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Report from the F3B seminar and F3B cup
Rena, Norway 29-31.May 2004
 Here is a little report of the first
F3B-cup in Norway this year. Since Sweden's Oerebro Open did not use
their regular dates this year it was decided to try and host a
F3B-seminar and contest this weekend. The seminar is usually called
speed and distance seminar.This year we wanted to try and concentrate
the practice towards launch and speed. The host club had done a great
job getting facilities like a big military tent, an office on wheels
with toilet and their very impressive F3B signalling equipment. Winches
and lines were also provided by most individuals that participated. All
this was placed on the big Rena Camp area normally used by parachuters.
Accommodation was taken care of in the military camp of Rena and the
rooms and the food were excellent!We were only 10 pilots that showed up and all of us were a little bit disappointed that so few came to this event. But having said that it only gave us more practice of course. All pilots flew approx. 12 speeds flights and ditto starts. The weather was very nice to us with both sun and shifting wind. Not particularly warm but I would say pleasant (approx 12 degrees C.) Best speed times was in the 16 and 17 second area. Best times came when pilots entered the course in thermal conditions. (of course). Many pilots set best records and I think most of us had good use of this practice day before the main event. In the evening we all met in some office locations and we discussed the upcoming event and the problems we were facing as long as we were only 10 pilots and 2 helpers. We settled for trying 3 man distance groups knowing help from no other than the buzzer man on base A. This meant you were basically on your own for spotting and tactical flying, but it also meant early warning turns on base A. The helper also provided flying times to the pilot. I found this method of doing it very interesting and challenging for sure. We also decided to fly all 4 rounds of distance in one go to keep the flow. Sunday: Race day! This day started cold but sunny and eventually the warm weather came to us with approx. 20 degrees. Wind came mostly from behind so launches was pretty challenging.  Anyway we started flying distance and it all went quite
well for most of us. Some had problems with signals but this was the
same for everybody and some had problems adjusting to the fact that they
did not have their helper right behind them. Of course this was
difficult for all of us and your helper/buzzer was never the same.
Myself I was quite surprised that one of the newcomers to F3B, Geir
Stroemstad gave me excellent help and for sure helped to a win in round
2. After distance we all went to the camp and had dinner, again a very
nice dinner and not what I got some 22 years back when serving in the
Navy. And the price for dinner:
50 NOK :-)
After dinner we headed back to the field
and started to fly 4 rounds of duration. The weather had improved even
more and it was hotter now. So conditions for duration was pretty good
but still difficult. Launching was done mostly with wind from behind and
this made the 10 minutes a hard test for some of us. I only managed just
above 5 minutes in round 3, not good! We finished the 4 rounds with no
problems. After day 1 Widar Holmedal was in the lead by a huge margin
with 4 wins in distance and all durations within 989 points. The rest of
us had to settle for a fight for second place. Monday: 4 rounds with speed flying was
left to fly and wind directions made us set up winches in both
directions. Most of us struggled to get good launch heights, again! So
speed times were not good and winning times was over 20 seconds in all
rounds, not good! Widar continued to fly very steady and cruised into
victory. Impressive that Knut Vidar managed to win the 2 last speeds. A
coming man I would say. Another guy from the host club, Gjermund Westad
got 3rd. place overall and I guess he was quite pleased with that. Check
the results to find out about the rest of us. To fly F3B like we did by
finish the distance, then duration and finally speed flying was done
with all pilots agreeing in advance of course. We also agreed to not
change models within the respective rounds unless you had a crash or a
problem somehow. Unfortunately one pilot misunderstood the rules and got
zero scores for this reason.
So this long weekend gave us all important
training and valuable contest practice. The organizing club did a very
good job and hopefully they will host this type of seminar/contest again
next year. Many thanks to Nils Arne and Tor who was helping us out with
the various tasks. I have promised to ask for more qualified instructors
next year. It would be very good if our neighbours from Sweden could
take the trip over and help us out with this.
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