, from two perspectives, firstly it only gets dark for about 2 to 3 hours of the day and second, we seemed to fill every gap playing with winches, line, models or babies. Our typical day was get up at 5:30, breakfast, sort out Mathew (for Michelle), pack gear, get to field, lay out winches and test models, fly, help, help, fly, help……till 8:30pm then pack up, food and try to get to bed by 23:30. A LOOONNNNGGG day and we enjoyed almost every minute. Conditions were continually changing, very difficult to read with both winch directions active for the whole contest except Friday afternoon

The competition didn’t go exactly as planned, we have what I would call a good habit of having high expectations when we go to the competition and sadly we were unable to bring this through to fruition. There were however many promising aspects and the areas we need to work on are clear.

Round 1
The start was late as there was an opening ceremony, all part of the program.
Wind - Consistent breeze, starting in one direction and swinging to the other by the end of the day. Lots of cross wind launches. This incorporated flying low over the trees by the hangars and flying around to 90º. When I say cross wind I mean it was a marginal decision as to which way you would rather launch, and preferred direction due to wind was often the worst side as the swing of wind is due to a thermal on the downwind side. I couldn’t really complain about my results but I should have gone faster. Michelle was not happy with distance but this is something we carried through from practice and results back home – we were hoping things would change but distance is the most stressful and requires consistent practice and lots of teamwork. Hopefully we can get some more practice in with all of you back home in the future. Remember, people, there is an open invitation to take part in distance and speed practice when the team practices (we need more people to fly against and helpers) and we just slot in available pilots when it suits you. Dion was quite surprised by the stress level in F3B compared with his previous F3J experience, he wanted to go faster, longer and land better. I was also feeling the pressure – something that only happened before at my first Worlds – before the first speed flight I could hardly breath, this subsided by round 3.

A lot comes down to launch height, as usual! We felt quite confident that we had closed the launch gap but alas it is still there. In Distance it costs us between 2 and 3 laps, depending on the air and speed is probably a loss of 1 to 3 seconds.

Round 2
We had light and rainy conditions on Day 2
Most of round 2 took place on day 2, if I remember correctly. Day 2 was the worst thing I could have hoped for. I will explain. I chose my model based on our previous experience in Finland with F3J. There had been a breeze on all days and you could work the model on the launch. The Trinity launches well but not as well as other models like the Estrella in flat calm conditions, and day 2 was flat, calm, yuck stuff. If there was a breeze it was very light and cross (90º), just enough to make you have to pick the wrong launching direction. Craig Baker took ill on the second day and we were a bit worried about him, thoughts are sleep depravation and stress but we were not sure, so concern was high. We had to get him off the field as his behaviour became disjointed and I felt that there could be a winch accident. Ian was given Winch manager duty and took over lights in distance, he really did this well and even started to call to us what speed the other pilots were doing and if he thought we should speed up. The scoreboard is great and gives pilots remaining time on course, so it is possible to compare your current position with theirs, if the person looking at the board is wide awake.

Round 3
Still day 2 and ARRRRHHH! “I hate this soggy, still air.”

The bosses in serious discussion “What can we do with them?”

Round 4
Round 4 and things went a bit better. Michelle was still having a hard time in distance but it wasn’t because of her flying it was just damn bad luck. We spotted good air and went for it and were far away when the late launchers (sheep) hit huge stuff right on the field. So she lost out in having to fly back onto the field with diagonal, long legs (sounds sexy) and not being able to get too low over the trees. Damn! It was such a good decision! It really is tough sometimes. Dion had to change models due to a loose elevator linkage and the new model didn’t launch correctly – so the launching problem actually got worse, therefore his speed times became worse. Wolfgang took Craig B to the doctor who gave him some sleeping pills with the feeling that some sleep would get him back in gear. The day was like watching distance slaughter, you were either beaten 6 love or you celebrated. Again launch height was vital and air even more important.

On one of Dion’s flights we were going for a relaunch and I was catching the model, only Dion pulled flaps and the model bounced up and over my head. I was concerned about what safety areas it might hit so I jumped to try and catch it but missed, knocked the wing and made the plane spin flat. It hit the taxi way on the nose then wig tip then tail. Hmmm. Sorry Dion. He was having a really bad time.

Lappeenranta is great but the Finnish weather sucks. One minute it is blowing really nicely and then it slows and swings to the other direction, this cycle can take just 15 minutes, not easy to develop a river of air map in these conditions. They had to make two groups in round 3 speed due to a rain shower that hit for about 30 minutes. I had brain fade in duration and tried to scratch 10 more seconds at the cost of missing my landing. This turned a small loss into a really big one.

They let us go home early on day 3 which gave me time to send some info and pictures home but what we thought would be a good nights sleep became a real problem. We all went to bed early, 10pm but the day suddenly became longer than usual. Michelle and I were woken up by James at around 11h30 because Craig B was not behaving. Wolfy had taken him to the doctor earlier and they prescribed some sleep and gave him sleeping tablets. Wolfy gave him one which he said he had taken and went to sleep. He didn’t however take the pill and although he did sleep he woke up at around 10pm just after we went to sleep and continued with the strange behaviour. We had to call the hospital and they sent around an ambulance and an escort. Wolfgang and James went with and eventually returned to the hotel at about 3am. Needless to say we were (so were the other teams) concerned about Craig. The doctors said that he should be fine and sedated him. We just had to wait for the whole thing to work itself out.

