Czech Championship F5J and Samba Cup 2019

Championship of Czech Republic F5J
with international participations - 7 Nations participating
8th Samba cup and Czech Championship F5J 2019
15-16.06.2019, Sebranice, Policka Letiste airport

Yes, the writing is a bit influenced by me having a long relationship with Samba. Sorry about that :-)

The trip started in Norway with 2 hours driving before the night was spent on a ferry to Germany, Kiel. From there Google maps said 8 hours to reach Sebranice in Czech Republic where Samba Model have their work. In reality it took 11 hours but I arrived in time for some evening food.
The next morning (Friday) the Vostrel family was fully occupied with preparing for this weekends competition that had grown to over 100 entered pilots. But they had prepared a new model for me that I only had heard about and seen some work photos of. I had made a simple design I wanted and both servos and motor was installed. Before lunch I had installed the receiver, programmed and got some testflights in with fun video included on a nearby field.

The proper way to have 5minute break in Czech Republic!
Prestige PK2 from Samba Model. Designed by Philip Kolb. Looking nice so far!

First flights done! Mostly empty (1250g) but also a couple with ballast. Looking good so far :-)Samba Model Prestige 2PK designed by Philip Kolb. Let's say in memory of Mustafa Koc!! Or at least for me

The rest of the day was spent on the competition site with meeting friends and getting a couple more flights in. Settings was on a paper from the designer Philip Kolb and a few other local pilots had flown it briefly the last week. This gave mee some start settings though I did my own tests with different CG and camber. The differential was also some work - though apparently the model flies 90% of a circle with only rudder/elevator! Conditions varied a little but since it was brand new and my version was a very light 1200-1250g model (it is big with 86dm2 or so) I could not get enough ballast in. Luckily I had this feeling before I arrived so I had a plan for making extra ballast in the outer part of the midsection. Drill was found and a copper tube I converted with dremel cut into the foam core leaving perfect space for Tungsten ballast on the CG. This meant apx 2000g model and hopefully enough for medium conditions.

Btw my light prestige (1200-1250g) has this motor: Axi 2217/12 long 4mm shaft. Gives me enough power for this light plane. Even 185m in wind and 2kg plane. I used Talon35 (no amp limit so i recommend bigger esc), tattu 850mah3s and 12x6 RF prop. Apx 40A in flight. I did try 1800mah3s tattu and gave 215m with 2kg plane. And 1300mah3s racing drone battery gave 200m in 20sec in finals. But motor and controller is a lot hotter.

Saturday morning and winds were high at the start of the contest. I had to use my good friend Pike Dynamic with ballast for 2,4kg auw for the first two rounds as the winds were 8-10m/s and for sure more in higher altitude as we were on the back of a slightly curved airfield (Policka Letiste airport). I have never flown an international F5J competition though I do have 3-4 local competitions since I have focused on F3J up untill now. And in this competition we flew up to 14 pilots in each group and 7 groups in each round. Big line but absolutely no problems during launch. A couple of dings happend during landings and a plane was lost flying the wrong model. Not as many crashes as I had expected listening to people flying big eurotours.

Rd1 finished with some really difficult flights (3min) and some with huge thermals. 10m/s wind and more in altitude as we are on a slight backside of a hill. I managed full time but misjudged the altitude when I scooped far front (262m). So first flight for me was good I thought untill I read my altimeter. A big penalty for every meter above 200m meant I started a bit far down the list after round one was finished. Anyhow a good learning curve in my first international F5J competition. Flew Dynamic as morning flying showed i did not have big enough motor to get far front with my Prestige 2PK. Hopefully the wind comes down midday so I can fly it. Lots of smiling faces though some comes back from the spot early or from a walk downwind...

In second round I did fairly well and managed to control the altitude to 193m but had some turbulence in the landing so missed that. Otherwise good. Flying 2.4kg Dynamic again. Some guys were killing the groups by flying full and the rest flew only 5min. Some groups were even won flying only 4:30

It was windy but hot in Czech Republic this weekend. The Viking Moose from Norway needed lots of Lemonade from the on field tap and ice cream from the freezer!!

In 3rd round the winds were finally down to 5-6m/s or so making me able to fly my brand new Prestige 2PK designed by Philip Kolb and produced by Samba Model. Decent score but I still had to fine tune my starting heights and realiced getting the excact altitude needs a lot more practice. Where I stopped the motor was not what I read afterward!! But the altimeter (Alti V4) does not lie as I have done many tests on it also at work planes. Used 3 different thermals and speed was good with 2kg Prestige 2PK. Should have pushed the nose down when I hit a thermal after 15sec motortime. But instead I stopped the motor and gained speed level before I started climbing after the 10sec measuring period (the F5J altitude is calculated 10sec after the motor is stopped)

Still I managed some good rounds as I flew well I think. The conditions was cruel to those not paying attention or possibly was not using enough ballast (or I was lucky). After round 5 I was in 4th position and knew I did not have to start very low as we were late in the day and sunday was supposed to rain a lot.

