F4F (Peanut) category could be the royal category regarding number of models, however, this year event could also be named Teplice 2009 Indoor Scale International, covering miniscale models of all sizes starting with my 18cm DH-2 1/48 up to monstrous models by Alfery, scale models with all possible drive types – rubber, CO2, electro, models of different control techniques, from pure free flight peanuts, pistachios, F4E-CO2 and F4D, over to timer controlled F4E-el up to perfectly controlled RC-mini, not mentioning great 3D aerobatics of RC flat models by Robert Cok (the only missing were indoor control line scale models – anyone heard of any ?). The word International covers 3 English modelers and 2-6 Slovaks.
A. Alfery hangar
Start, course and end according to time plan. That was made not only thanks to disciplined competitors but mainly due to the speed of static point jury and results processing – let us note Adam’s father, Mr. Jenik, who helps whenever needed and brings peace to the contest and brother Jano Jenik, who was running around with his laptop and put all the data to prepared spreadsheets so the results of each model were known almost immediately after the model landed.
We started the morning training with Adam by invitation to nice and cheap lunch at two p.m. in halfclosedhalfopened restaurant next door, we admired the number of models, gave modelers required shoe covers and flying started.
It all started with exhibition flights and this morning part of the day, meeting without contest nerves was very valuable. Everybody knows that during the contest Adam made 100sec flight, but did anybody see it ? Everyone is trimming the airplanes, rolling the rubber, … while from the morning part everyone remembers it all. Alfery’s Heinkel, Smart’s Flyer, Křepelka’s Avia, … I personally just made photographs and trimmed models more than necessary – my mistake, there was a lot to see, the most in those three short years I’m building model airplanes. Fifty models for contest! Twenty models for exhibition. Twenty modellers.
Always ready Robert Cok used every possible place and moment for aerobatics exhibition, Petr Konopásek attended with kids only for a moment, so we prepared all sheet S.E.5 pistachios for common flight over enemy trenches. And then it started. Bücker show of Viktor and Adam (they have five Bückers together!), catapult takeoffs of Wright brothers, never ending stream of various types from Tonda Alfery boxes through his sons… All those flights were fast, as in the meantime the models were transported to two groups of judges for static points awarding process. Pistachios and Peanuts flights before lunch, F4D, E and RC-min after lunch. In peanuts and pistachios Alfery wins with incredibly graceful flight of polystyrene Mustang and Kingfisher, Adam takes second place in peanuts with his “first one hundred flight, gentleman!” of his Bücker 131. F4D belongs to deserved victory of Peter Smart and his incredible model – catapulted and then gracefully flying Wright Flyer II, admired in the whole world. I won F4E thanks to perfect cooperation with Štefan Gašparín, as we build probably the smallest timer controlled model in the world, which half gram brushless electric motor developed especially for this model. Ivan Motyčka and Robert Cok were looking forward to introduce me to the mysteries of timing and microelectronics after the trim flight, however finally they had different task to solve: glue microwire to microtimer with microdrop of CA in tiny space of micromodel fuselage so that there was electric contact (we had no soldering gun available).
Points awarding of F4D,E was not easy, as the models did not want to fly due to bad weather, humidity and antithermic chimney in the middle of the stadium. And when models flew, the wind dragged them behind the judges to the seats. I have to tell you, to watch Alfery’s Bearcat to crash into the substitutes bench, that hurts… Volksplane by Chris Strachan flew nicely, using all the space, close to the barrier, applause was given also to his Lippisch Storch. My DH2 finally flew – by pure luck the high power of freshly charged battery and unsuitable “weather” conditions somehow compensated. From the judges I have heard “It’s too small, I can’t see it…”.
