French WC St Martin le Beau 2005  

FROM THE AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE

THE LOCATION:

There was some excitement within Europe about holding the 2005 WC in France. 

Why! Because the site is so popular.  It was the location, for the last seven years, of the Tulasne Challenge Trophy. It has also been  used as an official event  to determine the Europa  F3D contest. So everyone in Europe knew that it would be a well run event.

The site selected was at St Martin le Beau which is 20 km east of TOURS and 8 km from Amboise.  Actually Amboise has a fascination for me, as it is where Leonardo Di Vinci lived, and were he conducted many of experiments.  I have actually visited Chateau du Clos Luce which is his home.  He is also buried there in the Amboise Castle near the river. I was very impressed with this castle and its gory history.  The tale goes that the Castle was once attacked and they defended the castle so well that they killed all the invaders. They then decorated  the battlements of the castle with the severed heads of the invaders -  all stuck up on poles. Those Amboise people were very savage – and are probably are to this day.

So that area is not only famous for Leonardo,  but now for holding the 2005 F3D world Championships.

ALL THE PHOTOS THAT ARE ON DISPLAY HERE WAS GIVEN TO ME BY KEVIN CALLOW WHO HAD THEM SENT FROM JAPAN.  MANY THANK THEY ARE EXCELLENT:

HOW TO RACE:

To get a F3D model and engine set up is really difficult. Those engines are so finely tuned that one slight alteration or mistake when on the flight line will lead to either a no start or a flame out during racing.   Remember these engines are turning over 30,000 rpm – far in excess of any other internal combustion engine. The port and inlet timings are set at the limit of reliability.  If the timing durations are less the engine performance is lost, but the reliability is increased, and if they are set higher the engine will develop more power but will be unreliable. So the engine designer is treading a fine line between maximum performance and good reliability. Also the power bands of the engine is critical and this is were torque is needed as pulling power around the turns.

To be successful a competitor must get to know his engine – pipe – compressions – starting procedure - very much in advance prior to attending a WC.  Making last minute alterations on the day of the event should only be done as an absolute necessity.  Those who succeed make very little modifications to their engine set ups.  The people who win are those who have very easy starts, and able to finish each race without flameouts.  This knowledge of the engine, pipe, compression and starting can only be achieved well before competing in the WC via plenty of practice .

The rules relating to scoring at a WC really favours the reliable competitor.  If he does not complete each heat – the chances are he will not win.  All the competitors are thinking about is reliability – to get off the ground – and then fly the complete race - flying as close to the pylons as possible, without incurring cut penalties.  After which he must land the model without damage.  Sometimes when the traffic is rather thick -  landing after a race is not always that easy, as models have to be dodged on the landing strip during the landing glide path.

F3D is a very stressful event – I have actually seen very experienced pilots shaking with nerves on the start line. So pylon racing is not really for the faint hearted. There is only one consolation and that is during the 14 rounds that were run the two worst rounds can be eliminated. And the best performer will then be decided over 12 rounds instead of 14.  Those throw away rounds are really necessary (I personally would like to see more) as to compete in this event is something akin to balancing on a knife edge  - it is so easy to fall off.

THE EVENT:

Eighteen countries entered in these championships with 45 competitors – this I think makes it the biggest F3D WC ever.

I must thank Barry Murphy who gave me the run down on this event.  He lives some 300 km from my place – but I was able to interview him over the phone to get the detail I needed to write this article. 

The field was great it was a bitumen surface about 18m wide and 200 m long.  The contestants must land on the field as the surrounds, and edges were rather rough and would have damaged the aircraft.

It was absolutely perfectly run event – France should be proud . The CD Bernard Brun did a marvellous job – and deserves many pats on the back.

One great feature was the way the contestants were notified of the results after each race.  They were handed a print out detailing their laps times and total time.

Also if you wished you could go to a tent and view how other competitors were performing whilst the actual race was in progress – by just looking at a computer screen.  Naturally this was a very popular tent when some of the major racing was taking place.  

They also had a great light system that informed of cuts and flashed when each competitor completed his 10 laps.

The organization was so perfect that very few re-runs had to be made – well done!

The MACCT club should be very proud of what they did – I believe that they have set the standard that has to be met at all other WC F3D events.

