Japan won top honors both individually and as a team in the first-ever of these events hosted by Canada, July 14-19. Shakedown problems were solved by everyone pitching in, and the future looks bright for these colorful models.
By Horace G. Hagen
Photos by Horace Hagen, John Gorham, and Walt Schoonard
As seen in the November 1985 Model Aviation
To provide a complete account of this first World Championships, it is necessary to give some of the background leading up to the event.
The FAI RC Helicopter (F3C) Subcommittee and its chairman, Francis DeProft of Belgium, first proposed a World Championships in 1982. Before a WC could take place, however, it was necessary to prove to the FAI CIAM that this branch of aeromodeling had reached a state of maturity that justified the World Championships status. The requirements are quite demanding: a given class must prove that the regulations have not changed dramatically over several years, indicating stability. In addition, a minimum of three international contests, with at least five countries participating, must have taken place.
All of these requirements were met before the 1982 FAI CIAM meeting. Consequently, the chairman of the F3C Subcommittee requested World Championships status. It was granted at the 1983 meeting.
A notice was sent out by the subcommittee chairman to member nations of the FAI seeking offers to be host for the F3C World Championships. A tentative offer from Canada for a 1985 event was accepted at the 1983 FAI CIAM meeting.
At the same meeting, it was announced that the Netherlands would host the first F3C European Championships in Eibergen in 1984. This presented the opportunity to test the rules in the form they were expected to be used in Canada in the following year. I was invited by the Dutch aeroclub to serve as the head of the contest jury. I welcomed the opportunity to observe how the competition was run in Europe with the hope that the information would help me organize the U.S. team selection event. I took back a lot of observations, which I also passed on to Walter Knaus, chairman of the Canadian committee that was organizing the World Championships.
Quite a few proposed amendments to the FAI F3C rules originated from the Eibergen contest which were submitted to the FAI CIAM in December 1984. Since the 1984 FAI Sporting Code (rule book) had just been published and would be in effect for five years, none of the amendments accepted in l984 could take effect until 1989. However, the amendments that served to clarify the rules were allowed to become effective immediately, and it was recommended that the clarifications be used at the World Championships. The preliminary contest information was mailed from Canada in late 1984, and the event was given the official name of Chopper Champs '85.
I arrived in Canada on July 12 (the day before the competition officially opened) at the headquarters hotel, a women's dormitory named Delaware Hall. This was located on the beautiful campus of the University of Western Ontario within the City of London. Most of the contestants also had arrived a few days before the competition began. I enjoyed seeing my old friends from Eibergen and making new ones from other parts of the world.
Some of the fliers were practicing on a large lawn on the campus near the dorms. Others were practice flying at fields belonging to local RC clubs. Some were socializing with team members from other countries, and I am sure that some were catching up on lost sleep after an arduous journey.
The rooms in the dormitory were first rate. We were told that the entire facility was dedicated to the Chopper Champs, so it was safe to assume that anyone encountered in the halls was a fellow RC Helicopter enthusiast (or perhaps a relative). Later that evening everyone was invited to a wine and cheese party in one of the large meeting rooms. An announcement was made that model processing and the opening ceremony would take place at the flying field on Sunday morning. We also found out that the original flying site, adjacent to London Airport, would not be available—requiring the organizers to rent a portion of a sod farm at considerable expense.
Sunday morning dawned together with rain showers. When we arrived at the flying site, we found that the flying area was, indeed, on a grass field, but the processing tent and food concessions were on dirt (which had turned to mud with the rain). This did not make a favorable first impression on anyone, and there were other problems. Neither the tables for model processing nor the personnel to do the work had arrived. While waiting for these inadequacies to be solved, members of the FAI jury and judging team volunteered their services to get model processing underway.
The FAI jury presided over a briefing of the judges that took place on the field that afternoon. Although some members of the jury and the judging team did not think it was necessary to spend much time on the briefing, the session actually went for three hours—time well spent in the eyes of this jury member.
