Report Belgium Eurotour Contest F5F - F5B on June 19th/20th

Yep.

Another year has passed since this event was held last year at about the same date. It is the second edition of the “Swane Cup”, Belgium's very own edition of a F5B – F5F Eurotour event, held on June 19th-20^th 2010 in Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium. Doesn't time fly...

It is the local Model Aero Sport Heist (or MASH in short) that is hosting this event. Arriving at their field on Friday evening almost everything but the course to fly the legs was set up. 4 big party tents were put together to serve as a gathering place and protection from the weather elements. This proved more then sufficient, even though the weather wasn't that exceptional this weekend. It should be said that the heat-blower in the tent probably had something to do with it. The temperature didn't pass above 15°C all weekend. Pretty chilly for this time of year, even for Belgium.

The rest of the evening was spent setting up the course and making everything ready for the event that started the next day. Participants were arriving bit by bit. Some stayed at a local hotel, others put up their tents or mobile home's to spend the night at the field.

After a short night, the alarm clock of an F5B plane taking off woke us all. A short while after that, the first “victim” of this event was know. A new local pilot tried his plane out before the competition and crashed it immediately after take off in the adjacent corn field. Luckily the corn wasn't yet very high, and the plane was found nearly immediately. Almost a total loss though and the event was already one competitor down.

Everybody subscribed and got ready for the first round. But, first things first, the local club provided a more then welcome breakfast. Very much appreciated after this first cold night.

At about 9.30h a pilot briefing was held and by 9.50 the first flights started. Other than a small issue with the timekeeping computer (yes, of course this has to happen on an international event... our equipment functioned almost flawlessly for the better part of 10 years but the one time you host an international event...), the entire round went smoothly. Scores were on the low side but we are attributing this to the good beer of the evening before and the short night that followed. There are of course always exceptions. In F5F Bosmann Bernd managed 39 legs. Not too shabby. Next to Willy, there are 2 more German pilots in this category that made the trip to Belgium. They are a little behind in the legs, but given their limited experience, they are holding up pretty well. In F5B, 3 pilots managed 43 laps: the Lefebvre brothers, Gilles and Hugues from Belgium and Alan Flockhart from the UK. Gilles won this round with an excellent duration and landing task, only gathering 4 penalty points (landing 2 seconds off with only 2 seconds of motor to complete the 10 minute duration task). Another noteworthy occurrence when Christian Ulbrich's motor started making a weird noise. Christian wisely decided to abort his flight, only to discover a broken gearbox.

We had some showers throughout the day, but luckily they all passed very quickly. Giving us the opportunity to start the second round after lunch. Lunch was once more provided by the volunteers of the local club.

The second round promised the first win in the local Belgium beginners category for our new pilot in this category. Wojciech managed 27 laps in the previous round and 29 in this one, thus winning both rounds. Unfortunately disaster struck after that. When tuning some stuff on his plane after the flight, the motor got turned on and the plane flew against the tires of his car. This left a huge gash in the wing (fixable and fixed for the third round) but this also damaged his controller. This will prove a big problem in the following rounds.

In F5F Bernd managed a whopping 40 legs, and Willy Verschoren, legging some 2 legs behind. These high scores in F5F promise some nice things for F5B. The weather must be good after all...

in F5B, Luc Van Tricht managed 45 legs, but a messed up landing in the 2^nd circle cost him the overall victory in this round. Gilles and Christian both did equally as well overall and they all got the victory for this round. A couple of other pilots are very close behind and the fight for the lead promised to be fierce.

After a short break the 3^rd round got underway. In the Belgium beginners category, Wojciech's controller burns up and he is forced to stop hostilities after only 2 legs. His direct competitor, Jean-Luc Dufour is taking advantage of this and wins this round.

In F5F, Bernd manages another 40 laps, with Willy only 1 leg behind this time.

Then the 3^rd round in F5B gets underway. Gilles and Hugues put in a decent 44, but Willy manages a whopping 48 laps ! Alan also performs admirably with 44 laps and Luc manages 46. Unfortunately the latter can't finish his duration time due to a lack of motor and is forced to land after 9 minutes 17 seconds. Too bad Luc.

This concludes this day of flying and the top 5 in F5B all still have a shot at the first place. The final round tomorrow will decide the outcome of this event. It promises to be a good night, with a BBQ provided by the volunteers of MASH. The food is plentiful, as is the beer. Discussions about flying fast planes and Danish swine continue till late at night. Did you know where Italian Parma ham is coming from? No? Talk to Peter Bech, he know all about it and has some great stories about Swine hunting in the Danish wilderness (or did I dream that up after one too many “Chouffe”? Well who knows....)

Another cold night, and a good breakfast later, we are all ready for the final round of this competition... if only the weather gods were too.... After a small delay we got underway. In our beginners category, Wojchiech only performs averagely, costing him the overall win by 3 points. Too bad, better luck next time!

In F5F, Bernd stays undefeated, and even manages 41 legs. Pretty slick.

In F5B, everything is about to be overthrown, Hugues manages 47 laps, trailing everybody else with at least 2 laps. This leaves everybody else behind a decent amount of points, and that combined with pretty good scores in the other rounds... gives him the victory of the day.

Willy and Gilles are respectively 2^nd and 3^rd, which means that the podium is made up entirely of Belgian pilots. With the World Championships coming up in August, this has of course been a very good practice for the Belgian team. We wish them all the best!

A small price-giving ceremony was held about an hour after the last competitor landed and at 13.30 hours everybody said their farewells and headed home.

Despite the somewhat disappointing weather, the event was considered a success by all! Thanks go out to the organizing club and their volunteers. They all performed admirably during this event and we cannot say it enough that without them all this would not be possible. Special thanks should also go out to Luc Van Tricht, who is the main organizer for this event. He put in a lot of hours to get everything fixed!

DiEtEr