2026 FAI F4 Scale Model World Championships - Final Report

By Pete Bauer

While the World Championships are very competitive, there is also the opportunity to reach out and make new friends from around the world.

Two years ago, at the F4 Scale Model World Championships in Romania, Mika Jylha was the only competitor from Finland and needed a caller. Ben Andrus (Team USA) knew Mika from RC Scale Builder forums, and they agreed to call for each other despite being competitors in the same class. The entirety of Team USA “adopted’ Mika since he was there alone. This year, Mika was at the competition with several more Finnish team members, but Ben and Mika still called for each other. Ben said, “He helps me out with my maneuvers and I hope my calling is also useful to him.”

This comraderie also extended to the younger participants and helpers. While watching the second F4H round that afternoon, three 11-12 year olds found each other and were hanging out together. They were Iroha O. (team helper from Japan), Konrad L. (F4H pilot from Germany) and Ben’s daughter (team helper from USA). They sat and talked as Konrad prepared for the F4H round. It’s worth noting that Konrad (the only junior competitor in F4H) finished 10th overall—he really flew the hell out of it!

Results

Some of you may have been following the scores on the eSCRIBE scoring platform (bmfa.escribe.ch/events.aspxevent=9862&Lang=EN&tab=funktionaere). In F4 competition, scores are normalized, with the highest “raw” score in the round receiving 1000 points, and so on. eSCRIBE runs live so that your score listed can change throughout the round as more flights occur. For those of you who want to dig into the details, you can click on a score in the rankings table and then see how each judge scored every maneuver.

Team USA Results

F4B

1st: Mike McHenry, L4 Grasshopper

3rd: Pete Bauer, BN Islander

12th: Kathy Bauer, Twin Otter

16th: Orin Humphries, Stinson SR-6

Team USA placed 2nd overall