They did it again! It's a hat trick for Team USA as they soundly claimed the Gold for the F3A Worlds 2015! Not only that, our Junior member won his very own individual Gold Medal! Congrats to all the team for the hard work and dedication it takes to do so well on the World scene.
Here's what Mark had to say in his final post . . . .
Mark:
Day 15! Final’s and after.
It’s Sunday evening so I apologize for the long delay in writing this report. This will be a long one though, and likely the last for this WC’s.
The finals of the 2015 F3A world championship were held on Saturday, and by now I’m sure that everyone knows the results, but just in case…
Individuals (Open):
Christophe Paysant-le Roux – France (8…count ‘em EIGHT time World Champ)
Tetsuo Onda - Japan
Stefan Kaiser – Lichtenstein
Andrew Jesky – USA
Jason Shulman – USA
Gernot Bruckman – Austria
Marco Mazzucchelli – Italy
Lassi Nurila – Finland
Koji Suzuki – Japan
Robin Trumpp – Germany
Jr. Competiters (18 and under):
Joseph Szczur (WOOHOO!!!!)
Jan Votava
Andre Bracht
Teams:
USA (can I get another WOOHOO!!!)
Japan
France
Switzerland (honorable mention and a hearty congrats and thank you for hosting us all!!!)
I won’t bore you with flight by flight details. They’re too hard to describe anyway. These are the ten best pilots in the world. Meaningful prose to share their performance and try to discern between them is nearly impossible.
So let me describe everything but their flights. The day was crappy. In the US, we likely would have called the contest before it began. Overcast and misty, threatening rain at any moment. With 40 flights to get in they started early at 7:15am.
Joseph Szczur flew the warm up flight for F-15 (round 1) and Brett Wickizer would fly demo’s of both Unknown sequences for rounds 2 and 4. Both did a fantastic job and it was great to see all 4 US pilots fly on Finals day even if not officially in the finals.
Rain. And more rain. This is something we in the US need to pay attention to. Virtually every flight save for the first few of the day (and all of Jason’s??) were flown in the rain. This was rain that ranged from a spitting drizzle to a full on drenching. We watched in admiration as every competitor came to the flight line fully prepared for it. Rain guards for the transmitters varied from simple clear plastic sheets to molded fiberglass and plastic cases. Jason was prepared with a homemade rain shield as well, but for some reason, the clouds dried up EVERY time he flew. Andrew was less fortunate, flying with rain every round and a pretty good drenching in round 3, without the use of anything to protect his transmitter.
No ESC failures, no radio failures, nada, zippo, zilch. All four rounds were completed. Several European’s told us that flying in rain is very common. A lesson we could stand to learn for our own Nationals.
TBL continued to play a significant role in the event, altering a substantial number of scores in more than a trivial way. In some regard this made the contest a bit more exciting since there was no way to know the final ranking until the TBL tabulation was done. Also, the event organizers did a nice job of suppressing all the scores from round 4 until the Awards ceremony, which made for some fun anticipation and suspense.
The awards were handled with the same efficiency and high standards that the rest of this event has been executed with. There was some delay between the final flight and the awards, but that time was filled with Jet demo’s and other great flying demo’s so that no one really could complain about the delay. The awards ceremony went without complication, and I’m sure there are a gazillion photos floating around FB and other social medium sites. I will post a few with this write up as well.
We then rushed to change and go to the awards banquet being held at a swanky hotel about 10min from the air field. A very nice dinner was had by all, along with a representation of the awards with additional trophies for the individual winners. Trophies were given out to ALL of the finalist, not just the top 3 podium positions (Bob Kane you’re ahead of your time) which we thought was a nice touch.
The most special presentation of the night went to Wolfgang Matt. After 50 years, 25 World Championships, countless podium finishes include 2 World Championship titles, Wolfgang is retiring from world competition at the age of 67. He received a LONG standing ovation. He will continue to compete locally and will continue to design new aircraft for F3A, but feels it’s time to step down from world competition.
The evening, and the entire event, concluded with some very long and drawn out goodbyes. For many, this is an extended family. For others like me, it’s becoming one quickly. New friends, old friends, some we may see again in 2 years, some we may never cross paths with again save for on social media, all sharing a common passion and for 2 weeks, and intense common experience. It’s really something quite special and something I feel very fortunate to be part of.
Before I wrap up I wanted to share some observations about our host country (and then tell you about our fantastic day of sightseeing!)