Round 5

James with his little friends

Cross wind of course and the day started with little wind, picked up to a medium breeze and then subsided to still air by 8:30pm. Difficult as always. James had to get some sleep on the field as he was exhausted after the evening’s excitement. He was also working harder on the field to make up for Craig being in the hospital and studying for his matric exams.

In terms of flying, I lost out 2 minutes in duration due to launching before the thermals woke up. Two rounds later there was lift and Mich and Dion scored well except that Dion came in hot, bounced and hit himself and Michelle came in hot and slid. Distance was awesome for me as I made a huge kill in flying the only air that was good while the others did the fly on the field thing, there was some excellent calling here by Michelle and Dion, a real team effort. Shortly after that flight the trend became fly out there over the trees, where the South Africans were. Dion only lost out due to launch height and we didn’t get Michelle into the right air fast enough so the thermal was really far away and over the trees and her legs became very diagonal to get back on the field she lost 3 laps at second place in her slot – you get punished hard. The team spirit of the contest came out if grand style during Michelle’s speed flight. On her first launch she lost sight of the model in the sun and once she recovered we called a relaunch due to poor launch height. On the way down she complained that the model wasn’t working properly and then it became apparent why, the model had been caught in the line during the zoom and the right stabiliser had been removed, only w couldn’t see it due to looking at the left side of the model and a little sun blindness. So I went to collect the model, thinking that all was lost and we wouldn’t be able to get a second try when I hear people shouting my name across the field, Along runs one of the Spanish team with Michelle’s stab in their hand and we shove it on, launch and make a run. What great spirit!

The Spanish team, Michelle’s saviours and recipients of a bottle of Amarula

Round 6
The trees were a killer for many teams as the day wore on. Eish! Too many Finnish Forest elephants out there.

My slot had the last of the decent air and I maxed easily with only a few landing early but Michelle and Dion weren’t so lucky. Michelle went with a small and bumpy thermal downwind and next time we looked she was miles away and not high. Her model’s penetration into the wind (which had picked up a bit) was poor and she didn’t get back to the field. You know the air is bad when Joe Wurts also doesn't make the field (Michelle's flight). The model was lost in the trees. Dion was flying in the very next slot so we took bearings and sent Rodney and Wolfgang on their way. We didn’t see them again until 9pm. Then Dion went up and the air was rough. The thermals were small and when you flew slightly outside of them your model was dumped hard. Bad score, damn!

Speed started and still no sign of Michelle’s model. She went out in the other van to look for it too. They buzzed badly for me on my first attempt and I was given a reflight, but conditions were getting progressively lighter and I need a breeze so by the end of the day I had an OK launch and an OK run but that means a bad score. Michelle had no model and missed her flight and Dion didn’t get a good launch (I felt we were over-ballasted for the launch ). As the speed task ended the Finnish organisers arrived with Michelle’s undamaged model in their hands. WOW! Even though we had a bad day there were lots of smiles, and when you get to spend so much time with your fellow F3B friends life is actually really great. Distance took place on the Friday after a rain delayed start and you could see a definite improvement in Michelle’s flying, while Dion was getting hit from all sides.

Round 7
In round 7 Michelle scored what she says is her first 1000 in a world’s distance. This was a good omen for the future. I hope she has many more. The good air was two flights before me in speed and after the third launch I had no choice but to enter the course or run out of time, “damn!” again - I really wanted to go fast once. At the end of the day though I believe a Swiss, Swede or German pilot would have score a 17.5s in the same air, so there is a lot of work to be done. I am able to get fast times in good air but performance is lacking in the bad air conditions.

Our biggest concern was that Craig Baker was still not well, he had to be re admitted to the hospital as he reacted badly to the medication they gave him and the dosage had to be lower. I managed to visit him a few times with Shirley, Wolfgang, Michelle and James and each time I saw him there was an improvement so things looked hopeful there but the decision had been made that Adrian Baker would fly out to fetch him on the Tuesday. We left Lappeenranta on Monday, it is not fun leaving your team mate behind, you kind of get to understand the US Marine credo of never leaving a man behind.

Our helpers were awesome. Craig put in huge effort before getting sick, while Ian and James picked up all the slack in his absence. Wolfgang has been a gem in administrating the team and the team works well on the line. There were very few problems on the winches and lines and the ones we have had were caused by other teams winding down etc.