In rd5 I had "beep -beep beeeep" as I plugged in... recoupled two times and got the correct beeps.. lost 20sec but still managed to win the group by a minute! Jihaa and with 156m that I think was lowest. it was my well used Alti soldering that had gone bad. Almost impossible to check... and I know why. It had previously been installed a bit tight in an earlier model. All my log files from this competition can be found HERE

Conditions were now calmer with 4-5m/s with calm 2-3m/s periods. We stopped for 20min on a rain shower and lightning in the north. But warm and sunny! Started to love my Prestige and were slowly removing ballast with confidence building. I also think I had been lucky with the groups as my placing was fine.

The feeling was Philip Kolb had done it again. Yet again he designed a plane that flies almost by itself. I have not found the sweet spot in high winds yet but it moves forward in all conditions thrown at it so far. When you put in distance camber1 it immediately plows forward without any bump or hesitation. Putting in more up camber (I have 1-3mm in slider) just increases speed without touching the elevator. Same with thermal camber. Just set the speed you want with the camber. With current joiners I dont even need to touch ailerons after I have put it up in an angle - no matter how tight the circles are almost.
This all sounds too good to be true maybe. But it does feel good. Just have to get a stronger version with heavy motor for windy 8m/s++ or enough ballast and decent motor. But for a superduperlight up to 5-6m/s or so the tiny axi I got installed is great and save you a bit of weight too.
Oh btw.. it comes with removable nose cone and you install everything before you cut it ON THE BACKSIDE to fit your CG. No more fuzz scratching your head on weights of wires etc. Rudder is removable too so that you can pack this thing down to a tiny box (wing is 3 piece and centre panel with sleeves are 168cm).

State of the art F5J setups
Both 30 and 32mm available and space for outrunner
"normal" receiver fits

Round 6....
Sooo. I did the rookie mistakes that I like to tell all others. When you suddenly have to change spotter during a competition you dont necessarily need to listen to him.. And especially when his team have some internal words for how high you are compared to others during launch (30sec decision on how high you should launch). So I ended up 50m lower than the rest and further back than the rest. Then I found a smooth thermal in 100m altitude but left it because the spotter was talking a lot of good things about the forest 200m right. It was NOT his mistake. Dont ever leave a positive thermal. Especially upwind.. It was my mistake not being used to him as spotter and I am pilot in decision.. Anyhow I was sitting in 4th place and only needed a safe round. Now I thought i had felt some places but still in the finals (14 pilots).
We had to stop for dinner and light missing only 2 groups.
Now food was served and next day rain was coming. .

But what a nice dinner! A huge wooden stove turned the pork around for hours and hours. Feeding 100+ people is no joke. It was a nice way to end the day with some hot food on the table.

Tombola (lottery) with a HUGE amount of prices.
This competition showed the potential of a tombola. Not a grand price for the winner but a chance for anyone to win fantastic prices from the sponsors. Just look at that long list of super goods that we all love to have. All got to buy 3 tickets for 4eur each. And if some did not buy tickets those were sold in the lunch for eager pilots

winner of one of the two JR Dee Force radios (8ch so super for F5J and I have been a JR dude since early 2000)

Sunday morning showed promissing sun and calm weather but in the distance clouds were rolling in and we had the first rain early. It was decided to try finishing round 6 and then try 7 but decide after round 6 last groups were done.

Then finals!!! Weather was ok with 4-6m/s first round. 2 pilots with full time. Thermals were there. Sometimes soft and not always easy to read. I went above my head for a read and it was ok but changed to some other guys out right and back. Got full time but need more fiddling around that butterfly break to land properly.
Second final and now the clouds are getting lower. I went alone straight back for a read out back. Ended again safer with others right side. When a thermal was found half way thru the round many of us disappeared in clouds. So 2-3 circles and leave it for the next. I think I went thru 6-7 thermals to finish with full time. We were only 6 with full time.
We started rd3 final but had to stop after a few minutes as most flew into low clouds.
I ended up 2nd and are very happy flying the plane for the first time on friday at lunchtime... getting it at 09:00 ?? It is easy to fly!!

Highest altitude award. There was a price for this and the winner got a bottle of vodka!! I almost won this one with 265m in first round...

See you next year? Or : Look back at 2918 HER