Now I for one am not an experienced traveler outside of the US. With that in mind, some of these comments and observations may be a bit naïve, so I’ll ask for your forgiveness now ☺
#1 Holy Carbohydrates Batman, these people like their bread!!! Bread, Bread and more Bread. IT’S AWESOME. Food coma inducing, but awesome. Every single meal either comes with bread, is based on bread, or simply IS bread. Not the crap we eat here in the US… but freshly baked, no preservatives, hearty bread. And croissants. LOTS of croissants.
#2 Yellow traffic lights to tell you when the light is about to turn… wait for it…GREEN!!! Yes, that’s right folks, you get an early warning to rev the engine. While the traffic light is red, the yellow light will come on to signal that it’s about to turn green. WE NEED THIS!! Write your congressmen. Trust me, you’ll love it.
#3 The entire country is sooooo flipp’n CLEAN. Eat off the pavement clean. Pristine clean. Buildings that are 600 years old? Clean. Streets? Clean. Porta-pottys?? Super clean.
#4 Wine. Everywhere. All the time. Need I say more?
#5 Roundabouts. They’re almost as prevalent as the wine. They take a little getting used to driving around, but I think I’m sold.
#6 Party of ten, “Separate checks Bitte?” Yeah… that’s not happening.
#7 VERY relaxed dining. The only way you’re getting the bill is if you ask for it. You can eat at 6pm and still be sitting at your table chatting at 11pm and no one will even hint that it’s time for you to go. It’s a very pleasant dining experience to not have the restaurant trying to rapidly “turn” the table.
#8 A culture of exercise. Walking, Cycling, Rollerblading, Running, Hiking, Skateboarding, you name it, people are outside doing it. A lot.
#9 Last but not least… Smoking hot cars. I mentioned it before but it continued to be astonishing to see so many exotic sports cars on the road.
Today we got to experience ALL of those things again. Michael Bucher, a local modeler who played a HUGE role in helping me coordinate everything for the team over here, also arranged to take us for a tour through the Alps. When the alarm went off at 5:30am AGAIN I could only think, dear lord, what have I gotten these guys into. He met us at the hotel at 7:30am, and told us we’d likely be back around 10pm. Yikes.
I think I can speak for the entire group when I sum up our day in one word.
WOW.
We must have told each other 1000 times throughout the day “This was SO worth the effort”. Picture won’t do it justice and I’m afraid words won’t either. I’ll try to include both. It was another rainy fog filled day as you’ll see from some of the photos, but Michael made the entire day count. We drove from site to site, town to town, simply in awe of the surrounding countryside. The drive itself was a blast, climbing into the mountains via long series of switchback turns snaking up the mountainside.
We hiked through a river gorge, ate lunch at the top of a massive dam, wandered small rural villages set in the valleys, and climbed INTO… yes INTO an ancient glacier. Yeah, that happened. (Side note… we finally found some ice!!) This wasn’t a professional tour that cost money. This was Michael taking a full day of his weekend (with significant prior planning I suspect) simply to show us his home country.
We’re all a bit exhausted, but it was an incredibly way to see some of the country and we owe a huge thank you to Michael.
I need to say more about that. Michael in particular not only took us sight seeing, he secured us our practice facility, he provided a generator for the team to use to recharge at the field. When it broke, he arrived with another one within an HOUR. He sent me maps, helped with translations, brought us chocolate (sorry, we’re not sharing), and was our safety net should we have any problems while we were here. All for nothing more than a thank you.
This was our experience with EVERYONE here. Roland (another local club member) was quick to step in during the week when Michael was unavailable. Helping us find parts, showing us around, and generally just being available. Bernhard Schaden and Peter Germann (event director and CD respectively)… two horribly busy men trying to run the whole show, yet both were very generous of their time whenever we needed anything. Peter delivering our fuel directly to our hotel when they refused to accept shipment… Bernhard making multiple calls on my behalf (translating) to assist with Diesel Don’s faux pas with the rental vans.
Bottom line… our experience with the people here has been fabulous. I only hope I/we have the opportunity to return the favor sometime.
That wraps up the 2015 World Championships. We have another small trip into Lucern planned for tomorrow to do some sight seeing and shopping (again courtesy of Michael) and then we’ll be packing planes and traveling home.
Thanks to everyone everywhere that supported us in this adventure. A lot of effort went in, and I think a great outcome was achieved. -Mark
Click the button below to see a few photos from the team's trip to the Alps.