A meeting of team managers and contest officials was scheduled for Sunday evening after dinner. Although the jury members, judges, and team managers were present, the contest director was unable to attend. The FAI jury was required to fill the gap. Many questions were fielded, and some of the more important ones will be covered here.
Although the organizers had prepared wooden helipads (which are commonly used in Canada and the U.S.), the rest of the world marks off helipads with limestone, chalk, or plastic tape directly on the grass. By a show of hands (15 to 2), it was decided to mark off the helipads with plastic tape.
The Swiss team manager asked if there would be a practice day at the official flying site. The organizers answered that practice flying had already been taking place at various sites for three days and that the advertised schedule did not show a practice day at the field. The Swiss team manager then pointed out that the FAI Sporting Code specifically states that a practice day must be provided at World Championships. Again, by a show of hands, it was decided that Monday would be the practice day on the field. One manager asked about practice flying at other sites on Monday and was told that everyone must practice at the official site or run the risk of disqualification. Assigning Monday for practice meant that the schedule would have to be changed to make Friday (which had been shown as a rain date) a full contest day.
Everyone was reminded that all transmitters had to be placed into the impound area before practice flying could start. Each contestant was assigned a 10-minute practice period as this would, with 37 contestants, just about fit one day's time.
The meeting of team managers was supposed to last only an hour, with a briefing of pilots to follow. However, since the team managers’ meeting lasted over three hours, there wasn't time for the pilots’ meeting. Unfortunately, due to the intensity of the discussions, no one thought to tell the pilots waiting in front of the dorm that their briefing was cancelled. All 25 of us apologized to those who waited in vain.
Practice flying on Monday was a relatively smooth operation. I got the impression that most of the contestants spent as much time watching other pilots fly as they did in practicing with their own machines. In any case, the butterflies were gone. The wind direction kept changing during the practice session, often by as much as 90°. Luckily, the site was prepared with two landing areas, so almost any wind direction could be accommodated.
The competition officially began Tuesday morning. The FAI jury chose the course layout based on the wind direction at the time. That was fine for the first 10 contestants, but then the wind shifted almost 90°, and a lot of complaints were heard. It wasn't until one contestant flew the course very well in the crosswind that the complaints subsided.
A lot of little problems surfaced during the first round—not unexpected for a first World Championships. The jury took a lot of notes, and since two of us are on the FAI F3C Subcommittee, these notes will be converted into rules proposals or clarifications by the time of the next CIAM meeting.
The first round ended late Tuesday afternoon. At that point the positions were Shigetada Taya, Japan, 1st; Len Mount, Great Britain, 2nd; and Yoshiaki Nagatsuka, Japan, 3rd. Teams were ranked in the order of Japan, Great Britain, and Germany. U.S. positions were Cliff Hiatt, 9th; Robert Gorham, 15th; and Tom Dalusio, 24th. A briefing of the pilots was held Tuesday evening, and some of the problems of the day were ironed out.
We were again fooled by the wind on Wednesday when the second round was flown. It switched almost 90° again! Scores were considerably higher than in the first round, perhaps indicative that piloting butterflies were still present for the first flights. Round 2 was completed more quickly, ending early in the afternoon. Placing then showed Shigetada Taya as first, but Ewald Heim, of F.R. Germany was second, and Robert Gorham was third. The top three teams were Japan, U.S.A., and F.R. Germany. Other U.S. placings were Cliff Hiatt, 7th, and Tom Dalusio, 11th.
Another pilots’ briefing was held in order to solve any new problems that had surfaced. Some pilots complained that the flash/scorecards were not raised fast enough, and the scorekeeper complained that the cards were not held in view long enough. Another complaint was that some pilots were still practicing maneuvers in the ready box; the FAl jury had banned this the day before for safety reasons. A complaint was also received regarding the coaching by one mechanic, and this was also banned for the remaining rounds.
