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  1. The 2021 FAI Arizona FF Championships
  2. Number Overload

The 2021 FAI Arizona FF Championships

The last America’s Cup contest of 2021, the FAI AZ Champs, was held on December 4 and 5 at Eloy, Arizona. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the number of contestants to be smaller. Pre-entries by mail had been requested, which helped with getting the registration and fee payments out of the way. In the FAI events we had fliers from 7 states (AZ, CA, CO, NV, OK, TX, UT).
The weather was perfect with cloudless blue skies on both days. The temperature in the mornings on both days was 45°F (7°C) but then warmed up to about 76°F (24°C). The wind speed was 0mph to 7mph (3m/s). Early in the morning we had wind and then again in the afternoon for the fly-offs. But in rounds 3 and 4 it was mostly calm with slight puffs of air in all directions caused by small thermals which made it especially difficult for the glider flyers. It was almost heartbreaking when in round 4 in F1A Mike McKeever covered a lot of area circle-towing to find a piece of air. Towards the end of the round he made attempts to launch but could not get enough tension in the line to get the flight started. This resulted in a zero score when the horn blew indicating the end of the round.

In F1A Jasminka and Enes Pecenkovic were the two fliers to max-out. The fly-offs were exciting as both achieved the 6 and 8 minute max. In the 3rd fly-off round Jasminka achieved 526 seconds for 2nd place and Enes making the 10 minutes to win F1A. Jim Farmer placed 3rd in F1A. Congratulations to our Junior Skylar Donnelly who flew very well in F1B and was the winner. Jack Murphy came close to maxing out in F1Q and won, Rich Wegener placed 2nd. In F1C/P we had 2 fliers flying F1P models, Mike Fedor and Bob Hanford. Mike won the event and Bob was 2nd.
Peter Brocks won F1G as he was the only one flying Coupe. In F1H Mike Fedor came out ahead of Jim Farmer who then was 2nd. Mike McKeever was the only entry in F1J – he maxed-out and was 1st in this FAI small power class. We had 6 entries in F1S with 3 fliers being clean after 5 rounds. There were 5 exciting fly-off rounds with the reduced 5 second motor run where Robert Donnelly bested the present F1S National Record. Jack Murphy placed 2nd and George Morris was in 3rd place.

We are all looking forward to having you back in Eloy next year for the Southwest Regionals on January 15, 16, 17.

Peter Brocks, CD


2021 RESULTS FAI ARIZONA CHAMPS
December 4,5 at Eloy, Arizona                         Peter Brocks, CD

F1A                  1   2   3   4   5 F/O F/O F/O             Total
1    Enes Pecenkovic    180 180 180 180 180 360 480 600          2340
2    Jasm. Pecenkovic B 180 180 180 180 180 360 480 526          2266
3    Jim Farmer         180 180 180 150 180                       870
4    Peter Brocks       180 180 180  94 180                       814
5    Mike McKeever      180 151 180   0 180                       691
6    Mike Fedor         DNF DNF 105 DNF DNF                       105

F1B                                                           Total
1    Skylar Donnelly-Ju 180 180 180 133 180                       853

F1Q                  1   2   3   4   5                         Total
1    Jack Murphy        180 180 178 180 180                       898
2    Rich Wegener       104  97 180 180  81                       642

F1C/P                1   2   3   4   5                         Total
1    Mike Fedor         132 177 172 127 180                       788
2    Bob Hanford         39 160 180  34 DNF                       413

F1G                  1   2   3   4   5                         Total
1    Peter Brocks       120 120 105 120 120                       585

F1H                  1   2   3   4   5                         Total
1    Mike Fedor         111  80 120 120 120                       551
2    Jim Farmer         DNF DNF 117 120 120                       357

F1J                  1   2   3   4   5                        Total
1    Mike McKeever      120 120 120 120 120                       600

F1S                  1   2   3   4   5 F/O F/O F/O F/O F/O    Total
1    Robert Donnelly    120 120 120 120 120 120 180 240 300  22  1462
2    Jack Murphy        120 120 120 120 120 120 180 240 136      1276
3    George Morris      120 120 120 120 120 120 180 213          1113
4    Jerry Murphy       120 110 120 120 120 120                   590
5    Charlie Morris     120 120 120 111 DNF                       471


Number Overload

Aram Schlosberg

The AMA requires putting its membership number on a model’s wing, typically up to 6 digits. The FAI requires an alphabetic country identifier (up to three characters) and the person’s FAI ID number of 6 digits for models flown in World Cups, Continental and World Championships.
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Letters and digits are at least 2.5 cm high for FAI and 1″ for the AMA. (The difference is less than the width of a dot.) Both sets of numbers are permanent as long as one’s membership has not lapsed.
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Americans can reduce their digit overload by requesting a customized personal number from the AMA, identical to their FAI ID number. The pleasure costs $50. What are fifty bucks among friends 😉