Judging RC miniscales was fascinating for me, to see how nervous pilots trying to make horizontal eight in constrained conditions of dark stadium are literally executed by loud judges notes “Look, that was totally wrong”, or “Where are you flying, you fool”, or (when model was destroyed during the take off crash into barrier) “Zero points”. When poor David was surprised that he got no points after almostok loop of his small, overweight and hard to control Tigermoth, he got laconic answer: “You did not announce the figure, boy”. Peter Smart was flying the whole time wherever the model wanted to go, as Peter was checking the judges, as they shout various commands in incredible speed (e.g. ordering me out of the “airfield”) and discuss something over Peter’s papers, what kind of figure is it and what comes next: “Announce, announce, guys, announce!”. Peter is concentrated on touch-and-go, so I announce instead of him “touch-and-go”, it’s clear – we need an interpreter, so Antonin jumps in and tells Peter what he is supposed to fly according to papers, then they agree that it would be better if Peter tells Tonda what he flies, regardless the paper and Tonda will translate (they are lucky as Peter’s BE-2c is so incredibly slow). So Peter shouts “Landing!”. Meanwhile Adam gets nervous, as his heavy RC peanut is not yet perfectly in his hands, so Adam lets Tomas, experienced RC aerobatics pilot, to give him some advice. However, the advice “when you do the fourpoint roll, you have to finish the second roll in front of judges” does not make Adam any less nervous. Finally Tonda Alfery won the competition.
The final moments were filled with awards and satisfaction of the modelers. I have to say that to see experienced modelers as Alfery, Cok, Smart to receive the awards with happy smiles indicating nice time, it was a big reward for all the organizers. Štefan gave brushless motor according to modelers choice, Microinvent gave timer (0,10 g weight!!), Jirka Kalina several kits of indoor models in top quality and KE-PNUT-TEAM publications and covering papers. Nice awards, right?. Here you can download Teplice F4F 2009 results [pdf, 163kB].
Guests from Britain: Peter Smart, Chris Strachan and Neil Sommerin These gentlemen do not need a introduction. I personally knew their models from Mike Stuart pages before I watched my first Openscale and it was great experience for me to see my “internet gurus” face to face. Flying wing Lippisch Stroch is incredible model, flying in steady circles, similarly Wright Flyer taking off the rubber catapult, model than slows down to really slow flight (walking speed), two propellers running, nice landing, simply beautiful! And it won, congratulations! (Peter can successfully trim Pitts pistachio, that even our top miniscale modeler Lubomír Koutný did not predicted higher position than “on TV set”.)
In the part of the hall with the best light conditions a group was standing that needs light – producers of tiny electrical equipment Ivan Motyčka and Robert Cok, the guys from Microinvent, with them also Petr Hyl (if I’m not mistaken) and Štefan Gašparín, big fan of progress in modeling and producer of great brushless motors for medium size, small size and super extreme tiny models. Robert Cok unwrapped oldish well flying peanuts, but he mainly put his attention to trimming RC-miniscales (not counting his peanut size powerfull aerobatics planes). Finally he showed excellent flight (with highest rank) with RCpeanut Air 1. Model was flying so slowly and lightly as it weight nothing – and it weights 17 g, that is truly not much. It light impression possibly surpassed Peter’s nice Be-2. Only the static points are not too high, well, it’s a simple model. Štefan had bad luck as he crushed his Avia, long time ago it was Felda’s peanut, rebuilt to F4E-el. We trimmed the model on meadow in Říčany, all it needed was balancing, in Teplice it was ready for flight and now this. Finally after some repairement and more balancing it flew in the evening. Štefan sets propeller angles by sight, “eye is sensitive and precise” he says. His eye really is sensitive and precise, as his electric motors are of weight and dimensions of aspirin and he can put the whole equipment for DH-2 model (of 17.9cm wingspan) together with wires as thin as nylon thread. Moreover, when I was a bit afraid of the weight of 1/48 scale engine by Eduard, he milled the cylinders to thin shell only. By the way, the drag of rotating scale engine is surprisingly high in high rpms – while without the engine the model can fly with 40% power, with the engine it requires 80% minimum.
Just behind Štefan the Alfery family had their depot. Tonda Alfery was announcing that he “takes everything” and he did as he said! Just to walk by his boxes was inspiring. I realized that I’m still at the beginning. Only now, after fifteen, twenty models I’m beginning to built models that I could leave for “out of the box” after twenty years, as Tonda. Luckily not everything Tonda had with him was flying just out of the box, as in such a case the frustration would be unbearable. Tonda’s sons were provoking him and he let them – and he showed everything. The whole competition can be characterized by his P-51 Mustang model with 33 cm wingspan. Model is all made of styrene, it is shiny and smooth and perfectly colored, with four-bladed propeller and it still can fly hundred seconds with steady beautiful slow flight taking off the ground. His Aircobra is the same. And Tigercat and Bearcat do not need more introduction. Tonda’s visit increased the quality and number of models on the competition by half at least.
