Spanish F5K Championships
Taking place in Sevilla on 25th/26th of September, 2021, it was the first F5K national championships ever!
In 2020, after approximately one year of work by Nederlander Brian van der Gouw, the introduction of F5K as an official category was approved at the CIAM plenary meeting.
And What Is This F5K?
Its long name is Thermal Duration Gliders for Multiple Task Competition with Electric Motor and Altimeter/Motor Run Timer (or AMRT).
It basically consists of performing several duration tasks with motor gliders of up to 1.5m wingspan, equipped with an altimeter that controls motor cut height and time.
Then the new F5K category appeared in the Volume F5 Radio Control Electric Powered Motor Gliders 2021 Edition (see Resources below for the link).
In the south of Spain a great man, Luis Manuel Gonzalez, immediately expressed his interest in promoting the category.
Indeed, many contestants of the F5J electric gliders category miss some ‘dynamism’ in the 10 minute duration flights. Moreover, the extremely playful F3K became almost impossible for many pilots with physical limitations. The F5K seems to bring together the ‘good sides’ of both categories.
A Spanish F5K Championship?
Then Luis Manuel announces it: in 2021, if the damn virus allows us, we will organize a Spanish F5K championship. Friends get ready! He is not a beginner in organizing the first national championships of a new category! Just 10 years ago he already dared with the first Spanish F5J championship — successfully!
At the beginning of 2021 Luis Manuel started a communication work on this new category, publishing several articles through the blog on the F5J en España website (see Resources, below). He explained step-by-step the rules and the tasks to be performed. In parallel, the F5 subcommittee of the Spanish Federation translated the sporting rules into Spanish.
The pilots interested in the category began to exchange about the models in the market, the homemade designs, the powertrains and the like. The date of the Spanish championship was confirmed for September 25th and 26th, organized by the Club Radiocontrol Sevilla, in the south of Spain.
While the pilots were building and testing their models, the organization continued with their preparation, for example, checking the correct operation of the contest management program, Gliderscore. It is worth mentioning that the manufacturer of the only valid altimeters to date, AerobTec, was very reactive and released a new firmware before the competition, correcting some bugs and improving the flight display.
Due to the configuration of the field, it was decided to make some concessions to the regulations for the issue of landing points. Instead of placing several hexagons as individual pilot zones, it was decided to delimit a single pilot zone, about 50m by 70m, in which the pilots chose a launch/landing point (marked by plastic spots). This allowed the organization to lighten the field preparation tasks and avoid extra work when the wind direction changed, which happened in the two days of the contest.
As the date approached, registrations were closed with 11 pilots. The entry list has perhaps been impaired by the date very close to the Spanish F5J championship. But after a first part of the year with still many limitations due to COVID-19, the 2021 calendar had to be ‘tight’.
On Friday before the competition weekend, the pilots who came from further afield (Catalonia and the Balearic Islands) began to arrive to discover the field and train a bit. The day was sunny and quite windy but we were able to have a nice day of flights.
The Competition Begins — Day 1
Then finally came Saturday the 25th, the first day of the competition. After giving the pilots time to greet each other, to mount and test their models, the contest began with a faultless briefing, explaining clearly the two-day program and clarifying any doubts that arose.
The organizers then proceeded to a technical verification of the models, which consisted mainly of a check of the wingspan and a measurement of the minimum weight of the model ready to fly.
To ensure that the models had a compliant wing loading (> 12g / dm²), pilots had been asked in advance to report the FAI surface of their models. By the way, more information about each model could be collected; a table I share here:
According to the wind forecast, it had been decided to set the reference motor cut altitude at 70m, for the two days.
The program planned by the organization was to carry out 15 rounds, 10 on Saturday and five on Sunday. This program was carried out without any problem, with two groups of six pilots.
The five tasks of the F5K rules were then carried out three times each in the following order:
The flight conditions on the first day were quite variable. We had rounds with little wind and a lot of thermal activity, but the day ended with a sustained wind breaking any thermals and forcing the pilots to fight with narrow bubbles within large sink areas.
Despite the novelty of the category, the good preparation of the pilots and the excellent briefing made the contest run without major problems. Only a misunderstanding in the sequence of buzzers in Task C (all up) caused a pilot to take off when he shouldn’t…and another didn’t take off on time. This problem is now fixed in Gliderscore with now differentiated buzzer tones.
At the end of the first day, the ranking was very tight between the top seven pilots, despite observing very different strategies among some conservative guys cutting higher but ‘guaranteeing’ flight time, and others more aggressive with more risky cuts to win rounds, but with some failed flights.
The Competition Continues — Day 2
The second day dawned more covered, with a bit of fog, but it dissipated before resuming the competition and we finally had very good flight conditions, with huge thermal activity, allowing to see beautiful battles with low cuts. The podium was contested until the last round.
At the end of the last flight, the organization took some time to check the results. Meanwhile the pilots were exchanging their impressions on the category in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. The general feeling was very good. All the pilots, of any level, had had an excellent time and they all agreed on how great this new category is.
And The Winners Are?
Finally, the official results were announced with gifts for every pilot and some beautiful trophies and medals for those on the podium.
Conclusions and Suggestions
A total of 428 competition flights were performed without observing any collision or any discomfort between pilots. Only one pilot (unfortunately myself) lost the radio link of his model at Round 8, which flew freely for 1min 30, at 900m far away from the field. It was the only incident of the weekend.
Everyone (pilots and organizers) has been enthusiastic about this first experience with the category. It allows a ‘light’ organization even for a contest with official timekeepers like this national championship. For local self-timing contests, a single person managing Gliderscore would be enough.
We also have seen that this category allows to be 100% competitive with a homemade model or an adapted F3K model (and probably better with an old generation one). This is a very positive thing because, in addition to a very low cost of the motor set, it allows an easy access to a great FAI category, without an economical barrier.
From here, I want to encourage other nations to start organizing competitions and make this F5K category takes off. You will not regret it!
©2021 Nicolas Ridray
Resources
All images and figures by the author and Leticia Cobos unless otherwise noted. Read the next article in this issue, return to the previous article in this issue or go to the table of contents. A PDF version of this article, or the entire issue, is available upon request.
