Short History of F3K
How we reached F3K as we know it today
(Extracted from the Official World Champs Programme 2017)
At the F3B World Championships in 1979 Amay, Belgium, one of the US team helpers was Dave Thornburg, author of Old Buzzard's Soaring Book and designer of the famed "Bird of Time".
He turned up with a third-sized version of his design, which was hand launched and attracted widespread interest. Amazingly Dave had stripped the cases off the receiver and servos in order to fit the frame, not a thing anyone did there.
He wanted to see a new class of RC gliders which could be thrown into the air. A year or two later he persuaded the AMA Nationals to include a contest for such models, the ironic result was that the contest was won by a conventional 3 metre thermal model which was hand launched and won, leaving all the smaller models for dead. Turn up early for any F3J contest and you will see pilots hand launching their models into lift and getting away into the clouds.
But by then, plenty of glider pilots had been attracted to the mini-model idea and a whole array were designed and tested, showing that hand launched models could perform well, were fun to fly and sharpened the ability to read thermals.
The real start of F3K contests as we know them today began in 1997. Dave Jones, editor and publisher of the English magazine QFI, visited the International Hand Launch Glider Festival in Poway, California. Daryl Perkins and Joe Wurts turned up and won first and second places in the contest with their energetic javelin launches. They could throw their planes far higher than most and were international champions already.
Joe Wurts competing at the 2017 F3K world champs
But the real treat for everyone there was Harold Locke, understood to have been partly disabled, who launched his Tactical ERR by grabbing the wing tip, rotating a semi circle or so, and gained surprising height.
Next step came shortly when Dick Barker in Seattle put a little tab under the polyhedral wing break to grip the model and rotated through the full 360 degrees before he let go. He had been a high school discus thrower. He took the tab away and gripped the wing tip and it still worked.
Last step is said to have originated in Germany when somebody installed a throwing peg at the tip. The next year or two saw pilots adding a metre or two of line extension around the peg to increase the moment arm. And also trials with gyros on the rudder to steady the launch. Even today, when all these early steps are long forgotten, designers are trying new shapes for throwing.
In the early days hand launch gliders were known as SAL side arm launch, or DLG Discus Launched Gliders. Almost overnight the javelin launch was gone. There was a quantum leap in performance. Suddenly anyone could launch as high as the best in the javelin days, with far less stress on the body. Chiropractors were out of business. Performances were doubled and more.
F3K was a term yet to be invented. Within a short time new models were launching at 60 - 70 metres. Of course wing sections, moulded wings, better carbon fibre skins made fuselages, wings, tailplanes and fins more rigid and efficient. Now we have difficulty in the world distinguishing between so many excellent models from all over.
It still takes the best pilot to win, sometimes with a little luck too.
We should all salute Dave Thornburg. Harold Locke and Dick Barker for the sport we love so much.
Uncle Sidney (Lenssen)
FAI F3K World Championships 2017
July, 23-29, Lviv, Ukraine
(Extracted from the Official World Champs Programme 2017)
At the F3B World Championships in 1979 Amay, Belgium, one of the US team helpers was Dave Thornburg, author of Old Buzzard's Soaring Book and designer of the famed "Bird of Time".
He turned up with a third-sized version of his design, which was hand launched and attracted widespread interest. Amazingly Dave had stripped the cases off the receiver and servos in order to fit the frame, not a thing anyone did there.
He wanted to see a new class of RC gliders which could be thrown into the air. A year or two later he persuaded the AMA Nationals to include a contest for such models, the ironic result was that the contest was won by a conventional 3 metre thermal model which was hand launched and won, leaving all the smaller models for dead. Turn up early for any F3J contest and you will see pilots hand launching their models into lift and getting away into the clouds.
But by then, plenty of glider pilots had been attracted to the mini-model idea and a whole array were designed and tested, showing that hand launched models could perform well, were fun to fly and sharpened the ability to read thermals.
The real start of F3K contests as we know them today began in 1997. Dave Jones, editor and publisher of the English magazine QFI, visited the International Hand Launch Glider Festival in Poway, California. Daryl Perkins and Joe Wurts turned up and won first and second places in the contest with their energetic javelin launches. They could throw their planes far higher than most and were international champions already.
Joe Wurts competing at the 2017 F3K world champs
But the real treat for everyone there was Harold Locke, understood to have been partly disabled, who launched his Tactical ERR by grabbing the wing tip, rotating a semi circle or so, and gained surprising height.
Next step came shortly when Dick Barker in Seattle put a little tab under the polyhedral wing break to grip the model and rotated through the full 360 degrees before he let go. He had been a high school discus thrower. He took the tab away and gripped the wing tip and it still worked.
Last step is said to have originated in Germany when somebody installed a throwing peg at the tip. The next year or two saw pilots adding a metre or two of line extension around the peg to increase the moment arm. And also trials with gyros on the rudder to steady the launch. Even today, when all these early steps are long forgotten, designers are trying new shapes for throwing.
In the early days hand launch gliders were known as SAL side arm launch, or DLG Discus Launched Gliders. Almost overnight the javelin launch was gone. There was a quantum leap in performance. Suddenly anyone could launch as high as the best in the javelin days, with far less stress on the body. Chiropractors were out of business. Performances were doubled and more.
F3K was a term yet to be invented. Within a short time new models were launching at 60 - 70 metres. Of course wing sections, moulded wings, better carbon fibre skins made fuselages, wings, tailplanes and fins more rigid and efficient. Now we have difficulty in the world distinguishing between so many excellent models from all over.
It still takes the best pilot to win, sometimes with a little luck too.
We should all salute Dave Thornburg. Harold Locke and Dick Barker for the sport we love so much.
Uncle Sidney (Lenssen)
FAI F3K World Championships 2017
July, 23-29, Lviv, Ukraine
