3. International Open German Championship F3F
8th and 9th of October 2005
We were already looking forward in advance to this interesting event. Early
in January Lukas Gaubatz, Stefan Pokorny and Hannes Plöschberger registered
for this F3F competition.
Unfortunately we couldn’t convince any other Austrian pilot to participate
in this competition on the German Coast.
We decided to fly to Hamburg and to rent two cars for the further trip. This
was the easier and cheaper way than by train, the way we travelled last year
to the Viking Race.
A problem emerged as Stefan Pokorny had to tell us 2 weeks before the
competition that he could not join us because of job reasons. So we needed
another pilot, otherwise we were not able to take part in the team
competition. But fortunately Manuel Fiedler was easily to be convinced for
joining us on this trip. Thank you again to Stefan, he sponsored Manuel with
his already paid competition fee and airline ticket.
With a baggage load of 120 kg and 3 additional assistants (all family
members) we flew on the 5th of October to Hamburg. The box with
all our equipment (1,6m x 0,6 m x 0,4 m) passed astonishingly without any
problem all security controls at the airport. After little trouble in
finding our reserved rental cars, we started the last part of our journey.
We stayed at two appartements in Putgarten, where the competition took
place.
The first evening passed with preparing our planes and ended, as
anticipated, at the only pub in
Putgarten, the “Utspan”. We met there already some ol
d friends,
like German pilot Stefan Eder. He had already been flying that day and could
tell us about good conditions on the slope. In the end it became a long
night.
On Tuesday we were eagerly to get to the slope already at 9 am. We met there
Martin and Andreas Herrig and were glad that there were already good weather
and wind conditions. Wind forces of 5-6 meters/second from South East made
the first practice session very interesting. Additionally the measuring
system was also installed on that day and together with 20 other pilots we
used this training for the necessary practice in the “Rügen Style” for the
turns.
Already during the training session you could see the outstanding class of
Martin and Andreas Herrig and Dieter Perlick. But the time differences were
not as big as they were the year ago at the Viking Race. Our training at
home at “our” slope in Vienna has brought us forward and we have also
improved the tuning of our planes.
Saturday, the first competition day, started with the pilots meeting at
7.30. There were 32 participants from Austria, Norway, Denmark, France and
Germany. The weather was mild and sufficient wind for an interesting
competition. The winds came from East and South-East, so the first starting
point was the slope near the small village of Vitt. The wind on this day had
not more than 4-6 meters/second, less than forecasted. After the second
round the order of the starting was dependent on the result of the round
before.
The
first three rounds were very promising for the Austrian pilots, we were
placed in the middle of the field. Beginning with the fourth round the wind
started to change very quickly, so it was very difficult for some pilots.
Despite these conditions the results of the pilots were very tight together.
In the 6th round, which was later cancelled, the wind was
sometimes so light, that the necessary
3
meters/second could not be reached. For me the time of this round would have
been very good, had not a reading mistake worsened my time for 10 seconds.
My protest was not approved, but after the cancellation of this round, it
made no difference. Nevertheless this lowered my motivation.
Sunday
started with wind of 6 – 7 meters/second. Lukas and Manual had some very
goods flight, I flew too much on the safe side, so I could not improve my
results. Lukas made at that day his first “1000 points” flight. This
we had to celebrate later in the evening. On the last round on this day the
wind was again very unsteady. At some times 3 meters/second seemed not to be
reached, at the end of the round again 6 meters/second were measured.
Martin Herrig (Shocker) and Andreas Herrig (Freestyler) won the competition
deserved. Exciting was also the fight for place three between Peter und
Klaus Kowalski (Caldera), Dieter Perlick (Altus), Knud Hebsgaard (Ellipse 2
V) and Franz Demmler (Freestyler). Successful was at last Dieter Perlick.
Team competition was won by Team TUD-Modelltechnik Dresden (Herrig, Herrig,
Demmler) , second Team SAF (Kowalski, Kowalski, Perlick), third Denmark
(Larsen, Hebsgaard, Nielsen).
For
the Austrian Team (Chaos Attack Team) Lukas Gaubatz (Skorpion) achieved the
successful 20th place, I became 32nd (Attack F1) and
Manuel reached the 34th place (Demo/X21). Very remarkable was
the performance of Manuel Fiedler, starting at this event for the first time
in a F3F competition. I also want to point out the professional attitude of
Lukas, a very promising talent for the future for international
competitions.
As a conclusion of these days, we think that German Open 2005 was worth to
take this long trip to Rügen. Our company seized the opportunity to discover
the beautiful landscape of Rügen and Hiddensee and so took also an advantage
of the hobby of their family members.
We used the opportunity to participate in various talks about the general
situation of the F3F scene. It seems that it could lead to a separation
between mountain aviation and coastal aviation. Personally I would prefer a
combination of both types, which could give the best pilots of both the
possibility to show their skills. A separation into two classes would
prevent the participation of a lot of international pilots on competitions.
But of all what I have heard during these days I think that there is a
chance that we can find a solution.
Many thanks again to the hosts and organizers of this event in Rügen!
Plöschberger Hannes
The
Austrian Team, Hannes Plöschberger, Lukas Gaubatz, ManuelFiedler.
The winning three: Andreas Herrig, Martin Herrig, Dieter Perlick.
