F3D Pylon World Championships
By Wayne Yeager
This was supposed to be a report on a glorious World Championship, where the U.S. dominated again and the contest was a wonderful experience with nothing but happy people from all over the world. We did have people from all over the world, but happy? Ha!
The fact is, it was a sad contest, and it was very poorly run.
I was Team Manager this time, which meant begging people for money to help defray costs and seeing to it that we all arrived at the right place, and not 5,000 miles somewhere else. I also had the task of writing protests and arguing with a Contest Director who often didn't understand what I was saying. On top of that, it was my responsibility to see that seven other team members weren't at each other's throats during the competition — all pleasant duties!
Team
- Richard Verano — flier
- Dave Shadel — flier
- Henry Bartle — flier
- Jim Shinohara — caller for Shadel
- Lyle Larson — caller for Bartle
- John Shannon — caller for Verano
- Dub Jett — additional flier (reigning World Champion; flying independently)
Arrival and finding practice sites
Most of us linked up in Munich, convoyed through Germany and across Austria to Villach, the headquarters for the World Championships. We arrived Wednesday, September 15. Official practice was scheduled for Saturday, so we had two days to scout for practice sites.
The provided map of Carinthia was nearly useless: tiny circles marked practice sites but were no more accurate than town markers. Fortunately Dave Shadel, who had been stationed in Germany, could speak some German and became our finder of fields. We learned to ask for the modellflugplatz.
One town produced a memorable search: two policemen motioned for us to follow, led us down alleys and a dirt road, and deposited us at a small flying strip about 80–90 yards long and 15 yards wide. It was fine for Pattern flying but too narrow for a proper pylon circle. The organizer suggested another site 60 miles away near a sailplane port; the airport had been locked but showed signs someone had flown off the hangar apron previously. We eventually found a picturesque valley field with a temporary 30-foot asphalt pad for ROA (rise-off-asphalt). Grass landings needed cutting (which never happened for the meet).
Local context and preparedness
There is no pylon racing in Austria — it had been outlawed by the president of their national modeling organization — so the local workforce and event management had no experience with F3D. The Event Director had never seen a race; none of the course workers had experience except an imported starter from Germany. In short: race management knew little about the event and was stubborn about suggestions.
Practice day was divided into 20-minute slots with two teams per slot, assigned alphabetically. That meant very limited practice time and no flexibility for repairs. It was mandatory to be at the flying site early to turn in transmitters, so teams like ours that were assigned late slots sat around most of the day. The organizer also started late one morning (40 minutes behind), and that delay carried through the day.
Because we had an extra flier (Dub Jett), we were allocated a bit more time. We finally started practice at 4:40 p.m., and only had a couple of flights each before rushing back to the hotel to clean up and drive to Velden for the opening ceremonies — by which time the parade was essentially over and all we heard was a speech in German.
Competition begins — organization and communication problems
The official competition started Monday the 20th. The initial flight matrix drew complaints because some team members were scheduled to race against their own teammates. The Jury suggested changes; rounds were announced just before they occurred. That worked but made planning difficult.
The Contest Director did not speak English; the starter spoke some English, but otherwise most course workers did not. Team Managers’ meetings suffered from poor translation. The CD spoke German and an interpreter gave an English version; often only about 60% of the meeting content was understood across the full international field. This lack of common understanding carried over to on-course operations.
Early rounds — cuts, side-judge horn, and flameouts
Scoring in F3D is time converted to seconds; being fast is everything. A cut time (flying inside a pylon or otherwise judged to have violated the pylon) carries a 10% penalty added to the time.
Round 1:
- Shadel recorded a cut at Pylon Three, turning a 1:13.8 (73.8 s) with a 10% penalty making the official time 81.2 s.
- Verano turned a 1:12.0 (72.0 s).
- Henry Bartle recorded a zero after a pressure fitting broke loose from his tuned pipe.
- Dub Jett flew 1:14.3 (not counting toward the U.S. team championship).
Multiple pilots complained of cuts being called at Pylon Three. Investigation showed a judge standing a few feet from the pole looking off at an angle. Attempts to move judges closer met mixed results and friction with the CD. On top of that, a side judge was repeatedly blowing a horn and using a makeshift sighting system that resulted in side-line cuts for pilots who were nowhere near a true sideline. After protests, the CD agreed to stop calling side cuts and removed those cuts from pilots who already had them.
Round 2:
- Verano: 1:09.7 (69.7 s) — fastest at the time.
- Bartle: 73.6 s.
- Shadel: zero (flameout).
Round 3:
- Strong team showing: Shadel 70.0 s, Bartle 73.5 s, Verano a blistering 67.2 s (fast time of the meet so far). Verano led overall.
