Oct - Rcsoaring.com

The WorldChampionshipsThe Team EventThere were 77 individuals in the WorldChampionships with teams representing25 countries in the Senior event. Inthe Junior event, there were 44 pilots,with teams representing 17 countries.The extreme daily change in weatherconditions continued with no lift andno wind mornings to winds in the earlyafternoon from 15 to 22 knots. Twelve 10minute rounds were scheduled for thepreliminaries and six 15 minute roundsfor the fly-offs, each with a single throwout.Only 11 pilots would make thefly-offs for the seniors and nine for thejuniors. In addition, the number of planesflying at one time was reduced from the16 in the Spor Yapi Cup to just 11 in theWorld Championships.There is both a team event andan individual event in the WorldChampionships. The preliminary roundsdetermine two things. First, it determineswho makes it into the fly-offs to ultimatelydetermine the individual winners. In thefly-offs, your scores are wiped clean andyour scores literally start over. Second,the preliminary rounds also determine theplacing of the team.Although this was a F3J contest (athermal event), a slope fest broke out.The tents paralleled a line of treesdirectly downwind. The wind, blowingat 90 degrees to the tents with the treesbehind provided a little sloping action,directly overhead and well within arock throw. The slope action, althoughtechnically not allowed under the rules,was tolerated for four, five and as long assix minutes. You would be hard pressedto find a single pilot that could claim thathe/she never used the slope lift off thetents.During practice the day before theWorlds, Brendon landed off field with hisEspada RL. Brendon got lucky and couldactually see where the Espada wentdown and walked right to it. The fuselagewas messed up, the tail surfaces weretrashed, linkage was destroyed andOctober 2008 15