World Championship F3B 1987 Germany, Osnabruck, Achmer Airfield



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By Espen Torp

This was my start in international contest at this level. I got my place by chance since somebody dropped out of the original team. Quite lucky for me since this WC really sparked my interest for F3B. My preparations were to say the least terrible, but I managed to put together two models in a hurry before the Championship. One of them had borrowed parts as I recall. Anyway I also went to a training day together with another member of the team and I got at least 5 flights. And also, my camera at the time was not so good so please accept apologises for the poor quality of the scans.

I packed my car and went away to Germany. I teamed up with the others in the team and together we went out to the practice field. We were highly warned about serious interference and it turned out that the military had a transmitter near by. I remember that the Swiss team was there with their very impressive timing gear and let everybody use it for practice, we got a little termoprint read out with all the times on for speed, very nice! The Dutch team was also there and one thing that still sticks to my mind was the use of planes of Joris Ten Holt. After been shot down first once and then twice he just went to the van and picked up another model and continued flying. I think he had about 5 models ready!
 Well since I was quite new to this sport and I had not really seen anything I must admit that seeing these guys launch their models took me completely by surprise. I was used to a gentle little dip on top of the line not this zoom bullet launches. OK, I have to try this new method and so I did. The result was almost fatal, but somehow the model survived a safe landing with no elevators! They came of course right of when I attempted a zoom for the first time. Well the all the standbyers gave me a handful of applause after I safely brought to the ground on it's back. My team manager was standing by me when it happened and I was about to take of the radio neck strap when he asked me if it was possible to fly the thing. By then it had already gone to back flying by itself and it was no big deal to cruise down.
I remember that I was a little bit afraid of making a foul out myself. When I saw the level of the other teams this scared me even more. Some team were pretty professional in their appearance but a later learned that in fact we did not have pro's in this sport. All they do is to take their sport serious. For me this was a very good thing to see. I understood that all these people was living for their sport and having a team made them look like professionals.

Another thing was the weather, with one word: WET. 
So there is not many pictures that I took that has sunshine on it. The best I have is probably of Franz Weisgerber but that was not competition day.

The Austrians had a strong team with people like Peter Hoffmann, Karl Wasner Jr. and Günther Aichholzer. They had very good models and clearly new what they were doing at the time. No doubt that they had traditions for F3B already in 1987. Peter ended up as vice World Champion. Karl was 8th. and Günther was 10th!
With this combination they won the team event in front Great Britain and West Germany.
This is the strong team from Denmark: Mikkelsen, Jeppesen and Rasmussen were pilots. Others that I remember was, Preben Noerholm, Mikkelsen Sr. and  Torben Rasmussen
The nearest red plane is Henk Bonestroo own design. The other plane is Nic Wright's Electra. Nic never made a mould for his designs, he always used foam core and glas/carbon cloth with a carbon spare. 
From the opening ceremony I remember well the very impressive show by Franz Weissgerber and his electric Ariane with 60 cells! Picture on the left.
This show stood out as something really special for a long time.
Have a look at:  http://www.carbon-vertrieb.de
The very strong team of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the chair on the right we can see former World Champion Ralf Decker who said in an interview in the Achmer News that reducing the winch motors strength was the most important thing to get the F3B class back on track again. And was he ever so right. The new winch rule that was implemented in 1989 is still the same as today(2002). And this has been a major contribution to the class, no doubt about that!
The team from USA
Henk Bonestroo preparing his rather ugly own design for traing day.
In the forground is the Safir of Karsten Jeppesen of Denmark with a Christian Baron airfoil. A very good model indeed! To bad Karsten only made a handfull of these beauties.
The pretty strong team of Holland with Joris ten Holt, Henk Bonestroo and Jeroen Smits and their helpers. 
Helmut Quabeck was the CD of this World Championship in 1987
I remember that these guys had this little plane as I believed was a free flight model. But it was a early HLG RC model! This was 1987 and sub micro servos was not common.
Here is the team from GDR (east Germany)

 This man changed my life!

When I first saw the Avant Butterfly I could believe (yet again) that this model was actually for sale. I did not know anything about this until I came to Achmer and I also found out that there were lots of planes to be bought. Of course in the early days you had to build your own aircraft to enter the contest.
But suddenly I got the opportunity to purchase a model that simply outperformed whatever I could build myself.
Jaro Muller  went from being a computer engineer to become the biggest manufacturer of F3B composite planes. No doubt that this man has meant a lot for the wide spreading of the F3B sport!

 
Some Danish and Swedes together in the Jury tent.
I think all Nordic countries now have completly taken over the Jury tent!
A F3B pilot of high class, Nic Wright!
I have learned a lot of just wathing this guy, hopefully some day I will get to the same level and skills. But I think it will remain a dream. Along with Peter Hoffmann and myself, Nic had the longest streak in consecutive running F3B World Championships. Unfortunatly he did not show up in the WC in the Czech Republic in 2001.
The team from Norway, Torp,Oegrey Sr, Ogrey Jr., Smith Sr., Wanvik and Smith Jr.
Ola Didrik Smith from Norway with his Gentron from Eismann Modellbau
I think this is Stephen Work opening his flight box.
From the opening cermony
Peter Hoffmann with his typical "Lollipop" colour design, a design he has kept for a long time now.As mentioned above, Peter came second in this Championship some points behind Reinhard Liese and only a few points in front of Samuel Villani of Italy.
I think this is the Quasar of Karl Wasner Jr.
These were the days when winches had to be put up between each task! Yes it is true! It was a hell of a task to do this every time. For the big teams it meant no big deal but for smaller teams you had to work really hard to be able to be ready within the 5 minutes of preparation time you were given. On the picture we can spot some US guys waiting in the READYBOX
Rudolf Binkert from Switzerland
Stefan Wahlberg is launching Gert Holtbeck's Grover, in the picture we can aslo spot Joakim Staal and to the far right Thor Oegrey (Norway)
This is  the Swiss Tarantula team with their special wing tips that became pretty common.
This is Joris ten Holt of Holland and here he is on practice day. One can actually see some of his model laying on the ground. I think he had 5! If I am not mistaking the model was the Impulse from Rowing.
The Americans cam well prepared with lots of equipment. Two their pilots, Spicer and Lewis had new planes for the event. I remember they were big and heavy, but mind you there were strong winches at the time. Nevertheless Stephen Work did better with his factory built Comet!
This was the last we saw of the Gorilla Winches, though the Japanese winch on the right does not look impressive but in fact was very powerful!
Australian kengoroo winches.
Some other winches, notice the GEL cells, I think the Germans called them NATO würfel or something. I recall they were quite expensive and in a different league than my batteries!
Training day, Swiss and US guys together. The Swiss team let us use their training system.