Round 4:
- Verano 70.1 s, but Bartle, Shadel and Jett all recorded zeroes. Both Bartle and Shadel now had multiple zeroes, which would be droppable only under the scoring rules (worst score thrown out after four rounds; a second worst after nine rounds).
Round 5:
- Verano had another sub-70 (69.3).
- Shadel 71.8, Bartle 72.1.
- The U.S. team was in sixth place overall after five rounds, largely because of the zeroes.
The cage incidents and suspension of racing
In Round 6 the Number Three pylon cage had been set so that its protective cage stuck two or three feet too far onto the course. Instead of repositioning the cage, officials pushed the pole up through the top of the cage and left it there. The cage material was stiff (welded crossings) and not forgiving.
Dub Jett, following in dirty air, hit the cage and crashed. A pylon judge dove and cut his face on the cage, bleeding. The CD was visibly upset and suspended racing for the day a few heats short of completing the round. Jury discussions were hampered by the language barrier. The general consensus among teams was that the cage intruded into the course and was unsafe; if the cage had not been there, at worst a plane would have crashed into the ground and the judge would have been unhurt.
Tuesday morning they modified the course by adding overlapping plastic fencing tied to the pylon fence and staked out tent-style bottom panels around Pylons Two and Three — creating an obstruction eight to ten feet out onto the course. Immediately pilots were being given cuts for "flying too close" even when they were not inside pylons; the pylon judge was calling cuts for being close to the pole. Protests again failed to gain traction because of communication issues.
Mid to late rounds — standings and momentum
Round-by-round summary highlights:
- After Round 6: Verano led with 345.7 points; Pick (Germany) 362.5; Phelan 367.9; Stukerjürgen 374.7; Malina 386.6.
- Round 7: Verano 72.0; Bartle 72.2; Shadel 77.4 (cut). Jett had further zeros and fell out of contention.
- Round 8: Verano 72.5; Shadel 70.5; Bartle 74.1. Richard’s lead over Pick grew to 22.8 seconds.
- Round 9: throws began to alter standings after the second worst dropped. Verano’s consistency kept him in front: Verano led with 489.7; Phelan 508.9; Pick 512.4; Bartle moved to fourth and Shadel into fifth. The U.S. team jumped from sixth to second overall after the drop.
- Round 10: Bartle recorded another zero (pressure-fitting broke off his pipe) and was eliminated from top-three consideration.
After Round 12 (two rounds completed Thursday), Verano led with 704.6 points; Phelan 732.6; Pick 742.8; Shadel 744.6; Stukerjürgen 765.8. Team standings: U.S. second with 2,317.5 points behind Germany’s 2,274.6. With only two rounds to go, catching the Germans by flying alone was mathematically impossible; the only route to the team championship was for Germany’s third flier, Thomas Lindemann, who already had two zeroes, to pick up a third zero while the U.S. stayed clean.
Final day drama — fog, a refly, and the clincher
The final day began with dense fog and a late start. We had to start by a cutoff time or lose the day for Pattern events. We voted to fly and got in a delayed round.
- Shadel needed to beat Pick by 1.8 seconds; they were in the same heat. Pick double-cut, forcing him to count a previous throwaway of 81.3. Shadel turned 73.1 and moved into third overall.
- Henry Bartle raced Lindemann. After four laps Henry flamed out and coasted in dead-stick, which looked disastrous. But then a scoring mistake saved us: the lap-light over Henry’s lane was mistakenly turned on by the counter, so Henry shut down thinking he had finished. The lap counter admitted the mistake and the starter ordered a refly.
- Henry’s nerves showed during the refly; he had a bad landing and had to swap motors and pipes into a fresh airframe under frantic teamwork. He then reflew, and although his time was slow — 84.2 seconds (1:24.2) — he completed the ten laps. That slow refly counted, but crucially it put Lindemann out with another zero and allowed the U.S. team to move into first place.
So — despite the many procedural problems, course obstructions, cuts, flameouts and a dramatic refly — the U.S. team backed into the team championship.
Individual and awards
Richard Verano won the individual championship, leading from early on and flying intelligently and consistently. Congratulations to Richard — he flew like a champion.
On Saturday night we had the awards banquet: pictures, autographs, farewells and medal presentations. The next morning it was back to the airport and reality.
Final thoughts
I've attended five World Championships — twice as Contest Director, twice as Team Manager, and once as a spectator — and I have never raced quite like this. The trip included good people and memorable flying, but the meet was marred by poor organization, language barriers, inexperienced local personnel, dangerous course setup, and inconsistent officiating. It was a shame that an event that should have been a celebration of international competition was so badly managed, but in the end the pilots and crews worked together under pressure and came away with medals and memories.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
