Sputendorf 2007 Germany

Matt Wood and myself journeyed to Berlin for an F3B competition and to catch up with friends and the latest trends. 2003 in Kirchheim was my last F3B competition in Europe and what a change has taken place. The new Crossfire emerged from the 2005 World Championships in Finland. It featured a new thinner, lower camber airfoil than any previous glider and that trend has continued. In fact so much so that the Crossfire is now almost old news. There is a host of new models with 8% or thinner sections with 1.5% camber or less. These models accelerate so easily and hold their speed through turns better than the models with thicker airfoils. It was really an eye opener to see the consistent speed of the Ceres, Evolution, Radical, Thresher and Tool to name a few. There were not many Caracho 3000's or Estrella's being flown as the newer models seem to be demonstrably faster. The performance of all the models seem similar in Distance and it takes good flying and calling/team work to come out a winner here. Duration was interesting at Sputendorf. In the past both Matt and I have struggled at times with German conditions which often have weak thermals that are hard to pick. For the first time ever in Europe we actually had wind and it made life easier. We got our normal good launches (Matt was one of the highest all weekend) and the conditions were similar to a good 4-6 m/sec day at Jerilderie. Matt got close to 10 minutes in all 4 flights and I was 10 or 10.01 in 3 of the 4, but in the last round my normal tactics just did not work and I found myself really struggling from the 4 minute mark and finished with 5.25 and no landing. In the previous heat, the current World Champion Martin Herrig, flying on his own club field flew a 7.30 flight with no landing points. The sink was massive at times. What also showed up was that the new thinner models struggled without a clear thermal to do 10 minutes. On the Saturday the conditions were (as I said) like Jerilderie where you launched high and did long straight runs into and then cross wind for several hundreds of metres at a time looking for the slightly better air. Matt and I (and other Caracho flyers) did the 10 minutes easily by using about 1.5mm of camber and elevator to flap mixing, whilst a lot of the newer models did 8-8.30 flights. What this means in Australia (I think) is that these new thin models may not be all that suitable for our Task A based thermal competitions. They don't launch any higher, they just do everything faster, including come down without thermal assistance. Time will tell.

So why didn't we win, or even come close? No problem with our equipment although I did have a loose aileron servo for 7 flights, but after I fixed it my scores got worse. Lack of practice; lack of top level competition, and ultimately lack of speed. Matt had a cut at Base Bin Rd.4 speed which it could be said cost him 5-7 places. He flew really well with no practice. I flew an 18.5, a 19.5 and two 21 second speed runs and when the winner is doing low 14's you are getting hammered. Add the bad Rd.4 duration score and a 5 lap crunch in one Distance Task where I went right to hurt 2 guys who launched before me, only to be crunched by the last 2 guys who launched 40 seconds later into a strong thermal 150 metres to my left. Poor decisions and lack of speed will hopefully be turned around next weekend in Lunen.

Mike O'Reilly

A common German launching style. Effective.

3 Amigos; Peter Hubbertz, Martin Webershock and
Tobias Knoblauch flying Distance

58 competitors, about 100 winches in a corridor 50 meters wide. Field is 70 meters x 600 meters.

Aust. 1 Germany 0; Matt had a midair in Rd. 1 dura- tion but survived to do a 10.01 and 3 metres. The German lost his plane in a corn crop and had to fly an Ellipse 2 for the rest of the weekend. He was one guy both Aussies beat in the final results.