F3J World Championships – Finland 2002

Team Managers Report - Terry Stuckey

Team Members: Simon Jackson, Neil Jones and Mike Raybone.

This year saw the 3rd World Championships for F3J held in Finland. The location for these, the first WC held in Scandinavia,
was the tourist town of Lappeenranta. This holiday town, nestling close to the large inland lake Saimaa and 200km from Helsinki,
hosted a entourage of 25 National teams and their helpers from the four corners of the earth. The site chosen was the local
commercial airfield 3km from the hotel Sokol in the centre of town and 2km from the campsite at Huhtiniemi. Although the
airfield still received regular feeder flights from Helsinki during the Championships this did not affect the flying and gave added
interest to the flyers.

The British team, one group from Heathrow and the other from Manchester flew to Finland and arrived during Friday 2.8.02.
Transport from Helsinki comprised a Ford Mondeo estate and Fiat Ducato van, this arrangement, though not ideal,
was enough to arrive at Lappeenranta with all models and kit without too much inconvenience.
The accommodation of log cabins at Huhtiniemi, were not huge but more than adequate for the team members for the
duration of the championships.

Saturday was an opportunity for the helpers and the organisers to get to grips with the equipment and to fly a
mock championship. The Wildman Trophy with 8 British flyers and flown with three rounds highlighted the high
standard that was to be expected from the team flyers during the following week. The British team were very pleased
to have Neil Jones in the 12 man fly-off, this put the team in good spirits.

Following a farcical registration session on late Sunday afternoon the controlled practice flying on the airfield,
did not afford such confidence as Mike Raybone demolished his third model whilst on launch. This I believe had
a significant influence as to his final placing.

All set the British Team had come together well as a unit to an arena where the top F3J pilots in the
world would fly a gruelling nine rounds to determine the individual World Champion and the Team Champions.

The Competition

The early rounds of the competition were punctuated by delay and misunderstanding by the inexperience of the organisers
to run a large F3J competition but with Erkki Arima in charge the overall view was a well run, fair competition.

From Round 0, flown on Monday, it became apparent that the site had definite areas of lift. Predominant was the
slope lift generated by the prevailing breeze onto the tree line just beyond the hangers where the flying area
had been set out on the airfield. This area of slope lift was exploited by all pilots many times during the week.

The flying was generally to a very high standard for both the seniors and the juniors. All the 9 rounds of 10 man
slots were flown out bar one. At the end of the preliminary rounds the leader board showed that the Fly-off comprised
13 pilots from a variety of countries, unfortunately non were British. The scores for the fly-off were very high, top score
was 7994.65 and the 13th place 7962.33 from a max. total score of 8000. The 12 man fly-off was extended to 13
with an equal 12 place. The senior fly-off was four rounds flown over 2 days, worthy winner was Arend Borst (Canada),
close second Joe Wurts (USA) third Pasi Vaisanen (Sweden). The British trio were placed Neil Jones (30th)
Simon Jackson (47th) and Mike Raybone (57th). From these positions the British team did not fare particularly
well but one is reminded that of the winners score of 100% Neil scored 98.48%, Simon 94.67 and Mike 89.47%.

Although outside the fly-off places the British team performance was good overall with only minor inconsistencies.
The standard of flying was as good as any in the UK with flight times in the 9:45min. to 9:50min for all.
The only complaint was that the landings did not match up to pre WChamp expectations. At this level only 100 point
landings with the occasional 95 is good enough.

The competition finished with the fly-offs on the Saturday morning and the trophy presentation held in the
early evening in the “old town” by the harbour some 3km from the airfield.
The presentation came after a three hour boat trip on the lake and around the islands of the Saimaa.

That evening the old town of Lappeenranta which was also hosting a summer cultural festival was full of
other visitors and activities that made the final presentation somewhat odd with passers-by mingling with
the assembled competitors.

Overall Impressions

• The accommodation for the teams was generally very good with a mixture of people in the hotel and
  the remainder at the campsite in log cabins.
  
• The flying site on the airfield was well set out with stakes for pully towing provided by the organisers.
  
• The location of the “slope-lift” (as described earlier) did not create conditions sufficiently challenging for a thermal soaring event of this magnitude.
  
• A good, well run event for the competitors.
  
• There are an enormous number of fir trees in Finland!
  
  

Team Performance

Anticipated

• After the European Champs in Slovakia 2001 the expectations for the 2002 WC in Finland were high.
  This was probably due to reflections on the flight scores previously recorded in 2001 and before.

Individuals

• Neil Jones performed well in his first Championships.
  
• Simon Jackson performed below his normal standards and suffered the
  “father/son” relationship with his spotter.
  
• Mike Raybone lacked confidence due probably to the “crash”on Sunday.
  

Overall

• The towing teams performed excellently with all launches to equivalent height and speed of the other competitors.
  (Tony Vale/Adrian Lee and Colin Lucas/Arron Bott)
  
• Talking/Spotting for Neil and Mike was excellent by Dave East.
  
• The team spirit developed well with all actively supporting the team flyers.
  
  

Future Aspirations

• Team practice Sessions - this year has suffered from poor weather which curtailed the sessions to two successfully held.
  I firmly believe that these sessions help in many ways to develop the team’s efficiency.
  
• The European Championships are to be held in Romania 2003 where special attention needs to be made
  to the preparations after the experiences of the EC1999.
  
  

Long Term Future

• The last two championships have been a catch up scenario. In the WC 2002 we were closer than in the EC 2001.
  Two aspects of the three elements of the class have been addressed successfully. i.e. the launch and soaring elements.
  
• Now is the time to develop “the will to WIN” concept within the F3J soaring fraternity. We are beyond the “catch-up” phase.
  
• Maybe we should look more closely at the method of team selection used by nations with a greater success rate than the UK.
  
  
  
  
  
  

Terry Stuckey