Simple rules and interesting developments throughout the F5J competitions are probably the main reason why they're getting so popular around the world. In Slovakia we were lucky to have learnt about this electroflight category even before it was officially introduced by the F5J Electric Soaring World Challenge 2000 in Arizona.

It has taken nearly 4 years for us and our model friends from Hungary to build a solid base for spreading the F5J competitions to other European countries. That's why it doesn't come as a surprise that at the beginning of 2004 there were attempts to organize one of our competitions for modellers from various European countries as well.

Therefore we tried to make contacts with electropilots from Slovakia's neighbouring states but we weren't able to find the right enthusiasts; just like the Hungarian initiative in Austria failed to impress. The breakthrough came in the form of the traditional autumn competition in Kecsked (Hungary) where we met up with the modellers from Slovenia. There it was agreed that in 2005 we would try to organize a series of F5J competitions and thus create the base for the future "European Cup".

The series was called F5J EURO 2005 and every participating country would organize one competition. The first of them should take place in Slovenia at the end of the spring, another one in Slovakia in the summer and the third one in already tried Hungary in the autumn. In each country, the 400 and 7-cells categories will be flown, with the competition rules being "local".

We've created the F5J EURO 2005 magazine for publishing information about the preparations and content of the competitions. Every potential participant or visitor should find all the required information in it. This magazine will be posted on the following Internet addresses:

http://www.rivamodels.sk/euro05_00_sk.html ... or for the English version >>>
http://www.rivamodels.sk/euro05_00_en.html.

With the help of INFO bulletins that will be posted on the addresses above over the time, you should get the latest information on what's being organized, what and where is going to take place or what and how has already been done. Of course, we would be delighted if - apart from occasional reading our F5J EURO magazine - you could make it to some of the competitions in person as well.

For the F5J EURO 2005 organization team: Palo LISHAK (19/12/2004)
Translation : Mgr. Darina Svoradova (London, UK)