Updated 7-15: Excitement is building at the 2026 FAI F4 World Championships for Scale Model Aircraft

By Pete Bauer

Updated 7-15-2026

It has been a rough start for Team USA (and most of the other teams). This photo indicates the primary issue.

There have been a lot of mechanical and weather challenges, mostly engine troubles and the wind. Many of our planes have gotten pranged either in practice or during the first round. The mechanical issues have been numerous and surprisingly varied. On Sunday and Monday, the RC events flew in winds approaching 20mph and had to keep full throttle while flying upwind just to make forward progress. Control line might not fly again until Thursday when the forecast is for 15 mph winds. From Ben Andrus (F4C) – “While I’ve flown the practice plane in that kind of wind a lot, that was the first time for the F24. I ended up overheating the engine and it wouldn’t throttle up after the touch and go, so it ended up being a touch and go and then touch again and stop. The engine didn’t die, it just wouldn’t make power. I think I’ve gotten it tuned better and it wasn’t damaged so I’ll try again in round 2. I was rather happy with how it was handling the wind though.”

So while the RC side of things is struggling a bit the CL side is doing much better. They’ve also had their share of mechanical and weather issues, for most of their 2 rounds the wind was marginally flyable. However, currently after 2 rounds Peter Bauer and Mike McHenry are tied with a high scoring flight each. Static ends tomorrow so I should have a better idea of rankings after those scores are posted.

It’s a bit windy.

Updated 7-13-2026

F4B Control Line Scale Update

While the plan was for static judging on Friday and Saturday (with flights starting Monday), the wind forecast was terrible so flight judging was started immediately. One round was completed on Friday and another round completed Saturday. Here are the standings after two flight rounds but no static yet. Team USA in 1st/2nd (tie), 7th, and 17th.

F4C Scale and F4H Standoff Scale Update

At an event of this size, static judging and flight judging take place simultaneously. F4C is taking a little more than 1 hour per plane with F4H about 20 minutes per plane. It is not worth sharing standings yet since it is a mix of some pilots static judged, some pilots flight judged, and some pilots having completed both. Team Manager Jeremy Arvin is very busy making sure everyone is at the right place at the right time.

Description of photos:

Series of photos showing static judging with Kathy Bauer up on the F4B line. Note the white background provided for each judging line and lots of natural light.

Two photos of Ben Andrus preparing his Fairchild for F4C flight with Team USA cheering him on.

But before Ben’s flight, there was a flyby of a Hawker Hurricane. That Merlin engine sounded great.

Then Ben flew his Fairchild in very tough conditions with winds 18mph. He put in a very nice flight.

Opening ceremonies are on Thursday evening, July 9. The airplanes are all assembled and now we are doing a little practice flying before the start of competition.

The size of the competition and quality of the models is astonishing. There are more than 110 competitors in the three classes: F4B Control Line Scale, F4C RC Scale, and F4H Standoff Scale. Words cannot describe the variety of models that are here. Additionally, the British Model Flying Association (BMFA) flying site is outstanding. Here is a video of this morning’s walkthrough of the model storage pavilion.