The third round was flown on Thursday, and by this time things were running very smoothly. No one had to be reminded that his transmitter had to be in the impound trailer by a certain time, and no one had to be called twice to the ready box. It was perfect timing that the TV crews began arriving during this round to tape some of the activity. Some of the footage was shown in the evening, and we also saw some of it at breakfast. RC Video Magazine also was in attendance. From what I saw, their tape of the World Championships should be a real winner. The top three individual places stayed the same as the day before, as did the team standings.
The fourth and final round was flown on Friday, and it became clear that the battle for the title of World Champion was just about over. Shigetada Taya was practically unreachable with his high-scoring flights of the second and third rounds, 1691 and 1523 points, respectively. He was about 200 points ahead of his nearest rival. As a point of interest, his 1691-point flight represents an average per-maneuver score of 8.54. Wow!
Ewald Heim certainly tried to catch up, his last-round score of 1604 being the second-highest of the contest (an average per-maneuver score of 8.10!).
The flights by Taya and Heim were the only ones to exceed 1600 points. There were three flights that exceeded 1500 points and seven that exceeded 1400. This—to put things in perspective—was out of a total of 138 flights.
Atsushi Nakajima and Yoshiaki Nagatsuka achieved excellent scores for their final flights, easing Robert Gorham out of third place. The final individual standings were Shigetada Taya, Japan, 1st; Ewald Heim, F.R. Germany, 2nd; and Atsushi Nakajima, Japan, 3rd. The team standings again did not change.
The awards ceremony began in front of the flags of participating nations on the flying field. However, just as the contest began with rain, it was to end in the same way, and only the individual awards were presented before the weather became intolerable. FAI diplomas and medallions were presented by the president of the FAl, Dr. Cepac, who, together with his wife, came all the way from Czechoslovakia to officiate. Each of the individual winners also received a large trophy from the Canadian organizers. At this point the heavens opened, and it was announced that the team awards would be presented at the banquet later that evening.
After we finished an excellent meal, the awards ceremony was continued. The contest director, Erich Blunt, presented the team trophies to Japan, U.S.A., and F.R. Germany. Accepting were the respective team managers, Shin Abe of Japan, Richard Robbins of the U.S.A., and Hans Joachim Kunze of the Federal Republic of Germany.
A special award was presented by the contest organizers to the man recognized for starting this branch of the modeling sport, Mr. Dieter Schlueter of F.R. Germany. Dieter is known the world over as the Father of RC Helicopters because of his successful flights in 1970.
Everyone owes a special thanks to Francis DeProft of Belgium, the chairman of the CIAM F3C Subcommittee, for fighting hard to get this World Championships off the ground. Thanks also to Walter Knaus who, in spite of some warnings, took on the great challenge to organize this contest. The Forest City Flyers Club and the Model Aeronautics Association of Canada also deserve a lot of credit for their help in running the contest.
The members of the FAI jury served in other capacities at the contest by running a judges school, organizing model processing, and conducting the team managers meeting. The jury was comprised of Tony Aarts (chief), Netherlands; Horace Hagen, U.S.A.; and Jean Michel, France.
The hardest-working individuals at any contest, however, are the judges. At this contest they spent four long days sitting in the sun doing their best to determine the World Champions. They were Wolfgang Roth (chief), F.R. Germany; Henk Schoenmaker, Netherlands; Don Chapman, U.S.A.; Rudolf Radom, Switzerland; and Willem Goosens, Belgium. They deserve a well-earned round of applause.
Although this was the first World Championships for the F3C class, attendance was high. There were 17 countries with 37 contestants. Because it was the first WC, we fully expected that some mistakes would be made—and they were. However, everyone learned a lot from this experience, and we are all the wiser for it.
It was great for those of us who were fortunate enough to attend. I hope that everyone who is interested in this exciting branch of the aeromodeling sport gets the chance to attend the next one—which will probably be held in Europe. Hope to see you there.
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