THE AUSTRALIANS:

All the Australians were very much down on power during practice.  Of course it was the European weather that was affecting them.  As the weather got warmer during race days the engine performances got better.  All the Australian competitors come from quite warm parts of Australia – three from Queensland where it gets very hot and one from NSW where it is somewhat semi tropic.  So the hotter the better as far as the Australians were concerned.

The Australian Team consisted of Dave Axon Manager – Ranjit Phelan – Barry Murphy and Frank Harrod.

It was good to see Barry back into action with his son Beau as caller.  Karl Harrod acted as caller for both his brother Frank and his Father Ranjit (Just Kidding).

PICTURE ABOVE  Back:   Frank Harrod - Karl Harrod - Ranjit Phelan - Dave Axon

                               Front:  Christopher Callow - Kevin Callow- Barry Murphy - Beau Murphy.

Of course the star performer for Australia was the team of Christopher Callow, and his Father Kevin who were defending their World Champion Status.  Over the last four years Kevin and Christopher have been the World Champions and also the World Record Holders.  Australia is very proud of them.

I find it rather strange that the World Champion cannot be a part of team of his own country. I find this to be somewhat of a peculiar rule.  The Australian Team is drastically weakened when their best competitor cannot represent them.

THE INDIVIDUAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:

This is the real story of this event –it must have been so exciting to view.  The Australian team of Christopher and Kevin Callow were almost leading as the top team for most of the rounds. 

These are the problems that the Callow’s had- Round 1 driver lead fell off and they started 2 seconds late.  Still retained No1 position.  Round three engine cut just before flag fall – went to No39 position. Round 4 Rudder split and model flew with a down nose attitude at this stage they were in position 21.  Next race they flew their back up model and broke the World Record - achieving 56.98 seconds – that put them back into the lead.  They held that until they got a cut in the 10^th heat  - bringing them back to 16^th.  After that they flew the last 4 heats with three times below 60 seconds.  All day it was a contest between the Dutchman Robbert VandenBosch – the Italian Paola Mucedola and the Callows. Robbert is an excellent pilot who only had one cut for the whole meeting and that was in the first heat.  He climbed up to 1^st position after round 11.

There was another competitor that needed mentioning and that was the Italian Paola Mucedola, he was certainly  giving everyone some hurry up.  He was actually leading with only one round to go and in the final round posted a rather poor 62.4 – that put him right out of the picture – in fact he did the same thing in round 12.    

With Paolo out of the picture the contest was really between him and Christopher.  It really came down to the last heat, in which they were paired against each other. 

There was no bad feeling between these two - this was demonstrated by the bone crushing hug that Robbert gave Christopher just after the count down started.  So Christopher had 40 seconds to push his bones back into place before he could race.  What a nice guy Robbert is!!!

Christopher was fortunate that he took off after Robbert – so all he really had to do was to Tail Gate him around the course and the championship would have been his.  The winner of that last race would be the World Champion.  Well Christopher and Kevin Won by a tiny margin – but it was good enough for the to retain their World Champion Status and also the World Record 0f 56.98.

They are certainly a marvelous team – so they will be World Champions for 6 years in a row – How good is That!!

I cannot help saying this but perhaps it my pride in being an Australian – but Christopher Callow must truly now be recognized as perhaps the best Pylon Pilot ever.  During this event he was slightly down in power but his exceptional flying skills made him world champion.  Kevin and Christopher are true world champions – and I am sure that no one would be surprised if they took it out again when competing at the 2007 WC in Muncie USA.

PICTURE ABOVE:

Van Doesnburg - Robbert Van den Bosch - Christopher Callow - Kevin Callow - Paolo Mucedola - Maria Pia Donati.  It is great to see Maria on the podium - She would be the only woman to ever be there for pylon racing. She has been to many World Championships and obviously she loves and understands pylon racing.

CHRISTOPHER ROUNDING NUMBER TWO PYLON:

THE TEAMS EVENT:  (-) represent individual placings.

The WC F3D Teams event was won by the Netherlands by a mile  Van Den Bosch (2)- Huisman (5) - and Van De Klock (8) was a terrific team result.

Second was France (Well Done)  Schmidt (9) – Perret (15) – Allaise (20) That is their highest placing.

