XFC 2007 is in the Books

[wizard]

Well, its all over but the celebrating. The FlyingGiants would like to congratulate all the contestants in this year's XFC. You are all winners just for being in the competition. One of the competitors summed it up best. He was holding his plaque talking about how some of his friends would rib him about his finishing position, and this is what he had to say, "They can talk all they want, this will be hanging on my wall. Not theirs!"

Sunday, the only thing hotter than the runway was the sequences flown by the pilots. As the wind picked up, so did the level of competition. Even mother nature tried to cool them off with a nice little thunder storm. It didn’t work. As soon as the rain stopped the flying continued. With everyone just turning it up that one last notch. The competition was over and everyone I talked with waiting for the final results was saying the same thing, "I glad I wasn’t one of the judges. It would have been a daunting task to decide the winners."

[wizard]

Here are the photos of the top 10 from each discipline.

10th place Helicopter Jason Krause.


10th place Airplane Carlos Vargas Hernandez.


9th place Helicopter Bert Krammerer.


9th place Airplane Devon McGrath


8th place Helicopter Danny Szabo


8th place airplane Jason Danhakl


7th place Helicopter Mark Fadely


7th place Airplane Mike McConville.

Mike left before the award ceremony to spend the remainder of Father's Day with his daughter.


6th place helicopter Colin Bell.


6th place airplane John Glezellis.


5th place helicopter Dominik Haegael.


5th place airplane Ido Segev.


4th place helicopter Scott Grey.


4th place airplane Mark Leseberg


3rd place helicopter Daniel Jetschin.


3rd place airplane Andrew Jesky.


2nd place helicopter Bobby Watts.


2nd place airplane Gernot Bruckman.


1st place Helicopter Alan Szabo.


1st place airplane Jason Noll.



The Helicopter podium.


The airplane podium.



The 1st to 3rd place for both disciplines.

[wizard]

The weekend was full of ups and downs. There was great flying by all. Every competitor was pushing it to the limit. There were some planes lost and some damaged. Everyone finished the competition regardless of the damaged aircraft.







John Glezellis had problems early and lost his aircraft due to technical problems, because of the good will of Mark Leseberg and Tony Russo, he was able to compete with Mark’s Dalton.


Getnot Bruckman had his engine flame out and had a HARD landing Saturday morning, stressing the airframe and damaging the stabs. Everyone pitched in with supplies and even a set of stabs courtesy of John Glezellis. He did miss the Saturday round of unknowns but his Friday scores were high enough to advance him to Sunday and he was able to compete, flying to a second place finish.







Sunday morning Jason Noll was pushing it to the limit and got just a touch to low. He ended up making an early full power landing breaking a prop and doing some damage to his plane. Within just a couple of minutes of the end of the round a group of his fellow competitors here helping him to make repairs. He was able to fly in the very next round. One thing about the group helping him make the repairs there were red shirts right next to the orange ones.





To me, this is one of the greatest things about this hobby / sport. Most of the people I have met in this hobby will bend over backward to help you out in any way they can.

[wizard]

Over the course of the weekend I had a chance to see Justin Chi fly in person for the first time. This 4 year old flies better than a large percentage of the modelers out there. It is almost discouraging to watch him fly then realize that he flies better than I will probably ever be able to. But he is a great kid.



Then after watching him fly, I had the chance to observe him over the course of the weekend and realize that the is really just a normal kid with a lot of talent.

[wizard]

I have more to add but, it will have to wait until tomorrow. I also have vids from Sunday to to encode and upload. I will get them up tomorrow.

[JVDO]

nice :-) good job Gernot, you did it very well representing europe :-)

If you are reading this, are you flying again on the Aerobatic Cup romilly or Ambiorix Cup Belgium this Year?

[Boulder]

Great report Wiz!!!

[Donatas]

I just came back from local F3A competition and already see killer pictures and awesome event review done by FG again, that's why FG is my favorite RC website with best comunity you can find !!!

John, Gernot, Ido great job !!! Now i can't wait to see winner videos!
(Maybe im missing something, and some videos are alredy online, can anyone PM links ?)

[papajeff]

Wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,

As usual, just a SUPER photo essay of the XFC!!!!!! Most enjoyable....can't wait to see more.

"PAPA POWER"

[Plane Addicted]

Great photo's and descriptions. It almost seemed like I was their!

[Szymon Bartus]

GERNOOOOOOOT! Go Europe! Notice on the last podium photo that on 2nd place in both heli and plane categories there are two young but talented pilots.
And...
Congratulations Jason on next victory!

Donats - videos are posted on YouTube, check out the thread in XFC forum.

[papajeff]

Devin,

You did GOOD!!!!!!!!! We are really proud of you.....Ohhhhhhh.........Yeahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You too, Ron! Oh, Uncle Dan we all missed the "SUPER
JET STAR" demo on SATURDAY! So, get ready to do it this weekend at the RCCR event, right after Devon's Yak
demo, OK?????????????????????????????????????????

"PAPA POWER"