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VIKING RACE = DIVING RACE ? ...
This 2002 Viking Race was full of surprises, as you will judge by yourself !
Donovaly, a small and nice ski ressort, is located in the central area of Slovakia, near Banka Bristisca. The majority of the competitors was staying at the hotel/penzion Zornicka only 100 m far from the lift that we had to use every day, before to walk during 15 to 25 minutes to reach the slope site (between 1350m and 1400m high) depending of the wind direction. 3 slopes were available. We started the comp on the north slope, to finish it on the south slope, with a short attempt on the south-east.
The competition started smoothly, but at round 4, things changed drastically, when Austrian pilots decided to fly downhill (deeply) to achieve 40's times in a 55 to 60 s air.
Rapidely, other pilots (Barbarian, England, France, USA, Norway, ...) protested, proclaiming that it was not in the F3F spirit. Maybe this is true, but unfortunately, FAI rules allow that!
The full story: In fact, the story started 1 year ago when VKR organizers have done a first warmup competition (Donovaly cup) to validate some organization points. Austian pilots went to this event and already used this flying style. This is why the organizers decided at that time to limit to time for landing to 2 minutes or you get -100 penalty. Some months before the VKR, they received some pressure to suppress this local rule, on pain of boycott (really sad !), but organizers resisted ...
The only flaw of this local rule was the landing area definition that was including everything located left to the base A! So, Austrians used this flaw and sometimes landed or even crashed downhill within the 2 minutes in order to not get any penalty points !!!! Stupid.
The majority of the pilots agreed around a rule change proposal to prevent of that, but the Jury refused this proposal. I can tell you that the atmosphere between participants became electrical the next day ...
Another protest is accepted and round 7 is even cancelled. Organizers decide to interrup the competition. On thursday, a briefing with all pilots is organized, then with team managers, and it is decided to return to the FAI rules, only the FAI rules. However, the landing area is now on the top of the slope and a landing outside this zone is a zero flight. but the time for landing is now unlimited !
"Downhillers" (the pilots flying downhill) have won the battle and can now systematically dive to achieve good times even if it take 10 minutes to climb and land on top of the slope. Many thermals allow most "downhillers" to return to the top of the slope without any problem. But the competition rythm slowed down, and a round takes now around 3 hours to be flown.
Among the "non downhillers", some pilots decide to become "downhillers" to not be distanced in the ranking. I'm part of them (with 3 downhill rounds)... like Joe Wurts, Espen Torp, and some others. But the Brits refuse to fly downhill and stay on the slope edge, even if their scores largely suffered as a result.
To summarize, you need to be a good F3B pilot to fly downhill, then a good F3J pilot to find a thermal and land on top. Maybe, this is why Joe Wurts adapted himself so well and finally finished 3rd ;-))))
I personnally understand their decision.
This turning point explains the final ranking, where pilots from the top 10 were flying downhill almost from the beginning ...
Apart that flying aspect, the organizers really made a excellent job, and I want to thanks them for all the effort they put before and during the competition. Logistic was just perfect, and they even offered a hot drink (tea + rhum) on the slope to the pilots on Monday afternoon, when the temperature + wind was so cold !!! "Chapeau bas" as we say in french !
On the glider side, the way the race turned into cannot allow to really give any conclusions about such or such plane performances. However, the Freestyler (Martin Herrig's plane) is really impressive with its home design section AH. Martin flies it very well and deserves his victory, even if he got almost always good air ;-) The Nyx is also working well. About Stings, I have been more impressed by the big-sting (Roman's one) than by the new-sting, even if they are very close in term of design.
And now, what about the futur ?
I really don't know. I personnaly found the "diving F3F" boaring, as pilot, but especially as spectator. It becomes just a matter of stopwatches and bip sounds, and you need good eyes to follow the flight 400 m down !!! I participated to 4 viking races, but I will reconsider my participation to such races if they become systematically diving races...
Numerous discussion already started to propose some fair rule(s) that allow raisonnable dive but not as deep as we have seen in slovakia.
The following proposal from Marcel Guwang seems interresting:
According to Marcel, the advantages are numerous:
Marcel really would like to see this rule to be adopted by the F3F community and finally by the CIAM. The 2min time can still be changed to adapt to each slope and so adjust the dive depth. For some slopes with difficult landing areas, the landing time can be replaced by a back-to-eye level time of 1 min or less.
I didn't want to finish without to thanks the US team that organized a very pleasant BBQ on Friday evening at Chata Zvolen. Many french pilots will remember this party for a long time !
The Banquet and price giving with a raffle was good. Everybody left with something going from the T-shirt to an Ellipse 2V !!! Thank you to the sponsors.
1. Martin Herrig Germany1 7752 (Freestyler)
2. Vaclav Vojtsek Czech2 7491 (Sting)
3. Joe Wurts USA1 7253 (Icon)
4. Hermann Haas Austria1 7202 (Ellipse 2 / New Sting)
5. Espen Torp Norway1 7183 (X21)
6. Stefan Holbfer Austria2 7161 (Nyx)
7. Bernard Pomberger Austria1 7125 (Nyx)
8. Jaroslav Triska Czech2 7054 (New Sting)
9. Vaclav Blaha Czech2 6992 (New Sting)
10. Gerhard Steiner Austria2 6974 (Nyx)
11. Pierre Rondel France1 6947 (Caracho)
12. Roman Vojtech Lomcovak 6938 (Big Sting)
13. Tim Cone USA1 6907 (Nyx)
14. Kevin Newton Wales 6888 (Pike MG06)
15. John McCurdy England1 6845 (Pike WR)
...
22 Marcel Guwang France (Miraj)
23 Didier Lanot (Tempus/Caracho)
26 Yves Tirand (big Mach)
31 Remi Girard (Element)
39 Alexis Marechal (Miraj 30.8)
53 Andreas Fricke (Miraj 30.8)
...
To finish, there are two candidates for the VKR 2004: USA and Austria ... We will see what will be the VKR commitee decision !
Other web site:
Full results on WWW.F3F.NET
I let you enjoyed the numerous pictures I took there:
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