Electric Flight—Despite Everything

Promoting sports among young people is a major challenge, especially in model aviation. It has very little in common with the widespread and popular model-building courses offered by our clubs. Young people must be introduced to competitive sports with a great deal of patience. This requires not only creative development models but also dedicated coaches at the various organizational levels. Coaching here should not necessarily be institutionalized or elevated to the status of a major “religion.” Mothers, fathers, or clubmates can take on a large part of these responsibilities. Preparing for international competitions generally requires individuals with international experience.

Since 2017, the NOS region has consistently provided junior pilots with technical and flying instruction in RC aerobatics as well as F5J gliding from the ground up, and has entered them in various competitions, including World and European Championships. The NOS coaches have conducted training sessions at various airfields. Of the eleven young people in the class

F5J: At the start of the season, there were still five juniors competing in this year’s F5J Swiss Championships. Three have outgrown the junior age category. This is not meant to be seen as a setback; after all, until recently there were hardly any juniors in electric flight. While we were still able to field a full junior team at the 2018 F5J European Championships, only one junior remains at the moment. For the junior national team—which consisted of two members at the beginning of the year—there were no training sessions whatsoever, let alone any motivational outreach from the team management. Shameful! Fortunately, the sole remaining member was able to participate in the youth training program—the NOS training pass—and repaid this opportunity by winning this year’s title. The coronavirus pandemic may have played a part in this failure. In my view, there are still formal one-way streets within our organizations between those who hold “offices” and those who actually carry out the practical tasks. By the way, it’s quite astonishing how many junior athletes from abroad participated in the World Championships. Almost without exception, they demonstrated a high level of performance: Eastern Europe, the U.S., and Germany.

Although RC aerobatics is not one of the F5 classes, 95% of the aircraft in this discipline are powered by electric motors. The 2020 Sportflyers competition demonstrated that consistent coaching leads to success. Supervised training is essential in this regard.

The Militky Cup in Pfäffikon has always been a major draw in the electric flight scene. The steady decline in participants in the F5B class has led the model flying club to switch to an F5J FAI World Cup. This is also because flying these lightweight yet impressive 4-meter aircraft has become extremely popular within the organizing club itself. Hopefully, the event can take place on Ascension Day weekend 2021—who knows?

As previously reported (MFS 5-2020, page 52), the International F5B competition was held at the MG Flaachthal airfield. It took a bit of courage on the part of the organizers, so to speak

swimming against the current. It was still worth it, though. The field of competitors here wasn’t overwhelmingly large, but it was top-notch. The clear victory by the Austrian Karl Waser served as a sobering reality check for our team as well. The competition also counted as the Swiss Championship.

We would like to give special recognition here to the AMC Geneva for offering to host the Swiss Championships (see also page 34 of this issue). Our French-speaking colleagues once again proved to be exemplary hosts. Thank you. Unfortunately, the number of participants in the Junior Swiss Championships dropped from eight in 2019 to the minimum of five. Problems with the scoring put a strain on more than just the competition director. The new Swiss Junior Champion is Alain Schad of MG Affoltern a.A., and in the Senior division, Thomas Wäckerlin of MG Rapperswil-Jona.

The regional F5J competition at the beautiful First Airfield, home to the MG Illnau-Effretikon, has almost become a tradition. Thanks to effective safety measures, the event proceeded smoothly throughout all its rounds. This active club organizes one or two competitions every year. Exemplary! Thank you very much for your dedication and hospitality.

After a prolonged period focused on the high-speed gliding classes F5B and F5F, the competitive scene began to pick up again a good six years ago. New, promising categories have emerged or are in the process of emerging. The F5J electric thermal gliding category has stood out in particular. It already shone at the first World Championships in 2019 with large numbers of participants—including among junior competitors. New concepts such as F5A GPS gliders—

models, F5E solar flight, and F5K—with the wonderful designation “Thermal Duration Gliders for Multiple Task Competition with Electric Motor and Altimeter/Motor RunTimer (AMRT).” This class of small, lightweight gliders is already predicted to have a promising future. Unfortunately, the former F5D Pylon class in Switzerland has—after several successful years—come to a complete standstill. Within CIAM, the fast gliders of the F3D combustion engine class have now been reclassified as F3E. A good solution.