David Paškevič, father & son noted in Rakovnik that they have to try to make something rubberpowered for Teplice. “School is over, I have the grades, it must be ready in ten days…” I proposed Bristol Fighter, printed the covering and he really made the model in one week – incredible. Stringings, machine guns, exhaust pipes, everything. Well, you know, it need some balancing…. So David was traveling from Štefan’s electrotable to KE-Pnut-Team and discovered that Tan SS 2008 rubber is really not all that good, when trimmed model with 3.2 rubber with 1500 rolls does not make more than quarter of a second. Hopefully it will go better next time.
KE-Pnut-Team, the organizer of the competition was almost complete, only Tonda Mejtský, airliner pilot was left home (Tonda showed his models week earlier, this time he was somewhere in the air). Adam Jeník, Mr. Jeník, Jano Jeník, guys from Košice. Adam, team captain, was playing with Buckers, well known models. There was one new one, pistachio Bucker with checkerboard on the wing was hard to distinguish from Viktor’s peanut. And was bad and bad. But as even Mr. Alfery said, “today it’s humid, the models do whatever they want”. On the other hand, Bü 131 peanut was good and with two rubber bands of SS 2005 with over 2000 rolls it brought Adam to second position and nice personal record. Viktor Lukáč draw professional plan for building and covering of several version of Bü 131, hopefully it will show up soon in Models section on this server. Viktor built one of versions and it flies incredibly slowly and elegantly. “But it does not have enough seconds, and that is what matters…” So for Viktor, his plan was winning via Adam’s model. Martin Huk tested several methods of covering with six gram on his Latecoere Late and the result was so good that Peter Smart needed to have it… And here is another tendency I would like to support – model exchange. The winning models. Ha! You win the category – give your model! Or not ? Btw, Martin put 2005 rubber instead of 2007 to his Caudron 1912 and reached over 80 s! There is something about that rubber. Robert Pajas, that is me, came from the maternity hospital “just for a moment”, to stay whole day. I was mainly trying to trim the project I did with Štefan, DH-2 with timer by Microinvent, motor and propeller from Štefan, equipment weight 1.8g, equipped model total weight 4.1g. The angles were the problem. You know, to convince pusher engine located in COG to balance reaction moment is not an easy task. Finally the model flies in left circles, while the ailerons and rudder are to right! But it took me sooo much time…. Furthermore, the model has such a drag that when motor shuts off, the model falls as a stone – we have to perfectly time it, as we have the timer. And we succeeded, DH-2 won.
Close to KE-Pnut-Team table Petr Onemichl operated with his Farman and he trimmed the model perfectly. Peter smiles no matter how his models fly, but this time he was literally shining over his plane. Similar shine could be observed with the cook Michal Křepelka, his models did not betray him. Michal is one of the modellers influenced by Radek Gregovský. His models are precisely and nicely built, with great design, 3view holds perfectly, propeller selfmade and very, very nice, model light..
In dark part of the hall Martin Hartl and Ondra Krucký conspired. Ondra’s Borel disturbed even Tomáš Ciniburk - "How can it fly?" And everyone was disturbed by Marin’s twinengine Arado. First of all, it is covered with printed condensed paper. And secondly, it made 36 seconds of two three-bladed propellers in nice steady flight. By the way, Martin built and covered nice sport plane – sprayed white, that needs expertise, check the Rakovnik event report. Dušan Garba is always a perfect competitor. Who knows him from the competitions would confirm that he flies all the trials, uses every minute for trimming, never leaves anything to chances. However, this time his well flying Farman had too high competition with more complicated types. Even though, it was fourth position – potato medal. Pavel Formánek was the same: "when this model is over, there will be no model left to fly…," but he always builds something and surprise with great flights – as now with his Nieuport.
Judges Václav Šťastný, Josef Spousta, Pavel Lebr, Mirek Rohlena, Tomáš Ciniburk are experienced, they trained Adam in Rakovník. Tomáš even keeps with him tiny airplane on a rod, so he can show any aerobatics maneuver, its correct and incorrect versions, and how many points we can expect. He is also able to measure any bad flight with his stop watch in a way that it is only trial attempt and poor modeller has another chance (well, eight chances) to destroy his model. And that’s what miniscale modeling is about, not just build, but also destroy, so there is continuous progress.
Text: Rober Pajas
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