The helpers - helping the tree stay upright

Some notable quotes from our team:

Michelle; “The lift is over the trees.” (there are about 20 000 000 in Lappeenranta)
Dion; “This is an emotional nightmare, one minute up, then down, it’s never ending”
James; “How do you know which side of the tree is the front?” – you will have to ask him to tell you the rest!
Ian; “I’m coming out.”
Rodney; “Why doesn’t he relaunch?”
Wolf; ”Rodney’s the pessimist, I’m the optimist”
Shirley; “Hello Mathew!”
Craig B; ”Someone moved the tree”
Mathew; ”BBBBBBBB”

For those that didn’t follow on the net Andreas successfully defended his title and really flew well. Daryl could have competition here. The German team won with 2nd ,3rd ,and 4th places. Amazing!

The results from the South African camp were:
Craig 26
Michelle 44
Dion 48
RSA 14

We could definitely have improved on this (with our existing level of flying). I think that if you look at the team results Michelle and I have been coming to these things for a longer time and the pressure on Dion was higher than for us. Experience in a long drawn out format is very different to how we fly F3B in SA. I think that the distance scores were a good indication of our level, except for Michelle who could have done better in 3 of her flights. We could definitely have done better in duration and speed. I would estimate that each of us could have gained 300 points in these (at least) if we flew to our normal standard. That being said, the conditions were difficult and the scores show a huge scattering, even the top ten guys had rounds that look really bad and of those top ten I saw quite a few get lucky, if they had been on the other side of the luck curve on just one flight they would have dropped 10 places easily.

Equipment
Winches. The "boubble decker" is interesting as the continual wind changes require that you have a huge variety of lines available, when you stack the winches you can fit 6 lines on one side. There is definite interest in a higher torque lower speed motor like the Lucas M2 (I think).

Double Decker

Sighting devices are essential and the various types can be seen. The one type used a ridgid I frame with vertical strings to create the plane of reference. Look at the two examples on the Murdoog’s web site (www.murdoog.co.za). The other photo is of a simple V formation using carbon rod, this gives good vertical reference and packs up “nice and tight, hey ”.

Some model info:
Everyone wants to know what the best model is. Simple, none of them! This is because F3B is a compromise and what is good for one type of condition or task is not good under another condition. An example of this is our very own SA Sangoma, in high altitude conditions this is still a very competitive model so for a highveld flyer it is not a bad choice at all.

In terms of what we saw, the Estrella has become the model of common use. Andreas Bohlen flew the Crossfire (which I liked and Michelle doesn’t and Joe Wurts couldn’t get launch height out of, but Andreas had no problem here).

There were a number of Europhia 2’s (Peter Eagle bought one so we can see what it looks like locally, the fuselage is really a race machine fuselage and the wings are some MH32 derivative, good launch capability and it carries more ballast than the Estrella.
Andreas Herrig flew his own design Schocker which looks really good.
Others were the cruciform Elitas, Carachos, Race Machines, Furios and others in small quantities. The ones that stand out are the Europhia 2, Crossfire and Estrella.

Performance
Is it all down to the launches? 
A lot is down to launch height as this gives you the possibility of going fast even when the air is bad.
We still need to clean up our act. The 15 second mark is easier to get up here than at the coast for me as I get used to the thin air. Launching conditions were tough but this did not effect the height of the good guys at all.

Are they using special bearings with minimal resistance carefully rebuilding their winches? 
Possibly, even a 1% improvement in performance on a winch is worth pursuing.

What line do they use?
Fischer, Speed line and Japanese Nagai line.

Winch spool diameter?
Depends on the winch motor, smaller for Bosch and bigger for Lucas.

Have they changed to improved winch motors preferably without resistors?
No.

Are your winches as good as the Swede's winches?
Our winches were good but I think there is room for improvement here.

Total Results (7 Rounds, 1 discard Round)

The European standard of flying has definitely increased over the past 5 years. They have world class competition on a regular basis and knowing where they stand simply requires that they look in their back yard. Isolation is bad, the States struggled to hang in there to take a 3rd spot and only really achieved it due to the Swiss flying a B team, even though their team was really strong.

What needs to be done back in South Africa if we want a competitive team? Simple – practice more, while getting more definite information on items like launch height and get input from people who should know better like John Monk and also input from people who have some ideas on improvement. The latter is one I really like as it is the throwing around of ideas and strategies that leads to improvement and often my own understanding of just how little I know. I can’t really speak for the other 2 but I know I wasn’t fast enough (I was flying 16 seconds at home, but at high altitude) and more sea level practice could have helped here, launch height would have helped even more. I had a great time in distance with 4 1000’s but the loss of 3 distance slots hurts too much, practice in distance flying and more machine like accuracy would have given me two more 1000’s, the other loss was unavoidable. Duration was probably our biggest disappointment – again I have to say that practice in still air to get the required 10 minutes every time is essential, we will have to organise some early mornings.

In closing I would like to thank all those who supported us and our sponsors, with an especially big thanks to Derek Wiggil without whose help Michelle and I would not have been able to attend. I hope that we can all get together and discuss the future of F3B in SA. Hopefully there are many people who are as keen as me.

I continue to be a Proudly South African F3B pilot, if all goes well and I can make the next team I am going to have one more try at this, I hope you have enjoyed the report, it is dedicated to my wonderful son and truly unique wife.

My inspiration

Craig