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Ralph Mittelbach’s van<br />
The American’s<br />
borrowed tent<br />
In this article I’ll first examine F3K at the<br />
world class level by taking you to the<br />
2008 Germany Open and then discuss<br />
the F3K US team selections as we<br />
prepare for the F3K worlds in 2011.<br />
The German Open was announced in<br />
December 2007 and by January the<br />
roster was full with 130 registrants and<br />
many more just too late to sign up.<br />
RCGroups was a buzz with the details of<br />
the event and nine Americans ended up<br />
attending.<br />
In total, there were 19 countries<br />
represented, most of the contestants<br />
were from Europe, but that hardly meant<br />
the <strong>com</strong>petition was lacking!<br />
The Open allowed for some of the best<br />
<strong>com</strong>parisons of international flying skills<br />
and model designs ever. Many of the<br />
top ranking pilots from the States were<br />
in attendance, and with lots of familiar<br />
callers available (with English as their<br />
first, and often only, language) it was<br />
a pretty fair <strong>com</strong>parison of the best in<br />
Europe and the US.<br />
The conclusion? Well, we’re pretty darn<br />
close... in the end it was decided by one<br />
second — Oleg Golovidov (USA) finished<br />
second to Jonas Blomdahl of Sweden,<br />
and Ralph Mittelbach of Germany was a<br />
close third.<br />
As my new British friend Tony so aptly<br />
put it, “Somebody has to win.”<br />
The British contingent’s<br />
serious tent<br />
26 R/C Soaring Digest
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