On Saturday the 25th September not far from the Hungarian town of Tatabanya, an electro-gliders competition of the F5J category took place for the third time. As usually the cast was excellent - there were 42 competitors from Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia. There were four qualifying rounds. The first nine pilots in the 7-cells category made it to the final as well as the first seven pilots in the 400 category.

The development of the competition was interesting, sometimes even dramatic. The order of the competitors changed after each round. The unofficial fight of the all-composite models with the classical wooden models in the 7-cells category brought a few unexpected results. From the beginning father and son Durko were flying amazingly, Andrasz Szeri was getting better and better with each round, Prima models managed to make a good use of the smallest signs of rare thermals...
In the 400 category there was a collective fight of all competitors with quite a strong wind and lack of thermals. Among the competitors there were also young Kubko Dudas (12yrs) and Miss Monika Sedikova. Monika was not very far from the final and also Kubko showed no respect and managed to beat several much older competitors.

The organizers of the competition were a pleasant surprise - home based Jozsef Szennyei was helped by Zolo Benyo and Kornel Nemeth of Komarno (Slovakia). The flying manager used an english-hungarian tape with the time countdown, the time keepers were reliable too. The acoustics were perfect as well as immediately available results. Complete rounds of the 7-cells and 400 category took turns which made the competition transparent, fast and no useless breaks occured

The atmosphere of the competition was also influenced by the presence of the modellers from Slovenia and Croatia. Apart from the fact that their performances in the 400 category were a nice surprise, they also showed they were a very temperamental, friendly and cooperative team. Their witty comments of their colleagues' flights were a welcome relief in a very cloudy weather.

The sport value of the competition was very high. Last year's worries about lower interest in ''the weaker class'' of the 400 type motors proved to be wrong. The 400 class has its strong fan base and also the quality of the models has improved. No doubt that this category calls for thoughtfully designed models. It is not possible to use a raw gear power to compensate for the model's wrong concept. They all have nearly the same motor and usually the same amount of accu cells (mostly the maximum 8 but quite often - and successfully - 7 as well).

There are two types of models in the 7-cells category - all-composite constructions are a slightly dominant group but combined constructions with classicly built wings are not far behind. It is hard to say that any of these two trends has a clear advantage in front of the other. In the final there were five all-composite models and four with a combined construction. Out of the first five models in the final, four of them were combined.

The top ranking of the qualifying round according to the results of three best rounds in the 7-cells category was following:

1. Ďurka Zdeno ..... 3000 points, 2. Lišhák Palo ...... 2990 points, 3. Ďurka Igor ....... 2981 points
4. Berko Gyorgy..... 2945 points, 5. Bačiak Juraj ..... 2945 points, 6. Szeri Andrasz ... 2926 points
7. Németh Kornel ..2912 points, 8. Torok Laszlo ..... 2810 points, 9. Kántor Gergely.. 2805 points

In the final of the 7-cells category the pilots were rather competing with the decreasing thermals than with each other. For a big number of models it proved difficult to fly more than 10 mins and only the best-flying pilots managed to come close to 15 mins. Andrasz Szeri showed he was a master in making use of small ground thermals, the Durko boys started to glide in unbelievably great hights where they found some left-over thermals from time to time...The rest of the finalists flew standard flights with a minimal number of mistakes but usually they missed out on the above mentioned trio...

In the following chart you can see the results of the competition final together with some technical data of majority of the used models.

F5J-7 cells

In the 400 category the number of participants was surprisingly high. The results were even closer than in the previous case. It was mostly the pilots from Slovenia who performed with perfectly worked out models. Apart from the winners, the courage price should definitely go to Roman Lozar who flew with a SENSOR model that he had bought only half an hour before the first round of the competition. Although he managed to score 2x1000 points in the first two rounds, he didn´t have enough energy to get a decent place in the final... There is no doubt that the winning JOLI model and its pilot Andrej Mejac deserve special attention. The classicly built smooth wing with an exceptionally slim profile and bifunctional rudder (after opening to both sides it worked as a break as well) gave this model really brilliant flying qualities.

The top ranking after the qualifying round according to the results of three best rounds in the 400 category was following:

1. Meznaric Robi..... 2997 points, 2. Mejac Andrej.... 2975 points, 3. Bordon Rok........ 2922 points
4. Peternel Primoz.. 2918 points, 5. Vettorazzi Rok.. 2917 points, 6. Lozar Roman..... 2874 points
7. Tupek Karol..... ..2776 points

In the following chart you can see the results of the competition final together with some technical data of majority of the used models:

F5J - 400

In the end it is necessary to look in the recent past. Four years ago - when Kornel Nemeth and me became interested in this new electroflight category - we appreciated mainly its simple rules. After one year we were joined by electropilots from Hungary and we started to feel we were on the right track...

This year we have been trying to get in touch with electropilots in other countries. in most cases we were lucky to have found understanding. The Kecsked competition proved that the F5J category has a big international perspective.

In the conversations during the Kecsked competition and also in a short debate after its finishing, the representatives of the participating countries came to an agreement that in the next year they would organize a series of three F5J competitions called F5J EURO 2005. In each country the rules will be adjusted to the local modifications of the original Arizona rules. The results of all three competitions will be added together and thus determine the winners of the F5J-7 cells and F5J-400 categories. The "no limit" category will not be flown in the competitions.

The first competition of the series will take place at the end of May in Slovenia.
The chief organizers will be Rok BORDON and Roman LOZAR (?).

The second competition will take place during the end of June in Slovakia.
The chief organizers will be named at "the meeting of electropilots" in October in Zilina.

The third competition will take place at the beginning of September in Kecsked in Hungary.
The chief organizers will probably be well-tried Jozsef Szennyei and Kornel Nemeth.

Now we can only wish that every F5J competition brings delightful satisfaction to the participants and organizers - just like this year´s competition in Kecsked.

Palo LISHAK - RIVA models