by Paul Gibeault — All photos by Paul Gibeault unless otherwise stated.
Wow, what an event! The 2024 Control Line World Championships is now in the record books, and we have new world records and new champions. It can be said that the weather was generally very good except for a bit of rain and wind on the last two days, but it was nothing serious. The flying circles were excellent, and there didn’t appear to be any shortage of practice areas.
All contest results can be found on the website, so I’ll just wrap up with some of the notable event highlights.
Of the many volunteers that it takes to run an event of this magnitude, I would like to thank Chief Organizer Bill Lee in particular for his leadership skills throughout the event. In addition, thanks to the following AMA Special Interest Groups that supplied the vast number of volunteers, without whom such an event could not be held: North American Speed Society, Precision Aerobatics Model Pilots Association, National Control Line Racing Association, and Miniature Aircraft Combat Association. My reporting staff worked hard to keep the world up to date with reports, photos, and videos. Sorry that we had technical troubles posting on the official blog site, which later temporarily crashed due to bandwidth issues. Thank you to Fred Cronenwett (Speed and general photos), Dave Trible (Aerobatics), Paul Gibeault (Team Race), and Charlie Johnson (Combat, Team Race, and general photos). Thanks also to all of our volunteers who are too numerous to mention for donating your time to make this the memorable event that it was.
Attendance was down about 30% from those who entered on the preliminary entry form. Sadly, with trouble obtaining visas, aging pilots, the ever-increasing costs of living, increased post-pandemic costs of airline travel, and the war in Ukraine, many regulars couldn’t attend. We ended up hosting just over 200 participants.
In particular, we missed many of our talented friends from Ukraine who were initially going to field the championship’s second largest team, just one member short of the US. We also missed seeing our regular fliers from Belgium, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and others. We were, however, able to welcome new teams from Cuba, Armenia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. We hope to see their continued presence in the future.
A few of the highlights are as follows.
In F2A, reigning Junior and Senior world champions, father-and-son team Alex and Ivan Valishev (US), continued their dominance by placing first and second with the only flight scores over 300 kph. Matthieu Perret (France) just eclipsed Niels Lyhne Hansen (Denmark) during the last round to win a well-deserved bronze with 297.6 kph. In the team standings, the US took a commanding lead over France and Germany, reminiscent of the glory days of America’s Bill Wisniewski, designer of the first tuned pipe for use in Speed.
In F2B, young Marko Valiera (Italy) appeared to display a commanding lead in the early rounds. Former World Champion Orestes Hernandez fell infinitesimally short by just half of a point over a 2,172-point score.
Although all of the Chinese pilots flew exceptionally well, Junior pilot Xu Letong was one of the most stunningly smooth fliers and garnered himself the bronze medal. Young female pilot Liu Zheng, flying her Caudron Type E model, also made it into the top ten, ending up in eighth place overall. China won the Team gold showing great breadth, followed by very strong teams fielded by the USA and Japan.
The Americans also held a Concours d’Elegance award for the best home-built and finished non-commercial airplane. In a bevy of simply gorgeous show models, the winner was voted to be Chris Cox’s semiscale Hellcat. This earned Chris (from British Columbia, Canada) a rousing round of applause at the banquet. Chris flew his Hellcat to place a personal best of 15th overall.
In F2C, which is always hotly contested, the French, Polish, and Ukrainian teams were dominating the racing circle. Due to a recent rules change, brothers Pascal and Georges Suruge (France) set a new world record in their first heat with a blistering 3:10:90 to set the pace. The final 200-lap race was spectacular. The French brothers (Suruge/Suruge) and the Polish team (Fedan/Lesiuk) were within one lap of each other throughout the race, all with excellent pit stops. On the last tank, the French team ran out of fuel on lap 199 and had to whip the model on to finish. With but a quarter of a lap to go, they were passed by the Polish team, which won by a mere seven-tenths of a second over the 200-lap race, setting a new world record. It was an absolutely brilliantly flown final, with Gauthier/Villebeouf (France) a scant four seconds behind in third, demonstrating Racing at its very best! It was very good to see the talented Junior team from Poland, made of Jacob Golisz and Julia Lesiuk, who made the semifinal cut end up with a very respectable ninth place overall. In an emotional speech, longtime Team Race proponent/mechanic and mentor Roland Suruge (France) announced his retirement from active Team Racing. The world record of his sons, Pascal and George, is an excellent legacy.
In F2D Combat, winning pilot Jussi Forss (with father Timo pitting) from Finland had to overcome more than 50 opponents over nine rounds with but a single loss. It was good to see one of our outstanding female pilots, Natalia Dementieva (assisted by her pit mechanic Andre Bertelsen) from Denmark, make it all the way to the final for the silver medal. Talented American Junior pilot Austin Minor won the bronze.
Unfortunately, F2D Combat continues to have the greatest amount of protests (three), all of which were disallowed. There was a single protest in Team Race involving a landing incident, and it was upheld. There were no formal protests in Speed or Aerobatics. There were some procedural discrepancies, yes, but all were handled properly, thus avoiding the distasteful protest route.
From the jury’s perspective, this championship event was considered to be well attended, with a high level of performance shown by competitors in all categories. They were pleased to see the high number of volunteers and considered the judging and scoring staff to be very competent, having worked very well together.
What’s next? Sadly, the dates for the next European Championships and World Championships have yet to be decided. This does not bode well for the future of our sport. That being said, I have to quote a French team supporter who said to me, “The World Championships is a great way for me to renew old friendships and make new ones; the actual competition is but a sideline.” I rather like this sentiment and do not regret for a moment attending aeromodeling world championships which have afforded me the opportunity to broaden my horizons while experiencing other cultures. Neither better nor worse, just uniquely different. Modelers worldwide have welcomed me, and I feel blessed to be afforded this opportunity. It has been overheard by many that if our politicians were aeromodelers, things like war would be a thing of the past, as they would be far too busy building and designing models. We can only wish!
I hope that I have given our readership a glimpse into what went on at this year’s world championships. It was a very busy four-ring circus of constant activity. I am fortunate to have witnessed it all, but I now look forward to catching up on some much needed sleep!
Paul out.