Close behind was Sweden who always seem to do well  Mustelin (14) – Wetterbro (16) – Borje (21)

Fourth was the Czech Team  Andrlik (11) Hovorka (24)Klein (27)

Australia Came 5^th which is a excellent  placing - Barry Murphy (6) – Frank Harrod (10) – Ranjit Phelan (37)

THE AUSTRALIAN STORY:

BARRY MURPHY: (6^TH)

Barry went to the event making sure that he knew exactly how to handle the aircraft that he was bringing to the event.  This year he was delighted to have is son Beau along as his caller.  Barry said that Beau is a very placid guy and this helped Barry to calm his nerves. Also they were able to discuss tactics and it was good for Barry to have another adviser. 

Everything worked out very well for the team – They just plugged away at each heat – making sure that they flew within themselves – and did not record any cuts.  Anyhow they were in a good position with only two heats to go so they went for it – in order to climb up one place into 5^th.  Unfortunately this did not really work as planned and they received cuts.  However they were still able to retain 6^th place.  This is a fantastic effort – it is the highest the Barry has achieved in a WC and he is really anxious to get to the next one.  Barry is a very careful competitor – he makes sure that he understands exactly the peculiarities of every aircraft that he owns and he pus this to good use when competing.  He designs his own fuselages and purchases his wings from Bruce DeChastel from the Revolution  design.  Barry feels that it is the best wing available.  He used the MB engine – said that he loves it! His best time was a 60.09 secs

FRANK HARROD (10^TH)

Frank and his brother Karl are a team.  They designed their own F3D Aircraft (Voodoo) and it is very fast.  It is a Vee Tailed design.  They were using RPM (Australian) and MB (Dutch) engines. They have recently added retracts to their models to gain an edge.  I was told that the retracts did present some problems.  As a divergence the USA team one year did some trials and found that they is very little advantage in model performance over a streamlined fixed undercart.  But the main advantage of the fixed cart was it is so much stronger.  The Japan Team used Retracts some years ago and they had problems.  They are great for take off but when landing the pilot has to be perfect – one decent bump and damage will ensue.

Frank started off badly with a 200 score – after that they flew well within control and did not cut until the 9^th lap.  It is always very hard to fly that these terrific  speeds and not have at least one mental lapse – and that always seem to result in a cut.  Recording a further 200 point score in heat 14 did not help.  In all I am sure that Frank would be happy with his performance.  Coming 10^th in the World Championships is not all that bad. His best time was a 61.51 secs

RANJIT PHELAN  (37)

Ranjit is the only competitor at these World Championships that builds and designs both his engines and models.  He is very unique that way.  This performance of his that these WC is the worst he has ever achieved.  He has been as high as 2^nd.  He is an excellent flyer.  In this WC nothing would go right for him.  He started off with two 200 scores.  So that meant for the remainder of the meeting he could not have a single cut of flameout.  He did his best but the task was too much.  Knowing Ranjit as I do I am sure that he is now at the drawing board making sure that this does not happen again.  Naturally he was using his RPM engine in his own model. His best time was a 63.03 secs

GENERAL DETAIL:

 THE USA TEAM:

For some reason the American team did not do that well.  Perhaps it is because the Nelson Engine that they mainly use does not put out in the same way as the European Engines.  They could be another factor – they mainly fly QM40 over in the states.  These engines do not have full length pipes as they use magic Muffler types.  To fully understand the workings of a full length pipe requires considerable skill.  Perhaps those skills levels are slowly being lost to that of mufflers, and engines that are hot from out of the box. Verano  is an exceptional pilot – he has proven this over and over again.  His placing of 4^th proves that he is up with the best of them. With a best time of 58.26 he was not at all hanging around.   I heard that he started off with Nelson Engines and then changed over to MB and went better. At one stage he was the leader but that was early after round 4, after which he had a few cuts and slow times.

MOST POPULAR EQUIPMENT:

Without doubt the MB Profi was the most popular engine – and was used by at least the top 6 place getters. Another popular and fast engine was the IR

The most popular Model was the Dago Red which is a German Design  - originally designed by Manfred Pick.  There was also a very nice French  Design called the Atomic3– The USA team was using a nice model designed by Harold Sattler.  There were some competitors using the Aussie Design Evolution design by Stuart Maxwell and Bruce Decastel.  That was the design at the Callows were using to win the WC.

SUMMATION:

The French 2005 World Championships was a total success – praise must be given to the organizers and the MACCT club.  Bernard Brun also did an excellent job.  They have set a high standard, and it is great to see.  It is apparent to me that the strength of Pylon racing has now shifted from the USA to Europe and we have the likes of  Robbert Van Den Bosch who pushes things along in his own personal style to make things happen.

Congratulations Europe you are going places fast!

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